Different roots, intertwined branches: linking International Business and Economic Geography through the Uppsala Model and Global Production Network

PurposeThe aim of this study is to propose a link between international business (IB) and economic geography, which are two streams of thought that have developed without one acknowledging the other. We use the Uppsala model and the Global Production Network as pillars to sustain this link. We expect that this research triggers a collaboration with allied social sciences in important debates surrounding the business-societal interface.Design/methodology/approachWe selected papers produced by Johanson and Vahlne to understand the development of the Uppsala model over 40 years. The same was done with the Global Production Network, where we scrutinized the work of Henderson, Coe, Dicken, Hess and Yeung – scholars from the Manchester School of Geography – in the last twenty years. Based on Humphrey et al. (2019), we applied an inductive and inferential approach to uncover similarities and differences between the Uppsala model and Global Production Network.FindingsThe Uppsala model reinforces the strategic role of network position in the internationalization process, while the Global Production Network aims to explain how the governance of global firms scattered world-wide affects the development and upgrading opportunities of the various regions and firms involved. Despite these clear differences, the geographical nature of IB and shared similarities accounting the network as a channel to foster and provide access to important resources and practices regarding management, coordination and governance of dispersed parts of multinational enterprises give room to using these two theories as pillars to link IB and economic geography.Originality/valueWhile attempts to link IB and economic geography are not new, none of these studies have focused on the Uppsala model and Global Production Network as pillars to create a link. We foresee an intense cross collaboration and an even possible renaissance of IB and economic geography to target the ever-changing business environment and its impact on social and economic development.

The Event and Democracy

Chapter 1 examines the significance of India’s constitution as both a democracy and a republic and the force of B. R. Ambedkar’s ideas on the necessity for “democracy in social life” alongside the institutions of formal democracy. It is the first study that draws attention to India’s credentials as a republic as a way of understanding its democracy. The chapter introduces the site of this study and the linkages between agrarian and democratic values. Methodologically, it shows the importance of using the approaches of the Manchester School in India (hitherto unexplored) and the value this adds to our definition of what constitutes “the political.” Here, “the political” contains both agonistic and competitive tendencies on the one hand, but also reparative and cooperative impulsions. The methodology of this book, of studying electoral and non-electoral social life alongside each other, and the four key “events” of the book are also explained.

Teaching Photography via Photography

This reflective paper draws on an evaluation of current online pedagogy but also the authors practice as an artist that revolves around forming a relationship between image and sound. As such ‘Listening’ and ‘Looking’ are used as a broad structure for six short essays that draw on experiences of moving to online delivery to consider the virtual classroom as an amorphous, fluid space that can be both problematic but also present opportunities for innovative teaching and learning. In addition to the six reflective essays; Latency, Volume, Spaces to Speak, Lebenswelt, Screenshare and The Thingness of Making, The Thingness of Teaching the article draws on an anonymous survey of second and third (final) year undergraduate students and an online conversation group initiated with colleagues that teach at undergraduate and post graduate level at both Manchester School of Art and the Royal College of Art. Rather than propose a definite set of conclusions the article suggests that the online platform is inherently a visual one, but using listening as a way of understanding it could open up the possibility of creating a teaching space that is concurrently difficult to grasp but potentially easily accessible and less hierarchical.

Unlimited Supplies of Labor

This chapter evaluates W. Arthur Lewis's article “Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour,” which the journal Manchester School had published in its 1954 issue and won the Nobel award in 1979. It was unquestionably his outstanding scholarly achievement. The article galvanized the new field of development economics, providing it with a legitimacy that it had not previously enjoyed. Moreover, nearly all of his later studies in economic history bore the imprint of the article. Lewis was not merely the most rigorously trained economist from the less developed world. His publications focused sharply on the critical issues of poverty and development. His ideas were persuasive and compelling, his arguments powerful, and the corpus of his writings suffused with the optimism that marked this era of political decolonization. Of the pioneers of development economics, he was the best synthesizer, the best able to handle multicausal relationships. His book The Theory of Economic Growth masterfully merged economic theory with social and political analysis.

Introduction

This introduction provides an overview of W. Arthur Lewis's biography. Three considerations that surfaced so forcefully in the aftermath of the World War II—decolonization, race relations, and economic growth—were preeminent issues in the life of W. Arthur Lewis. As a person of color who grew up in an impoverished and largely ignored corner of the British Empire, he devoted much of his academic career and public life to elucidating these matters and promoting a vision of a decolonized, color-blind, and prosperous community of independent nations. Lewis's contributions to the field of development economics were significant and pioneering and made him the founding figure of a wholly new branch of economics in the 1950s. His 1954 article on economic development using unlimited supplies of labor, published in Manchester School, was arguably the single most influential essay in this field.

University of Manchester School of Biological Sciences launches a blueprint for drastic laboratory plastic reduction

The University of Manchester has pledged to eliminate ‘avoidable’ single-use plastic by 2022. To contribute, Dr Maggy Fostier and Dr Ruth Grady from the School of Biological Sciences (SBS) have launched a project to reduce the amount of plastic in their undergraduate laboratory classes. These classes involve thousands of students per year who require pipettes, weighing boats, stirrers, gloves and other plastic implements which sometimes can have usage lifespans that are less than a minute.

A problem of scale and leadership? Manchester’s municipal ambitions and the ‘failure’ of public spirit

The 1870s and 1880s saw the Manchester art world arguably reach its cultural zenith. The rise of the proto-Impressionist ‘Manchester school’, the municipalisation of the Royal Manchester Institution building and the plans for a new city gallery produced an art community and institutional infrastructure second to nowhere in England, except London. However such progress concealed a growing disagreement about the purpose of municipal art institutions. As attendance at exhibitions fell, critics questioned the ability of large galleries to engage the public and called for more community-based art initiatives. The crisis point was reached when proposals for a new city art gallery in Piccadilly Square fell foul of Conservative and Labour opposition. At a time of economic slump, had art become an expensive luxury?