Collaborative Research: Reconfiguring Economies, Communities, and Regions in Post-Socialist Europe: A Study of the Apparel Industry

合作研究：后社会主义欧洲的经济、社区和地区的重新配置：服装行业的研究

• 批准号: 0114395
• 负责人: John Pickles
• 金额: $ 19.69万
• 依托单位: University of Kentucky Research Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-08-01 至 2002-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0114395&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Reconfiguring; Economies; Communities

This project focuses on the changing economic geographies of apparel production in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). After an initial period of rapid industrial collapse and only limited persistence of apparel firms, there has been a more recent 'rebirth' of production throughout the region, linked primarily to changes in the international structure of the industry and in European Union legislation and markets. The project investigates four aspects of these changes. First, using international trade, production, and employment data, the project documents the emergence of these complex new geographies of apparel production and trade, and assess the specific roles played by changes in the international structure of the industry and by changes in international trade regulations. Second, through interviews with brand-name manufacturers, retailers, marketers, and national buying firms in Western Europe, the U.S., and CEE, the study analyzes the important role of buyer-driven commodity chains in sourcing and controlling suppliers in CEE under conditions of intensely competitive pricing and rapidly changing demand. Third, through detailed case studies in six regions in Slovakia and Bulgaria, the project examines the ways in which international sourcing restructures existing national industries, impacts upon the creation of new firms, and produces a variety of industrial forms and practices. Fourth, in seeking to explain this diversity of apparel production, the project examines the ways in which existing social, institutional, and community conditions in different regions of each country are shaping the enterprises and regional economies that are emerging. The pace of new firm creation in these regions is astonishing and the regional impacts of these firms and the scope of their integration with European markets surprising. Through this research we hope to contribute to our understanding of the specific forms and practices of what has been more generally characterized as low-wage, assembly production for export. In particular, we hope to contribute to the literatures in economic geography, globalization debates, and post-socialist restructuring about the roles of national suppliers and markets in the operation of the new firms, the extent to which uniform or differentiated production and marketing strategies are emerging, and the impacts local conditions have on the operation of primarily international contract and assembly production. The proposed research will enable us to examine more fully the conditions and contradictions associated with international integration and local economic reconfiguration in post-socialist Europe. The project will enable us to move beyond single-region and single-country case studies by providing a cross-national and cross-regional analysis of local economic transformations in apparel producing areas. Finally, the research will contribute to our understanding of the role of other economic and social practices in shaping the internationalization of the post-socialist apparel industry and its producing regions.

该项目着重于中欧和东欧（CEE）服装生产的不断变化的经济地理。 在最初的工业快速崩溃和只有服装公司的持久性有限的阶段之后，整个地区的生产重生都越来越多，主要与该行业国际结构以及欧盟立法和市场的变化有关。 该项目研究了这些变化的四个方面。 首先，该项目使用国际贸易，生产和就业数据记录了这些复杂的服装生产和贸易新地理的出现，并评估了该行业国际结构的变化以及国际贸易法规的变化所扮演的具体角色。 其次，通过对西欧，美国和CEE的品牌制造商，零售商，营销商和国家购买公司的访谈，该研究分析了买方驱动的商品链在竞争性价格强烈的定价条件下以及需求迅速变化的条件下，买方驱动的商品链在CEE中的采购和控制供应商中的重要作用。 第三，通过在斯洛伐克和保加利亚的六个地区进行详细的案例研究，该项目研究了国际采购重组现有国家行业的方式，影响创建新公司并产生各种工业形式和实践。第四，在寻求解释服装生产的多样性时，该项目研究了每个国家不同地区现有的社会，机构和社区状况的方式，正在塑造正在出现的企业和地区经济体。这些地区新公司创造的速度令人惊讶，这些公司的区域影响以及与欧洲市场融合的范围令人惊讶。 通过这项研究，我们希望有助于我们理解更普遍地描述出低工资和出口组装生产的特定形式和实践。 特别是，我们希望为经济地理学，全球化辩论以及后社会主义的重组做出贡献，以重组国家供应商和市场在新公司运营中的作用，统一或差异化的生产和营销策略在多大程度上出现了，以及当地的影响对主要国际合同和组装生产的运作。 拟议的研究将使我们能够更全面地研究与后社会主义欧洲国际融合和当地经济重新配置相关的条件和矛盾。 该项目将使我们能够通过对服装生产区域的当地经济转型进行跨国和跨区域分析，从而超越单一区域和单一案例研究。 最后，这项研究将有助于我们理解其他经济和社会实践在塑造后社会主义服装行业及其生产地区国际化方面的作用。