In this article, we seek to contribute to cultural-economic geography debates on the social construction of economic value. We widen the focus on already well-studied associations between branded commodities and other entities representing nonmonetary values by also considering what we refer to as ‘dissociations’. Dissociation denotes practices of weakening or obscuring negative links between a branded commodity and other entities in order to let the desired associations overrule undesired ones. We highlight the strategic agency behind such dissociations and thus focus on actors’ proactive relational work to prevent negative associations from becoming salient as well as their reactive practices of managing reputational crises. The article situates the study of dissociations in human geography and pays particular attention to the geographies of dissociation along territorial, relational, and topological lines.

The outsourcing and offshoring of services to developing countries has created new opportunities for economic development for countries in the global South. This paper looks at the scope for agency of local institutional actors in the investment attraction of business process outsourcing companies. Drawing on empirical work from the Philippines, an analysis of the process of integrating lower-tier cities into global service production networks is presented. Specifically, the roles of local institutional actors in facilitating FDI attraction and strategically coupling local assets with the needs of multinational service corporations are discussed. Two contrasting cases, the cities of Baguio and Bacolod, show that considerable scope for intervention rests with local institutional actors. The findings have implications for policymaking and research concerned with the newest phase of outsourcing and offshoring in developing countries.

The changing international division of labour presents opportunities for developing countries to attract foreign investments and generate employment in the offshore service sector. This paper focuses on developments in the Philippines, which has become a large exporter o f business process outsourcing services over the past decade. The sector employs close to 800000 highly educated young workers, the majority o f whom work night shifts in call centres. W here do offshore service firms invest in the Philippines, which spatial transform ations occur as a result, and why? This paper m aps the location o f offshore service investments on a national and regional level and traces the genesis of service-based special economic zones (SEZs), which combine functions o f service delivery for global m arkets with increasingly globalised consum ption patterns. These service-based SEZs arise due to location choice factors o f foreign investors in services offshoring, who require skilled labour and prefer m odern and secure environments, modelled according to their home country. Changing governm ent policies on spatial zoning facilitated the rise of these SEZs in central business districts in M etro M anila and existing powerful real estate developers not only enabled this development, but are also the prim ary local beneficiaries o f this feature o f contem porary globalisation.

KLEIBERT J. M. Global production networks, offshore services and the branch-plant syndrome, Regional Studies. This article combines the global production network (GPN) framework with the branch-plant economy literature to generate a set of indicators for a more nuanced understanding of the outcomes of foreign direct investment attraction for recipient regions. It adapts both literatures to the case of offshore services and empirically maps the position and power relations of business process outsourcing branch offices in the Philippines. A multi-sited case study shows the variegated outcomes of foreign branch office development. In particular, second-tier cities are characterized by a dependent position in the international division of labour, confirming some ideas of the branch-plant syndrome. Global production networksForeign direct investment Branch plants Business process outsourcing PhilippinesKLEIBERT J. M. Les réseaux de production mondiaux, les services offshore et le syndrome des établissements mutiples, Regional Studies. L'article combine le cadre des réseaux de production mondiaux avec la documentation sur l'économie d'établissements multiples afin d'engendrer un ensemble d'indicateurs dans le but de fournir une compréhension plus nuancée des résultats de l'attraction de l'investissement direct étranger aux zones d'accueil. On applique la documentation à l'étude de cas des services offshore et trace de façon empirique la position et les relations de pouvoir des établissements qui externalisent les processus opérationnels aux Philippines. Une étude de cas multi-sites montre les divers résultats du développement des établissements à l'étranger. En particulier, les grandes villes de deuxième rang se caractérisent par une position de dépendance dans la division internationale du travail, ce qui confirme certaines idées quant au syndrome des établissements multiples. Réseaux de production mondiaux Investissement direct étranger Établissements multiples Externalisation des processus opérationnels Philippines KLEIBERT J. M. Globale Produktionsnetzwerke, Offshore-Dienste und das Syndrom der Auslandsfilialen, Regional Studies. In diesem Artikel wird die Literatur des Rahmens des globalen Produktionsnetzwerks mit der Literatur über die Ökonomie der Auslandsfilialen kombiniert, um eine Reihe von Indikatoren für ein verfeinertes Verständnis der Ergebnisse des Zuflusses von ausländischen Direktinvestitionen für die Empfängerregionen zu erzeugen. Hierfür werden beide Literaturen an den Fall der Offshore-Dienste angepasst und die Position und Machtbeziehungen von Auslandsfilialen zum Outsourcing von Geschäftsprozessen in den Philippinen empirisch kartiert. Anhand einer Fallstudie mit mehreren Standorten werden die vielfältigen Ergebnisse der Entwicklung von Auslandsfilialen aufgezeigt. Insbesondere zeichnen sich Sekundärstädte in der internationalen Arbeitsteilung durch eine abhängige Position aus, was einige Bedenken des 'Auslandsfilialen-Syndroms' bestätigt. Globale Produktionsnetzwerke Ausländische Direktinvestiti...

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Information-technology-enabled services (ITES) has become a sector of promise for many low-and middle-income economies seeking to leapfrog industrialization and build knowledge-intensive economies. Yet as a sector defined by accelerating processes of commodification and skill elimination, its long-term developmental promise must be carefully scrutinised. Analysing the development of the sector in India, the Philippines and Kenya the paper reveals both the contextual nature of past successful ITES policies and their developmental vulnerabilities. Drawing on literature on industrial policies and global value chains and production networks, the paper critiques the existing policy approaches by arguing that they are largely focussed on enabling value and employment creation and that they pay insufficient attention to questions of value capture and long-term socio-economic transformation. RésuméLes services axés sur l'information et la technologie (ITES) sont devenus un secteur prometteur pour de nombreuses économies à revenu faible ou intermédiaire qui cherchent à sauter la case industrialisation pour construire des économies à forte intensité de connaissances. Nos analyses du développement du secteur ITES en Inde, aux Philippines et au Kenya révèlent à la fois la nature contextuelle des politiques ITES réussies par le passé et les vulnérabilités du développement. Nous montrons

Special economic zones (SEZs) and gated communities both constitute ‘spaces of exception’, but have rarely been analysed together. As both processes have empirically converged in the form of mixed-use urban enclaves, I connect disparate literatures to understand the fragmented and exclusive nature of the Philippines’ economic development in general, and Metro Manila’s urbanization trajectory in particular. Based on grounded qualitative research, I explicate the rise of ‘spaces of exception 2.0’ that form globally connected but locally disembedded wealthy enclaves. I show how the integration of the Philippines into global capital flows, its historically grown ‘anti-developmental’ state, and the rise of a powerful real estate sector together have led to a proliferation of exclusive and exceptional spaces. The contemporary enclave spaces epitomize an urban and national development model of ‘exclusive development’, based on spatial processes of post-industrial capital accumulation in enclosed spaces, presenting a stark contrast with discourses on inclusive development.

Prevalent notions of ‘education cities’ and ‘education hubs’ are vaguely defined, operate at blurry scales and tend to reproduce promotional language. The article contributes to theorising the geographies and spaces of globalising higher education by developing the concept of transnational education zones. Through an urban political economy lens, we review the relations between universities and cities, consider universities’ role in the political economy and understand universities as transnational urban actors. We exhaustively map the phenomenon of transnational education zones and empirically analyse cases from four cities (Doha, Dubai, Iskandar and Flic en Flac) with respect to their embeddedness in state-led projects for the ‘knowledge economy’, their vision for transnational subject formation and their character as urban zones of exception. The conclusion develops a research agenda for further critical geographic inquiries into the (re)making of cities through the development of transnational spaces of higher education that explores the relations between globalising higher education and material and discursive transformations at the urban scale.