Holding together logistical worlds: Friction, seams and circulation in the emerging ‘global warehouse’

Abstract

Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Holding together logistical worlds -revision 2 -September 2016 -1 - Abstract:This paper examines logistics in the space of action between production and consumption to provide 1) a rethinking of logistical power, not as seamless flow but through seam space and friction; and 2) a re-conceptualisation of cargo mobilities, as the dynamic articulation between things being freight cargo, and being products and goods. The paper uses empirical research on cargo movement in Northern Europe to reveal the frictions resulting from freight cargo's spatial ordering and from systemic imbalances in trade flows. It shows the multiple lines of friction produced by and productive of cargo mobilities across maritime and terrestrial space. It argues logistics is an art of accommodating this and creating competitive advantage through making interruptions, discontinuities, or seams in the spaces of flow. This is done through different temporal logics of ordering physical cargo sequenced across maritime and terrestrial space. The paper further shows the frictions between the physical spaces and flows of freight and the corresponding code-space and data flows. Bespoke corporate systems translate freight cargo to data and provide visibility to actors such that logistical and regulatory work can be anticipated and planned. Yet they do so through specific lines of sight. Bespoke systems also create seam spaces between networks as they simultaneously make frictions between rival corporate systems. The effect is to generate a contested, fractured space in which at stake is whether logistics works to further the interests of lead actors in the distribution chain linking up the global factory or as a tool of supply chain capitalism that spans continents and connects material supply to consumer, in which logistical actors increasingly perform the role of contractors in a global warehouse. ; identifying reference removed) that has exposed the differences between logistics as idealised and as practised and shows that it is too easy to be too enamoured of the story of the shipping container. Examining logistics-in-action reveals the importance of queuing trucks, vehicle booking systems (VBS) and port congestion, and the work of moving empty containers. It points to inefficiencies, rupture points, glitches and displacement effects. As such, it is the starting point for rethinking logistical power (Neilson, 2013(Neilson, , 2015, chains only exist due to diversity and, for all their claims to create a 'univers...

Mobilising security and logistics through an African port: A controversies approach to infrastructure

“…This complements other work on mobilities that highlights the disruptions and frictions in supply chains (Gregson, Crang, and Antonopoulos 2017). While we embrace the call to move 'beyond accounts that recite global logistical power to further interrogate logistics-in-action' (ibid., 394), by using controversies we offer an alternative take on this work.…”

“…Whilst work through the notion of frictions, as recently suggested by Gregson, Crang, and Antonopoulos (2017), zooms in on ruptures and the patchwork-like nature of logistical landscapes, controversies offer an important alternative and complementary approach in that they reveal the competing visions, claims to expertise and practices of resistance to the overall project. While in many instances, 'flows of global commerce trump local economies and ecosystems' (Carse 2012), and logistical hubs such as ports are part of a system of mobility that supports uneven geoecologies (Sheller 2016), the above has shown that not only competing visions and models, but also competing political economies, must be considered to understand how mobility and security are governed.…”

“…Capital is mobile, but also builds on offices, national affiliations, off-shore zones and ports; territoriality is not vanishing, but it remains crucial for enabling globality for some citizens, whilst excluding others (Jessop, Brenner, and Jones 2008;Opitz and Tellmann 2012). Others have stressed that logistics has created an abstract space, one in which ports are integrated through processes of containerisation, unitisation and standardisation (Martin 2014), where ports and the technologies of making things flow are contested, and any (idea of ) seam space is merely a product that needs to be reified and worked out in different contexts (Gregson, Crang, and Antonopoulos 2017).…”

Digital interface design and power: Friction, threshold, transition

“…Interface design is not about necessarily always trying to reduce friction 2 . Rather, as we show, friction can also be productively introduced to help achieve the completion of a task, as long as this friction is carefully managed (much like the 'planned' frictions of logistics, see Gregson et al, 2017). In the practices of data driven design that are central to the making of interfaces, this process of managing frictions and enabling transitions are aided by the use of data analytics.…”

Enriching the analysis of commercial movement: Convergence and the blurring of trade flows on a border in Southern Africa

“…Ethnography of global flows and infrastructures, as developed by Gregson et al. (), introduces global power relations and the uneven development of logistical space. The main drawback of this theoretical model is that it sometimes pays little or no attention to the agency of the individual or collective actors involved in the movements.…”