Neither chains nor networks
Modeling ambivalence in the US automotive sector
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12979106 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Abe Walker (0000-0003-3912-6420, Fayetteville State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publication date | 2025-11-06 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Human Geography (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1942-7786 • E-ISSN: 2633-674X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/19427786251392809 |
| OpenAlex | W4415974150 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 50 |
The US automotive industry stands at an inflection point amid the transition to electric vehicles. The relations of production that once governed the industry are drifting into obsolescence even as a new system has yet to fully crystallize. This paper critiques global production network (GPN) theory, arguing that its fixed, cartographical approach fails to account for the ambivalent character of transitional processes. GPN's diagrammatic logic is ill-suited for capturing the fluid, highly contingent power dynamics of an industry whose final form remains profoundly undecided. GPN theory may be adequate to periods of relative stasis or equilibrium, but breaks down when confronted by practices of realignment and reconfiguration. In place of GPNs, this paper draws on topological geographic thought to model distortions of space and power. Major findings, centered on the United Auto Workers’ 2023 contract negotiations and subsequent developments, reveal that labor was partially successful in mobilizing discursive influence alongside material power to shape the terms of the “green transition.” Specifically, labor was strategically positioned to compel the vertical reintegration of suppliers and the horizontal reintegration of core competencies. Conversely, labor retreated to protectionism when confronted with the transition's geopolitical dimension. Ultimately, while labor secured significant domestic gains, its alignment with economic nationalism limited its ability to extend transnational solidarity
Ambivalence · Automotive industry · Geopolitics · Negotiation · Obsolescence · Power (physics · Precarity · Protectionism · Relations of production · Asian Industrial and Economic Development · Flexible and Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Industrial Relations
Global Production Networks
Understanding union power
Bringing the State Back In
Intellectual monopoly in global value chains
The operation of Global Production Networks (GPNs) 2.0 and methodological constraints
Lean Times
Understanding the China–US trade war
Topological twists
Geographies of dissociation
Commodity chains, creative destruction and global inequality
Introduction
Geographies of dissociation
Value chains, networks and clusters
From followers to market leaders
Hybrid governance of joint ventures in transitional economies
Power in global value chains
The state, institutional frameworks and the dynamics of capital in global production networks
The multiple geographies of constrained labour agency
Alienating assemblages
Topologies of Power
Globalizing’ regional development
Three spaces of power
Explaining governance in global value chains
Global production networks and the analysis of economic development
Assemblages and Actor-networks
The Geo-political Economy of Global Production Networks
Roepke Lecture in Economic Geography-Rethinking Regional Path Dependence
Governmentalizing Gramsci
An invitation to the dark side of economic geography
Competitive dynamics of lead firms and their systems suppliers in the automotive industry
Commodity Chains and the Uneven Geographies of Global Capitalism
Global Production Networks, Foreign Direct Investment, and Supplier Linkages in the Integrated Peripheries of the Automotive Industry
Recentralizing Industrial Relations? Local Unions and the Politics of Insourcing in Three North American Automakers
Between Inclusion and Exclusion
Labor Transnationalism and Global Governance
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |