Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

The book series on Knowledge & Space explores the nature of human knowledge from a geographical perspective. How to create, share, and adopt new knowledge is a core question in the social sciences. Processes of learning and knowledge creation are the result of social practice and always take place in space and in specific geographical contexts. The eleventh volume is the outcome of the symposium entitled “Topographies and Topologies of Knowledge” in the series of Klaus Tschira Symposia on Knowledge and Space held at the Villa Bosch Studio in Heidelberg. This book focuses on the conceptual and empirical intersections of the geographical and network dimensions of social practice in accounting for the creation and reproduction of knowledge. By taking up this dialogue between the fields of geography and social network studies, the book is conceived to bridge a research gap between two analytic perspectives that until recently have developed more in parallel to each other than in mutual exchange between scholars. The intention of its chapters is to broaden and deepen understanding of the specific characteristics not only of space and connectivity but also of their mutual and interactive effect on knowledge creation.

The author identifies a critical juncture in the global economy: the emergence of a new production system pivoting on “open innovation” and knowledge networks that are, however, exclusive in the context of rapidly increasing poverty and socio-economic polarization worldwide. The chapter develops a critical agenda to make use of: (1) theories about (economic) knowledge generation and networks to develop knowledges by dissolving frictions of difference and constructing an inclusive system of collaborative work; and (2) the market itself to adapt new corporate strategies to social ends in the course of sustaining, if not augmenting, productivity. The chapter envisions a system of drawing support from the public and private sectors. Precedents for various components of the agenda exist; the agenda is to imbricate such projects in a holistic approach to achieve social as well as economic change by reconfiguring the values that govern everyday life.

In a world of rapid internationalization and globalization, intercultural competence and learning is gaining importance. However, an analysis of this process must extend beyond the level of the individual to, in accordance with Kurt Levin’s field theory, include influencing factors, such as expatriate employee social networks, cultural processes, and current economic and political environments.

Drawing on Kurt Lewin’s field theory as a theoretical framework, the author explains the role of networks, describes an empirical qualitative example of interpersonal networks, discusses the impact of social support in different fields of application, and presents the quantitative results of a study on the staff of small and medium-sized enterprises and large corporations on foreign assignments. Research included enhancing and testing a model of the relationship between personal initiative, social support, and adjustment. Findings are discussed regarding their specific meaning for the intercultural learning process and within the framework of field theory.

Family ties are a notable feature of many developing communities. To understand localized learning in developing contexts, the author argues that family ties, despite their strength, can work as bridges for technology diffusion and promote rather than restrict the process of economic development. When regional economies take off, the role of family networks in localized learning becomes weak because hierarchal family ties are structured more to facilitate information flows from fixed sources than to generate new knowledge from the collision of different ideas. By contrast, another kind of social network, friendship ties, is more open and dynamic in fostering regional innovation in the knowledge economy. The transformation from family- to friend-based learning is not easy. Many developing economies become stuck in a transition stage that arises after the collapse of traditional social connections and before the establishment of generalized trust and formal institutions to create spontaneous associations of individuals.

The author investigates the political regionalization process on a world scale. It is assumed that political actors must work increasingly often on a supranational basis, a constraint that explicable by the globalization process, understood not only—and not primarily—as an economic or financial phenomena but rather as the rise of global issues demanding a governance shift. The chapter begins with a brief overview of network analysis in geographical studies, where two main traditions exist: one focused on technical networks, the other on flows. The previous decade showed an increasing hybridization of methods from both social network analysis and complex networks studies. The author then presents the field of observation (the United Nations General Assembly—UNGA—from 1985 to 2010) and the methodological choices made. Network analysis appears relevant as decisions in the UNGA imply negotiations between actors. Because nearly all states are present at the UNGA, this institution allows one to observe patterns of cooperation on a world scale both dynamically and thematically. A variation of the CONCOR method (research of equivalence) for weighted matrices allows the author to map the geographical clusters revealed by voting positions. A second analysis examines patterns of speeches, considered as bipartite graph, and reveals the growing importance of regional groups at the UNGA. Lastly, theoretical models of cooperation among actors are proposed.

Undergraduate and postgraduate education has increasingly been framed by policymakers and employers in advanced economies as an important way of improving graduate employability and enhancing economic growth within knowledge-based economies This is particularly true in knowledge-intensive business services such as finance and law. However, graduates seeking to enter these elite labor markets have faced increased competition in recent years. This has been driven by the massification of higher education, as well as the recession following the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Research has identified a range of responses, such as studying overseas, among graduates seeking to increase the scarcity value of their credentials as a way to improve their employability. In this chapter, I examine another emerging strategy that has received less attention—the growing use of postgraduate educational services and training. The author argues that attaining additional credentials is an important strategy among graduates seeking entry into elite global labor markets and, consequently, a factor in the (re)production and circulation of geographically variegated economic elite knowledge-practices.

This chapter offers a neostructural perspective on how organized mobility and relational turnover (OMRT) constitute important dimensions of the social context in which social mechanisms are deployed. They determine many of the characteristics of those mechanisms. As an illustration, White [HC. . Harvard University Press, Cambridge, ] analysis of “mobility in loops” (p. 380) is combined with Snijders [TAB. “Models for longitudinal network data”. In: Carrington PJ, Scott J, Wasserman S (eds) . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 215−247, (2005)] models of network dynamics to look at how rotation across a carrousel of organizational places and subsequent relational turnover create a relational infrastructure that shapes a social process such as collective learning. Using a longitudinal study of advice networks among lay judges at the Commercial Court of Paris as an empirical example of collective learning, the author draws on a “spinning-top model” to account for the dynamics of these networks, in particular their cyclical centralization and decentralization over time, with OMRT in the Court providing the energy that drives this evolution and process. A “dynamic invariant” and its outcome, stability from movement, are thus identified at the heart of collective learning but are also shown to have an intrinsic multilevel character with consequences for catch-up dynamics between superimposed levels of agency. It is suggested that a neostructural perspective can thus inspire new collaborations between sociology and geography.

Extant literature on organizational fields has relied widely on social network analysis to understand how individual actors are related to each other and located at relational positions. In tandem, social network analysis has also been deployed to explore individual trajectories. In this chapter the author articulates both approaches, while exploring how changes in the jazz field impact individuals’ trajectories. The author built ideal-typical trajectories by extracting social network statistics on musicians’ paths and used blockmodeling to map field development vis-à-vis the positioning of trajectory types and the evolution of styles. To that end research was carried out on the jazz field and its musicians for the period 1930–1969, using relational data collected from the credits of 5572 albums of jazz recordings. Within this period, the field migrated from a normative to a competitive structure, a shift that provides insight into how trajectory types’ patterns of interaction change. Results indicate that cooptation of established generations by new ones was crucial and occurred when the field experienced strong centrifugal forces.

This study uses social network analysis to investigate the topology and evolution of collaboration networks in a policy anchored, high-tech district in Italy. The district involves lead firms from strategic industries such as defense, military, transports, energy, and aerospace along with public and private institutions. The governance of the district is based upon an active and formal management of project partnerships. The authors use prespecified blockmodeling to identify the structural configuration of collaboration at each time point from 2005 to 2013, tracing the evolutionary path of collaboration within the district. Empirical results show that collaboration initially took a core–periphery configuration characterized by a single, small bridging core of research organizations. This configuration gradually changed, developing a large cohesive nucleus connected to global partners through generalized brokerage. An assessment of the district management strategy is provided.

Platform policies, or “platforming,” are becoming increasingly popular in innovation research and practice, where they are used for either starting regional knowledge-creating processes or overcoming the closed nature of regional clusters that have, or have been, developed. For both purposes, platforming focuses on injecting related variety into regional developmental processes, not only in terms of knowledge resources but also agents, activities, and relations. But can such platforming be used to break away from an established technological, organizational, or institutional path? Using a case-study approach to the electromobility initiative in Germany, the authors investigate the potential of platforming for unlocking such path dependencies. The empirical insights their research lead them to conclude that platforming may contribute to path-, but not necessarily to path-, at a regional level.