Global Production Networks and the Role of Logistics and Transportation

There is an ongoing inquiry concerning the nature and role of globalization in terms of social processes, economic development, culture and tourism, and last, but not least, as it relates to spatial change. Although globalization has been an active field of research in social sciences, which is reflected by the large number of studies being published on this issue since the early 1990s (Dicken, 2003, 7), its complexity and dynamics suggest a whole range of issues that remain unaddressed. Even the term globalization itself remains undefined, since it appears as a “buzzword” (Dicken, ibd.) that carries quite different meanings. According to Baumann (1998), globlization is multidimensional and thus necessarily vague: “All vague words tend to share a similar fate: the more experiences they pretend to make transparent, the more they themselves become opaque. The more numerous are the orthodox truths they elbow out and supplant, the faster they turn into no-questions-asked canons” (Baumann, 1998, 1).