The pandemic and the last years’ geopolitical disruptions have laid bare the vulnerability of Europe’s supply chains, as well as the challenges posed by insecure oil and gas supplies. In this contribution, we aim to add to this debate by raising awareness of the vulnerability of trade and supply chain infrastructure between Europe and Asia. We give an overview of the risks for supply chain securities due to the risk of military and armed conflicts and geopolitical challenges more broadly, illustrated by a map of central logistic corridors and hubs. We further discuss the contemporary implications for each corridor due to the war in Ukraine. By making use of the example of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), we argue that trade along these corridors is highly interdependent and that the continued conflict in Ukraine poses a danger for independent, diversified and resilient trade across Eurasia. The paper calls for future research in economic geography, military geographies and related international business literature to (jointly) reemphasize the economic geographies of war, by for instance analysing shifts in global value chains and global production networks as a result of violent conflicts.

This perspective explores the multifaceted development challenges related to road network expansion in sub-Saharan Africa, where recent infrastructure investments reflect transformative ambitions but also imply socio-ecological tradeoffs. Roads can boost economic growth by facilitating trade, tourism, and access to essential services, yet they simultaneously contribute to ecosystem fragmentation, biodiversity loss, and human-wildlife conflicts. Looking at the history of Africa's road development, we find that mega-projects-often funded by international donors-reshape political and economic landscapes while altering rural livelihoods and ecosystems. We synthesize literature and case studies to reveal critical trends and propose solutions, urging for a shift toward sustainable, evidence-based infrastructure strategies that balance development with environmental stewardship. We further advocate for transdisciplinary approaches and community engagement to align road expansion with long-term stakeholder needs so as to minimize adverse impacts on Africa's socio-ecological systems.

Zusammenfassung Dieser Artikel analysiert die Umsetzung eines Handelsabkommens zwischen China und Tansania, welches die tansanische Peripherie als Zulieferregion in das chinesische Produktionsnetzwerk für Sojabohnen integrieren soll. Basierend auf Forschungsdaten aus Tansania betrachtet der Artikel dazu Maßnahmen, die seit der Coronapandemie einen unerwarteten Sojaboom an einem Zulieferende der Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, auch als neue Seidenstraße bekannt) ausgelöst haben. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass China aufgrund des Handelskriegs mit den USA, der Coronapandemie und neuen geopolitischen Konfliktlinien spätestens seit dem Krieg in der Ukraine neue afrikanische Zulieferregionen für Sojabohnen strategisch im Rahmen der Belt and Road Initiative erschließt. Diese krisengetriebenen Interessen konvergieren mit tansanischen Interessen, die historische „Allwetterfreundschaft“ mit China zu revitalisieren und die tansanische Blockfreiheit strategisch zur wirtschaftlichen Transformation des Agrarsektors zu nutzen. Mit Blick auf die angewandte Geographie zeigt das Fallbeispiel deshalb auf, dass der neue geopolitische Zeitgeist, der von Geopolitik und multiplen Krisen gestaltet ist, die dynamische Organisation von Produktionsnetzwerken beeinflusst. Neue, krisenbedingte Imperative erklären dabei emergente Organisationsformen, die nicht nur überraschende Akteure zusammenbringen, sondern auch überraschende Räume transformativ formen.

Die Digitalisierung des Einzelhandels geht mit Veränderungen der Arbeitsverhältnisse einher. Als zuletzt im Zuge der Coronapandemie der Online- und Hybridhandel (stationär und digital) expandierte, wurden auch damit verbundene prekäre Arbeitsbedingungen sichtbar. Gleichzeitig entstanden aber auch anspruchsvolle Arbeitsplätze, beispielsweise in IT und Verwaltung. Dies weist auf eine Polarisierung hin, die sich – getrieben vor allem durch technischen Wandel – gleichzeitig durch eine starke Ausprägung von Arbeitsverhältnissen auszeichnet, die einerseits nur geringe formale Qualifikationen erfordert und gering entlohnt wird und andererseits höhere formale Ausbildungsabschlüsse erfordert und besser entlohnt wird, während mittlere Qualifikationsstufen weniger ausgeprägt sind. Bisher gibt es jedoch kaum systematische und differenzierte Untersuchungen, die belastbare Aussagen zu regionalen oder lokalen Mustern von Arbeitsbedingungen im Online- und Hybridhandel erlauben. Dabei ist jedoch zu erwarten, dass sich diese auch räumlich unterscheiden, etwa aufgrund unterschiedlicher Tätigkeits- und Beschäftigungsbereiche. Vor diesem Hintergrund konzentriert sich die vorliegende Arbeit auf räumliche Beschäftigungsmuster im Online- und Hybridhandel am Beispiel der Metropolregion Köln. Konkret untersucht sie auf Basis einer Betriebsbefragung vor allem von kleinen und mittelständischen Online- und Hybridhandelsbetrieben (2023–2024; n = 377), inwieweit es zu unterschiedlichen Ausprägungen von Vertragsverhältnissen, Qualifikationsanforderungen, Entlohnung und Mitbestimmung kommt. Aufgrund der Verortung der Arbeitsaufgaben ergibt sich eine räumliche Differenzierung: Gerade in den Bereichen Lagerlogistik und Zustellung wurden klare räumliche Unterschiede deutlich. Anders ist es bei Arbeitsplätzen mit höheren formalen Qualifikationsanforderungen. Hier sind die Differenzen jedoch nicht so ausgeprägt, dass von einem Auseinanderdriften der Qualifikation gesprochen werden kann. Ein räumliches Muster zeigt sich insbesondere zwischen dem urbanen Raum und den Randgebieten aufgrund der unterschiedlichen Merkmale der Beschäftigungsbereiche und der damit verbundenen Polarisierung. In den innerstädtischen Lagen werden eher Werkstudenten- und geringfügige Verträge vergeben, während in den Randgebieten größere Betriebe mit Betriebsrat und höheren formalen Qualifikationsanforderungen zu finden sind.

Societal Impact Statement In the context of multiple crises, policymakers and practitioners prioritize the solving of certain challenges above others. In this context, supposedly purely environmental challenges like biodiversity loss have often been deprioritized and solutions to tackle them are publicly or quietly postponed (again and again). An example is the postponement of the EU “nature conservation package” in view of the threat of food shortages caused by the war in Ukraine. The following arguments outline why biodiversity loss is not only an environmental challenge but also a global societal challenge to safeguard global food security and why postponing biodiversity measures is not only bad for biodiversity but can also endanger food security itself. Summary Food security and biodiversity are often counterbalanced. However, we argue that preserving global biodiversity is crucial to safeguarding food security. We first generally outline that biodiversity can (1) support agricultural production, (2) mitigate negative effects of pollution, and (3) provide livelihood outcomes. We then, in particular, argue that biodiversity (4) provides diverse diets to fight hidden hunger, (5) is crucial for resilience against future food security risks, (6) is a precondition for future genetic modifications, (7) addresses the diversity of cultures, income and diets, and (8) is important for place‐sensitive food production. We conclude that “stop hunger first, then worry about diversity afterward” is not a sustainable option.

The online and hybrid food trade in Germany is growing, accompanied by changing business forms, delivery methods, and location requirements. While previous studies on retail often consider logistics and retail locations separately, the online and hybrid food trade involves different interconnections between warehouses, retail stores, and delivery, each with varying location requirements that require systematic and interconnected analysis. This paper aims to systematize logistics forms (storage and delivery forms) and their locations concerning business forms, delivery speeds, and location factors. This is done through case studies from the Cologne region. Spatial patterns can be identified, where the size of logistics and distribution centres increases with the distance from the city centre to the suburban area. New locations have emerged in quick commerce. Here, micro-logistics centres have settled in inner-city areas, while classical logistics prefer larger distribution centres in suburban industrial areas. Logistics via retail stores is more complex due to the merging of stationary structures and storage capacities, and no clear spatial pattern can be identified.

Despite universalising ambition, the literature on 'left-behind' places is dominated by viral, noisy and Northern examples. Therefore, we examine the case of Zambia's Western Province, a severely 'left-behind' place, to make two arguments based on a Southern experience. First, a systematic conceptualisation of hope shows that hope rather than hopelessness can prevail in 'left-behind' places. Second, hope against-all-odds may function as generative mechanism for quiet rather than noisy path-formation processes. Therefore, mundane path development in the (Southern) periphery requires attention if the literature on 'left-behind' places is to inform more foundational theorisations of uneven development.

The online and hybrid food trade in Germany is growing, accompanied by changing business forms, delivery methods, and location requirements. While previous studies on retail often consider logistics and retail locations separately, the online and hybrid food trade involves different interconnections between warehouses, retail stores, and delivery, each with varying location requirements that require systematic and interconnected analysis. This paper aims to systematize logistics forms (storage and delivery forms) and their locations concerning business forms, delivery speeds, and location factors. This is done through case studies from the Cologne region. Spatial patterns can be identified, where the size of logistics and distribution centres increases with the distance from the city centre to the suburban area. New locations have emerged in quick commerce. Here, micro-logistics centres have settled in inner-city areas, while classical logistics prefer larger distribution centres in suburban industrial areas. Logistics via retail stores is more complex due to the merging of stationary structures and storage capacities, and no clear spatial pattern can be identified.

Global suppliers of agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and agrochemicals exert increasing degrees of power in global value chains (GVCs). Although the GVC literature has explained how global buyers govern GVCs from the buying-end, the question of how global suppliers achieve governance from the supplying-end remains underexplored. We address this gap by combining a multidimensional typology of power with literature on intangible assets. We argue that intangible assets are crucial resources for global suppliers to morph otherwise ungovernable supply chains for undifferentiated input commodities into more sophisticated and governable GVCs. We illustrate our argument with the case of the global fertilizer supplier, YARA International. YARA's intangible asset investments were instrumental in governing the value chain integration of Tanzanian smallholder farmers. They allowed YARA to exert more than bargaining power (demonstrative, institutional and constitutive power) and to effectively position itself as supplying lead firm in Tanzania's agro-industrial GVC.

Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have gained massively in popularity worldwide and particularly in the Global South. However, they are also discussed as a controversial economic policy instrument. Some analyses view SEZs as promising spaces with integrative linkages, while other studies see them as enclaves marked by spatial and economic segregation. To shed light on the various and partly contradictory perceptions of SEZs, this paper reviews literature on SEZs in the Global South and suggests a differentiated and more comprehensive view for SEZ analyses in order to understand their different characteristics, interactions, and the related processes between SEZs and their host regions. Our review goes beyond dichotomies of viewing SEZs as enclavistic or integrated spaces. Instead, it systematically outlines how even a single SEZ can integrate into regions in some ways, while remaining disintegrated in other ways. Here, we build on recent studies of SEZs in the Global South, employing the enclave approach as a conceptual basis, and include conceptual works on economic linkages and global production networks.

Online retail is currently profoundly restructuring the working conditions in the retail sector. Existing studies generally describe the working conditions in the large warehouses of online retail as 'digital Taylorism'. This article broadens this perspective and draws on the theoretical concept of the local labour control regime. It explores how managements' technological and social labour control strategies vary spatially between online retail warehouses located in inner and outer metropolitan areas of the four largest German cities. The study uses qualitative methods and is mainly based on expert interviews with executives, representatives of trade unions and works councils, representatives of associations, and further experts. This study gains insights on the spatial variety of labour control and thus is relevant for international research on labour control and for practitioners' ability to create decent and humane work.

Infrastructure has never been a single thing, understood in a universal way. Yet, there has long been a broad overarching orthodox approach in which ‘experts’ create replicable, stable, large, networked systems to control nature and ensure regular, predictable flows of people, materials and information. Within this orthodoxy, infrastructure is narrated as good, contributing to economic and social development. In this paper, we identify environmental, economic, political and social pressures challenging this approach to infrastructure, pushing for it to be understood, enacted and constructed differently. We then show how actors have responded to these pressures through examples of flood mitigation, corridor development and sanitation. Our cases are not pure instances of a new approach. Instead, we use them to tease out emergent efforts (and struggles) to rework infrastructure, to make it more fluid, flexible, sustainable and responsive to democratic demands, as well as to more clearly link infrastructure with well-being. These examples reinforce the importance of differentiating infrastructure, including considering how particular approaches imagine and contribute to sustainability and well-being. In this context, we point towards broader ideas of how infrastructure might be reimagined and remade in the future, and the difficult politics of such new visions.