Global production networks in the passenger aviation industry

Piotr Niewiadomski

doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.09.013

Global production networks in the passenger aviation industry

Piotr Niewiadomski^* (Corresponding Author)

^*Corresponding author for this work

Geography & Environment

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)

17 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Although the number of directions which geographical research on transport is taking has recently increased, the extent to which transport geography capitalises on theoretical advancements made in other sub-disciplines of human geography is still fairly limited. This especially pertains to economic geography which, in contrast to the predominantly positivist and quantitative transport geography, has developed over the last few decades a more post-positivist and qualitative profile. By means of focusing on passenger air transport – one of the most neglected industries in economic geography – this paper aims to help bridge this gap. Three under-researched aspects of air transport are identified and a combination of two economic-geographical approaches – global production networks (GPN) and evolutionary economic geography (EEG) – is advocated as a useful conceptual basis for further, more qualitative and more critical research on this dynamic sector. The paper argues that GPN and EEG would help research on air transport to (1) employ network thinking beyond the infrastructural understanding of networks of air connections and thus better explain the multi-actor nature of the aviation sector, (2) complement the research on supra-national and national regulatory frameworks with more attention to the array of sub-national environments that shape the aviation industry ‘from below’, and (3) explore how the relations between aviation and economic development are moulded by different place-specific institutional factors. To lay foundations under further research the paper conceptualises the aviation industry as a global production network and uses the example of Polish passenger air transport to highlight the paper’s key empirical implications.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-14
Number of pages	14
Journal	Geoforum
Volume	87
Early online date	9 Oct 2017
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.09.013
Publication status	Published - Dec 2017

Bibliographical note

The idea behind the paper, as well as the empirical data presented in the paper, originate from the research project on the aviation industry in Central and Eastern Europe that was carried out in 2015. The project was funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust (grant no. SG132857). A partial contribution under the same grant code was also made by the Sir Ernest Cassel Educational Trust Fund. The author is grateful to the funding bodies for supporting his research endeavour. The author would also like to thank Dr Nick Spedding from the University of Aberdeen for proofreading the first draft of the paper and providing valuable comments on its contents and the three anonymous reviewers for offering a number of useful suggestions on how to improve the paper.

Keywords

The passenger aviation industry
global production networks (GPN)
evolutionary economic geography (EEG)
economic development

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.09.013

manuscript
© 2017. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Accepted author manuscript, 698 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Piotr Niewiadomski
- School of Geosciences, Geography & Environment - Senior Lecturer
Person: Academic

Cite this

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title = "Global production networks in the passenger aviation industry",

abstract = "Although the number of directions which geographical research on transport is taking has recently increased, the extent to which transport geography capitalises on theoretical advancements made in other sub-disciplines of human geography is still fairly limited. This especially pertains to economic geography which, in contrast to the predominantly positivist and quantitative transport geography, has developed over the last few decades a more post-positivist and qualitative profile. By means of focusing on passenger air transport – one of the most neglected industries in economic geography – this paper aims to help bridge this gap. Three under-researched aspects of air transport are identified and a combination of two economic-geographical approaches – global production networks (GPN) and evolutionary economic geography (EEG) – is advocated as a useful conceptual basis for further, more qualitative and more critical research on this dynamic sector. The paper argues that GPN and EEG would help research on air transport to (1) employ network thinking beyond the infrastructural understanding of networks of air connections and thus better explain the multi-actor nature of the aviation sector, (2) complement the research on supra-national and national regulatory frameworks with more attention to the array of sub-national environments that shape the aviation industry {\textquoteleft}from below{\textquoteright}, and (3) explore how the relations between aviation and economic development are moulded by different place-specific institutional factors. To lay foundations under further research the paper conceptualises the aviation industry as a global production network and uses the example of Polish passenger air transport to highlight the paper{\textquoteright}s key empirical implications.",

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author = "Piotr Niewiadomski",

note = "The idea behind the paper, as well as the empirical data presented in the paper, originate from the research project on the aviation industry in Central and Eastern Europe that was carried out in 2015. The project was funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust (grant no. SG132857). A partial contribution under the same grant code was also made by the Sir Ernest Cassel Educational Trust Fund. The author is grateful to the funding bodies for supporting his research endeavour. The author would also like to thank Dr Nick Spedding from the University of Aberdeen for proofreading the first draft of the paper and providing valuable comments on its contents and the three anonymous reviewers for offering a number of useful suggestions on how to improve the paper.",

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DO - 10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.09.013

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JF - Geoforum

ER -

Global production networks in the passenger aviation industry

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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Piotr Niewiadomski

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