81711 - Geography of Development (LM)

Academic Year 2022/2023

Course contents

The course deals with the main models and concepts of contemporary economic geography, as well as its application in various specific sectors of research and territorial development.

Readings/Bibliography

Non-attending students are required to study

6 credit module:

Celata, F. (2009) Spazi di produzione: una prospettiva relazionale, Torino: Giappichelli

12 credit module:

Celata, F. (2009) Spazi di produzione: una prospettiva relazionale, Torino: Giappichelli

Vanolo, A. (2010) Geografia economica del sistema-mondo: Territori e reti nello scenario globale, TORINO: UTET

Harvey, D. (2007) Breve storia del neoliberismo, Milano: Il saggiatore.

Harvey, D. (2018) Geografie del dominio: capitalismo e produzione dello spazio, Verona: Ombre Corte.

Attending students will study the following texts following a 'flipped class' method:

6 credit module: only part A

12 credit module: parts A-C

part A. CONCEPTS AND THEORIES

SESSION 1-4: INTRODUCTION

MAIN READINGS:

Celata, F. (209) Spazi di produzione: una prospettiva relazionale, Torino: Giappichelli: capitolo 1

Conti, S. (1989) Geografia economica: teorie e logica della rappresentazione spaziale dell’economia, Torini: UTET

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS

Barnes, T.J. et al. (2012) The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Economic geography, Malden: Wiley-Blackwell: introduction

Coe, N.M. (2020) Economic Geography: a contemporary introduction, Wiley Blackwell:

Clark, G. et al. (2018) The New Oxford handbook of economic geography, Oxford, Oxford University Press: introduction

Yeung , H.W. (2005) «Rethinking relational economic geography,» Transactions of the Insititute of British Geographers, 30,/1: 37–51.

SESSION 5-6: UNEVEN DEVELOPMENT

MAIN READINGS:

Vanolo, A. (2010) Geografia economica del sistema-mondo: Territori e reti nello scenario globale, UTET: capitolo 2, 3, 5

Corrado, A. et al. (2018) Introduzione. Per un’analisi critica delle filiere e dei sistemi agroalimentari in Italia, in: Meridiana. 93: 9-26

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS

Celata, F. (209) Spazi di produzione: una prospettiva relazionale, Torino: Giappichelli: capitolo 2

Harvey, D. (2007) Breve storia del neoliberismo, Milano: Il saggiatore.

Harvey, D. (2018) Geografie del dominio: capitalismo e produzione dello spazio, Verona: Ombre Corte.

Harvey, D. (1985) The urbanization of capital, Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

Perrotta, D. (2016) Ghetti, broker e imperi del cibo. La filiera agro-industriale del pomodoro nel Sud Italia, Cartografie Sociali, 1/1: 261-288

Mezzadra, S. (2020) S/confinamenti globali. Spazi politici e spazi del capitale, in: Figure del potere. Saggi in onore di Carlo Galli, Bologna: il Mulino: 119 - 132

SESSION 7-8: COMMODIFICATION

MAIN READINGS:

Celata, F. (209) Spazi di produzione: una prospettiva relazionale, Torino: Giappichelli: capitolo 6

http://www.followthethings.com [http://www.followthethings.com/]

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS

Appadurai, A. (2011) La vita sociale delle cose: una prospettiva culturale sulle merci di scambio, Milano: Melthemi: capitolo 1-2

Tsing, A.L. (2009) (2009) Supply Chains and the Human Condition, in: Rethinking Marxism, 21/2, pp. 148-176.

SESSION 9-10: GLOBAL PRODUCTION NETWORKS

MAIN READINGS:

Vanolo, A. (2010) Geografia economica del sistema-mondo: Territori e reti nello scenario globale, UTET: CAPITOLO 4

Celata, F. (209) Spazi di produzione: una prospettiva relazionale, Torino: Giappichelli: capitolo 2-4

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS

Allen, J. (2009) Three spaces of power: territory, networks, plus a topological twist in the tale of domination and authority, Journal of Power, 2:2, 197-212

Cainelli, G. E Iacobucci, D. (2005) I gruppi d'impresa e le nuove forme organizzative del capitalismo locale italiano, L'Iindustria 2/2005, aprile-giugno: 237-256

Coe, N. And Hess, M. (2012) The Geographies of Production, in: Barnes et al., ed. The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Economic Geography, Malden: Wily-Blackwell.

Cox, K.R (1998) Spaces of dependence, spaces of engagement and the politics of scale, or: looking for local politics, in: Political Geography, 17/1, pp. 1-23.

De Marchi, V. et al., eds. (2018) Local Clusters in Global Value Chains: Linking Actors and Territories Through Manufacturing and Innovation, London: Routledge

Gereffi, Gary, John Humphrey & Timothy Sturgeon (2005) The governance of global value chains, Review of International Political Economy, 12:1, 78-104

Swyngedouw , E. ( 1997) Neither global nor local: ‘Glocalization’ and the politics of scale . In K. Cox (ed), Spaces of Globalization: Reasserting the Power of the Local. Guilford Press , New York , pp. 137–166.

SESSION 11-12: GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS

MAIN READINGS

 Vanolo, A. (2010) Geografia economica del sistema-mondo: Territori e reti nello scenario globale, UTET: CAPITOLO 5-6

Celata, F. (209) Spazi di produzione: una prospettiva relazionale, Torino: Giappichelli: capitoli 2

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS

Bair J., Werner M, (2011) Commodity chains and the uneven geographies of global capitalism: a disarticulations perspective, in: Environment and Planning A 43: 988–997

De Marchi, V. et al., eds. (2018) Local Clusters in Global Value Chains: Linking Actors and Territories Through Manufacturing and Innovation, London: Routledge

Castells, M. (1996) The rise of the network society, Malden, M.A.: Blackwell: chapter 3.

SESSION 13-14: TOWARDS A COMPROMISE

MAIN READINGS

De Marchi, V. et al., eds. (2018) Local Clusters in Global Value Chains: Linking Actors and Territories Through Manufacturing and Innovation, London: Routledge

Jessop, Bob, Brenner, Neil, and Martin Jones. 2008. ‘Theorizing sociospatial relations’. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 26/3: 389-401.

SESSION 15: WRITING WORKSHOP

MAIN READING

Bruce Berg, Qualitative research methods for the social sciences, Boston (Mass.): Pearson education, 2004: chapters 2 (pages 24-25) and 12

part B: THEMES

SESSION 16-17: ‘SOCIAL NETWORKS’: the strength fo weak ties

MAIN READINGS

Granovetter, M. (1998) La forza dei legami deboli, a cura di M. Follis, Milano: Liguori.

Zuboff, S. (2019) Il capitalismo della sorveglianza. Il futuro dell'umanità nell'era dei nuovi poteri, Roma: Luiss University Press: capitolo 3.

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS

Barber, B. (1995) All economies are “embedded”: the career of a concept, and beyond. Social Research, Vol. 62, n° 2 (Summer), pp. 387-413.

Granovetter, M. (1985) Economic action and social structure: the problem of embeddedness, in: American Journal of Sociology, 91/3, pp. 481-510.

Portes, A. and Sensenbrenner, J. (1993) Embeddedness and immigration: notes on the social determinants of economic action, in: American Journal of Sociology, 98/6, pp. 1320-1350.

Somers, M. (2005) Beware trojan horses bearing social capital: How privatization turned solidarity into a bowling team, in: Steinmetz, G. ed., The politics of method in the human sciences: Positivism and its epistemological others, Durham NC and London, Duke University Press.

Woolcock, M. (1998) Social capital and economic development: toward a theoretical synthesis and policy framework. Theory and Society, Vol. 27, n° 2 (April), pp. 151-208.

SESSION 18-19:LABOUR GEOGRAPHIES

MAIN READINGS

Taylor, M. and Rioux, S. (2018) Global Labour Studies, Cambridge: Polity Press: chapter 3

Perrotta, D. (2014) Vecchi e nuovi mediatori. Storia, geografia ed etnografia del caporalato in agricoltura, Meridiana, 79: 193-220.

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS

Baglioni, E., et al. ed. (2022) Labour Regimes and Global Production, New York: Columbia University Press.

Celata, F. (209) Spazi di produzione: una prospettiva relazionale, Torino: Giappichelli: capitolo 7.6

Mezzadra, S. (2021) Oltre il riconoscimento. Piattaforme digitali e metamorfosi del lavoro, Filosofia Politica, 3 (dicembre): 487-502

Strauss, K. (2012) Coerced, Forced and Unfree Labour: Geographies of Exploitation in Contemporary Labour Markets, Geography Compass 6/3 (2012): 137–148

Weeks, Kathi. 2016. “The problem with work.” In Global Histories of Work, edited by Eckert, Andreas. Berlin: de Gruyter.

SESSION 20-21: INFORMAL DEVELOPMENT

MAIN READINGS

De Soto, H. (2001) Il mistero del capitale. Perché il capitalismo ha trionfato in Occidente e ha fallito nel resto del mondo, Milano, Garzanti (introduzione).

McFarlane, Colin. 2012. “Rethinking Informality: Politics, Crisis, and the City.” Planning Theory & Practice 13, no. 1 (March): 89-108

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS

Mitchell, Timothy. 2004. “The properties of Markets: Informal Housing and Capitalism's Mystery.” Cultural Political Economy Working Paper 2, University of Lancaster: Institute for Advanced Studies in Social and Management Sciences.

Roy, Anyanya and Nezar AlSayyad. 2004. Urban Informality: Transnational Perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America, and South Asia. New York: Lexington Books.

SESSION 22-23:  INFORMAL WORK

MAIN READINGS

Taylor, M. and Rioux, S. (2018) Global Labour Studies, Cambridge: Polity Press: chapter 6

Phillips, Nicola. 2011. “Informality, Global Production Networks and the Dynamics of ‘Adverse Incorporation’.” Global Networks 11, no. 3 (July): 380–97.

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS

Helmke, Gretchen and Steven Levitsky. 2004. “Informal Institutions and Comparative Politics:

A Research Agenda.” Perspectives on Politics 2, no. 4: 725-740

ILO (International Labour Organization). 2001. Decent Work and the Informal Economy, Geneva: ILO.

ILO (International Labour Organization). 2013. Transitioning from the Informal to the Formal Economy. Report V (1), International Labour Conference, 103rd Session, Geneva: ILO.

ILO (International Labour Organization). 2018. Women and Men in the Informal Economy: A Statistical Picture (3rd edn). Geneva: International Labour Organization.

Meagher, Kate. 2021. “Informality and the Infrastructures of Inclusion: An Introduction.” Development and Change 52 no. 4 (July): 729–755.

Peano, I. (2019) Supply chain affettive tra agro-industria e migrazioni, contenimento e rifugio, in: Mondo logistico: sguardi critici su lavoro, migrazioni, politica e globalizzazione, curato da Cuppini, N. e Peano, I., Milano: Ledizione: 63-76

SESSION 24-25: PRODUCTION-REPRODUCTION

MAIN READINGS

Mezzadri, Alessandra. 2019. “On the value of social reproduction: Informal labour, the majority world and the need for inclusive theories and politics.” Radical Philosophy, 2 no. 4 (Spring): 33-41.

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS

Barca, Stefania. 2020. Forces of Reproduction: Notes for a Counter-Hegemonic Anthropocene. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press

Davis, Angela. 1983. Women, Race and Class. New York: Vintage Books.

Fortunati, L. e Federici, S. (1984) Il Grande Calibano: Storia del Corpo Sociale Ribelle nella Prima Fase del Capitale, Milano: Franco Angeli.

Federici, Silvia. 2018. “Marx and Feminism.” TripleC 16, no. 2: 468–75.

Federici, Silvia. 2020. Beyond the Periphery of the Skin. Rethinking, Remaking, and. Reclaiming the Body in Contemporary Capitalism. Oakland: PM Press.

Fortunati, L. (1981) L’Arcano de/la Reproduzione: Casalinghe, Prostitute, Operai e Capitale, Venezia: Marsilio Editori.

SESSION 26-27: RACIAL CAPITALIMS

MAIN READINGS

Basso, P. (2010) L'ascesa del razzismo nella crisi globale, in: Razzismo di Stato, Milano: FrancoAngeli

Cillo, Rossana e Fabio Perocco. 2016. “Subappalto e sfruttamento differenziale dei lavoratori immigrati: il caso di tre settori in Italia.” Economia e Società Regionale 1: 101-123.

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS

Curcio, A. e Mellino, M. (2012) La razza al lavoro, Roma: Manifesto Libri.

Kelley, Robin D. G. 2017. “What Did Cedric Robinson Mean by Racial Capitalism?” Boston Review, 12 January

Leong, Nancy. 2013. “Racial Capitalism,” Harvard Law Review 126, no. 8: 2151–2226

Melamed, Jodi. 2015. “Racial capitalism.” Critical Ethnic Studies 1 no. 1 (Spring): 76–85

Pulido, Laura. 2015. “Geographies of Race and Ethnicity 1: White Supremacy vs White Privilege in

Environmental Racism Research.” Progress in Human Geography 39, no. 6: 809–817.

Pulido, Laura. 2017. “Geographies of Race and Ethnicity II: Environmental Racism, Racial Capitalism and State-Sanctioned Violence.” Progress in Human Geography 41, no. 4: 524–533

Ralph, Michael and Maya Singhal. 2019. “Racial Capitalism.” Theory & Society 48, no. 6: 851–81

part C. PROSPECTS

Session 28:AGRICULTURAL SUPPLY CHAINS

MAIN READINGS

Ippolito, I., Perrotta, D., Raeymaekers, T. (2020) Braccia rubate dall'agricoltura. Pratiche di sfruttamento del lavoro migrante, Torino: SEB27 (intro e capitolo 1: un nuovo regime agroalimentare)

Teaching methods

The course includes a dynamic and reflective approach that includes joint readings, written texts and collective presentations in class.

Assessment methods

ATTENDING STUDENTS
For attending students, the course will be evaluated as follows:

6 credit module:

  • two written essays: 75%
  • oral exam: 25%

12 credit module:

  • Collective presentation: 30%
  • Two written texts: 50%
  • oral exam: 20%

NON ATTENDING STUDENTS

6 credit module:

  • two written essays: 75%
  • oral exam: 25%

12 credit module:

  • two written essays: 75%
  • oral exam: 25%

The exam involves an oral test on the studied texts.

Structurally, each essay (max. 1500 words excluding bibliography) consists of the following parts: (1) an abstract detailing the research question and thesis statement (hypothetical answer), (2) a body of text in which you address the question point by point in a conceptual way (ie addressing the main concepts and briefly evoking one or more examples); (3) a conclusion that links the argument back to the initial question.


Guiding questions for the first essay (choose one)

1. What is the difference between geographic economy and economic geography?
2. In what ways does economic geography seek to overcome the notion of the economy as an autonomous sphere governed by a logic of its own?
3. Explain through an example how the geography of the economy is the product of irregular spatial relations

Guiding questions for the second essay (choose one)
1. Why and how does geographical scale affect the organization of production? Explain with the help of an example
2. Explain, with the help of one or more examples, the geographical importance of institutions and governance in the economic organization of firms

The presentation requires a collective elaboration on a chosen topic. Rather than reviewing readings, students are expected to come up with an original example and ask a few questions, which will later be discussed in class (moderated by the students). Students will be assessed on how well they master key concepts and apply them to a specific case, as well as originality and style. The group can present a short draft of the presentation in advance (including their learning objectives and references of the literature used) to the course tutor.

essays must be sent at least one week (5 working days, so excluding weekends!) before the exam. They should not be exposed during the oral exam, which takes place solely around the bibliographic knowledge

Teaching tools

The powerpoint presentations used during the frontal lessons will be made available among the teaching materials but are not considered exam material.

Office hours

See the website of Timothy Raeymaekers