Globalizing urban research, grounding global production networks

Geographically dispersed networks of production interact with urban economic development and contribute to shape the built environment and urbanization processes all over the world. However, the global manufacturing of goods and their circulation have not yet been given adequate attention in the field of urban research. This article charts a research framework to study the interplay between urban spaces and globalized industrial production. We argue that a relational perspective on multi-local economic processes as provided by commodity chain approaches, specifically the Global Production Networks (GPN) framework, ought to be integrated into urban research in order to grasp the driving forces and the transnational character of urban development in places of industrial production. In the first section of the article, we discuss the conceptual base and benefits of integrating the GPN approach with an urban research perspective centred on the analysis of the built environment. In the second section, we operationalize these considerations in an analytical framework which we apply to a multi-local and relational case study of clothing manufacturing locations in the Istanbul metropolitan region in Turkey, the South Bulgarian province Kardzhali and the periphery of Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. Our findings illuminate the site-specific, yet interdependent mutual transformation of global production networks and urban space, giving rise to transnational spatial formations such as dense industry clusters, dispersed production niches or clearly defined enclaves for export processing. At the same time, they underscore the agency of the built environment and urban planning in shaping the geography of globalized production.