In an increasingly globalised world, the long-standing intellectual division of labour between ‘economic’ geographers and ‘development’ scholars is becoming less tenable. This paper explores some of the practical implications and synergistic outcomes of developing a hybrid economic / development geography ‘trading zone’ - in which economic geographers are forced to step outside their comfort zones through new empirical engagements with workers, firms, and urban economies in the global South. Here we reflect on these possibilities in relation to undergraduate teaching in human geography through fieldwork undertaken in India.

1. Expanding the Economic-Development
Geography Trading Zone
(Queens University Belfast, 16 May 2013)
Al James

2.  Since 1990s, EG prolonged period of self-conscious
reassessment, revitalisation, and ‘decentering’
 Repeated calls for fundamental rethinking of how EG “is
practised, thought, conceived and performed” (Lee et al. 2008:
1112)
 Most recent strand of critique: mainstream EG theorising
emerges from the experiences of advanced capitalist
economies in core Anglo-American regions; with
comparatively little theoretical and empirical attention paid to
economic spaces ‘elsewhere’ (Yeung and Lin 2003; Castree
et al. 2004)
 EG empirically blinkered: Global South as a no-go zone;
‘exclusive’ empirical terrain of devt scholars
 Context of globalisation, complex physical and virtual migration
flows, global production chains, offshoring, mutually intertwined
national devt outcomes, lack of engagement beyond the Global
North untenable
The Problem with Economic Geography

3. Evidencing the distinctive geography OF
Economic Geography
1. EMPIRICAL FOCUS IN MAJOR EG JOURNALS:
 Murphy (2008: 855): over two-thirds of the region-specific research in the
major EG journals concentrates on “conditions, firms, industries, and
economies where 18% (1.2 billion) of the world’s population (6.6. billion)
lives (advanced Western capitalist economies)
 82% of the planet (4.1 billion) garners less than 30% (at very best) of
publication space (outside of ‘Western core’)
2. LANGUAGE OF ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY: ‘mainstream ‘international’
EG journals published predominantly in English in UK and USA (Rodríguez-
Pose 2006) (who reads EG in Hindi? Mandarin?)
3. APATHY TOWARDS / DISMISSIVENESS of geographers researching
economic spaces beyond western capitalist economies, including
Global South and Eastern Europe
4. INSTITUTIONALISING EG: specialized EG journals, conferences,
conference sessions, and specialty groups within RGS-IBG and AAG
(distinct from DG); EG tendency to ring-fence Global South as the exclusive
terrain of Devt scholars

4. Growing Critique: mainstream ‘universal’
EG theories and the Western parochial
Mainstream EG presumption: ‘the economy’ can and should be theorised
solely from perspective of the formal econ spaces of western economies
(Pollard, McEwan, Laurie and Stenning 2009: 137)
 expansive EG research literatures on regional learning and
innovation; cultures of the firm; geographies of finance; gender,
work and employment; entrepreneurialism
 theory-building happens in the Global North; is then (if at all)
applied to the Global South
By universalizing the western parochial, non-western economies seen in
terms of a lack, absence, incompleteness, inadequacy; or at best something
reduced to varieties of capitalism (Pollard et al. (2009). See also
Chakrabarty (2000), Escobar (1995)
In short: EGers fail to recognise the particularities of their own geographies;
that their theories do not travel; and that their ‘global’ geographies are in
fact partial (Olds 2001: 133)
Need to begin to provincialise our ‘universal’ core theoretical constructs in
EG: what does ‘the economy’ look like if theory-building process begins
outside the Western ‘core’?

5. Meanwhile… Parallel Critique from within
Development Geography
‘Far too often in social science research and
teaching, the Global South remains a marginal,
residual and generalized category. … Academic
divisions place the study of the Global South as a
‘specialism’ separate from the ‘mainstream’ of social
science disciplines. Debates in social, economic and
political theory often implicitly take conditions in the
Global North as their point of reference. Where the
Global South contributes to theoretical debate at all, it
is often through the separate category of
‘development theory’’ (Williams et al. 2009: 1-3).
Calls to develop a more balanced picture of the Global South
and its connections (practical and theoretical) with Global
North, rather than simply seeing lines that divide them
Economies in the South are not simply getting ‘connected
up’ to a pre-existing global system, they are actively involved
in producing that system. Rather…

6. Meanwhile… Parallel Critique from
Within Development Geography, cont.
 …Migration and diasporic connections require a deeper
understanding of ‘stretched-out geographies’ of flows and
movements between North and South (Power 2003)
 Challenges of development e.g. deindustrialization,
flexibilisation, migration, urban deprivation, economic structural
change, market failure, state restructuring, and concerns with
social exclusion, are common to countries in North and South
 Means ‘development’ debates should not be restricted to either
‘set’ of countries (McFarlane 2006; see also Pieterse 2001;
Maxwell 1998; Jones 2000).
 increasing number of ‘development geographers’
beginning to examine development in the Global North
 Datta et al. (2007): migrant remittances from London as a
form of international development
 McIlwaine (2011): work-life experiences of Latin American
migrants in London
 To make room for a South not entirely constituted through its
(postcolonial) relationship with the North (Raghuram and Madge
2006: 274; Robinson 2003: 274).

7. Calls to Bridge the Economic Geography /
Development ‘Divide’
 Against this backdrop of parallel critique within
and across EG and DG
 Growing dialogue seeks to build bridges between
‘economic’ and ‘development’ geography as
conventionally labelled: ‘rejecting the notion that
development geography is about the Global South
and economic geography is about the Global
North’ (Coe et al. 2007: xix)
 To challenge ‘common-sense’ and academic
divisions that equate the study of the Global
South with the study of development – and to
interrogate the routes through which these ideas
come to be (re)produced (Williams et al. 2009)
 To challenge the neat separation of ‘economic’
and ‘development’ geographers into strictly
demarcated sub-disciplines with separate
empirical objects of study
 See also Castree et al. (2004), Kelly (2002) and
Murphy (2008)
 Scholars have begun to challenge this divide from
different empirical entry points…

8. Some recent work that begins to bridge
the EG/DG divide…
1. Econ Geogs of East Asia (e.g.) Yeung and Lin 2003; Yeung 2007)
‘Theorising back’ understood as either making original theory that
emanates from research outside of sites on Anglo-American countries or
remaking key economic-geographic concepts from a dynamic East Asia (p.
341) (e.g. ‘financial crisis’)
BUT: ltd focus on new (‘emerging’) entrants to the EG core
2. Islamic Banking and Finance (Pollard and Samers 2007 2011 2013)
To expose the limits of Western-centred readings of financial
geographies: Islamic financial institutions (Middle East, North Africa, Asia,
and now Global North!) draw upon different knowledges, standards and
financial contracts than their interest-based counterparts (riba, gharar,
diverse moral economies)
Challenges common use of historical experiences, categories of the
West as ‘universal’ template from which financial world can be known,
measured and understood

9. Other examples of geographical scholarship that challenge
the EG/DG divide:
labour market restructuring through ICT and BPO development in
South Africa and Mauritius (e.g. Benner 2003; 2006)
unionization attempts amongst industrial workers in Malaysia,
Indonesia and the Philippines (Kelly 2002)
union-community mobilisation against neoliberal public sector
restructuring in South Africa (Lier 2009)
Fascinating new empirical and theoretical insights BECAUSE
they have been willing to look beyond EG’s traditional
empirical gaze
Aim is to provide ‘a greater sense of the ways in which
economies/economic geographies of all sorts are practiced
and made in multiple, rather than in singular ways’ (Lee et al.
2008: p. 1114).
Some recent work that begins to bridge
the EG/DG divide… cont.

10. Towards a Hybrid Economic –Development Geography
Trading Zone?
Barnes and Sheppard (2009): from fragmented pluralism to
engaged pluralism in Human Geography through new
intellectual ‘trading zones’; where scholars representing
distinct sub-disciplinary cultures of inquiry, interests and
objectives come together in new intellectual partnerships
(following Galison 1998; Longino 2002).
The aim of such partnerships is not to eradicate differences between the
participants, but rather:
to trade ideas and theories around a common problem
to expose conversational partners to alternative viewpoints, epistemic
habits and critiques which prompt them to question their own position
and thereby catalyze new understandings and possibilities through
give and take on both sides (see Bernstein 1988; Barnes and Sheppard
2009).
EG-DG intellectual partnerships
e.g. Global Cities at Work: Datta, McIlwaine, May, Wills
e.g. New Geographies of Work and Employment in India’s New Service
Economy: James and Vira (and now Williams and McConnell)

11. Significant Challenges to Expanding the
Hybrid Economic-Development Geography
EG-DG trading zone rather one sided – has tended to
involve economic geographers beginning to engage with
the Global South and cherry picking select bits of
development theory
Lesser willingness of development scholars to engage
with EG in the other direction – because for many DG
scholars, ‘development’ does not equal ‘economy’
Difficulties of shaking off ‘sub-disciplinary
apprenticeships’ - which powerfully shape how EG / DG
scholars do research and make sense of the world
Barnes and Sheppard (2009): devt of EG/DG trading
zone will inevitably be partial, hard-won, challenging
Hybrid econ-devt geog project has so far only involved
established scholars – is crucial to expand the trading
zone to include students, in order to develop hybrid inter-
disciplinary EG-DG ‘apprenticeships’

12. QMULGeography: Mumbai Unbound
Expanding the EG-DG Trading zone
1. To explore the geographical diversity of people's lived experiences
of contemporary social, economic, political and cultural
transformation in twenty-first century India (off the EG, DG radar)
2. To encourage students to challenge the traditional
boundaries of development geography and economic
geography, by participating in an emerging
collaborative hybrid ‘economic-development
geography', through an empirical focus on Mumbai as
a rapidly developing global city-region.
3. To expose the spatial limits of mainstream 'universal'
theories in geography which: (i) presume that ‘the
economy’ can be theorised solely from the perspective
of the formal spaces of advanced capitalist economies
in the Global North; and (ii) position the Global South
as a collection of places in need of external (Northern)
development interventions.
4. To provide students with unique opportunity for planning, designing
and executing a piece of rigorous field-based research in the Indian
urban context.
10 x 2hr seminars
8 day fieldclass
100% co-taught

14. 1. Reconsidering ‘Dead-end’ Work in
the ‘World’s Back Office’
Indian ITES-BPO: phenomenal growth last two decades
400 of Fortune 500: BPO functions in India
Drivers: 60% wage savings; English language; cheap telephony
c. 1.4 million ITES-BPO workers in India 2013
Offshoring low-end call centre work from UK and USA: lack of
training in transferable skills, low paid
‘I am angry. Because every day I see some of the world’s
strongest and smartest people in my country. I see all this
potential, yet it is all getting wasted. An entire generation up
all night, providing crutches for the white morons to run their
lives. . . . Meanwhile bad bosses and stupid Americans suck
the life blood out of our country’s most productive generation’
(Bhagat, 2005: 253–4)
Additional Indian critiques (e.g. Ramesh 2004; Taylor and Bain 2003)

Intense levels of surveillance (sting by The Sun)

Westernised work identities – neutralisation of MTI

Racial abuse from UK and US clients (dedicated websites!)

Higher incidence of ovarian cancer through night work

15. Neocolonial Exploitation of India’s
Young Educated Elite
James and Vira (2012) document a distinctive social
demographic of call centre labour market entrants in
India’s National Capital Region:

average age BPO entry 21 yrs 10 mo (N=439)

51% male; 49% female

80% have undergraduate degrees (majority Delhi
University); 9% also have a graduate degree

also come from families in which the parents are
similarly well educated: 72% have fathers who have a
Bachelors Degree or higher; and 43% have mothers with
a Bachelor’s Degree or higher.
 majority (69%) identified father’s profession as
‘businessman’, or ‘officer / executive’; and 89%
identified their mother’s profession as ‘full-time
homemaker’.
In short, majority call centre workers in NCR are Indian
urban middle class youth

16. Repositioning the mainstream EG
discourse on Indian call centres
UK: entry level call centre agent £14 000 p.a. (c.f. national average pay
£25 896 p.a.)
India NCR survey (May 2007):
Ave starting salary (all freshers): Rs 9272 / mo
Dominant EG response: pay low by UK standards: £1416 p.a.
BUT - Indian call centre entry-level wage is twice the earnings of an
entry level high school teacher, accountant, or marketing professional
with graduate degree (UPI 2005)
c.f. ave Indian wages Rs 1066 / mo (ILO 2004) (9x greater)
£31 800 PPP (World Banks’s Purchasing Power Parity PPP figures: US=1,
India=14.67, UK=0.65)
Also with subsequent pay increases through lateral mobility (James and Vira
2012) – some agents double starting salary in 3 yrs!
High wages underpin Indian youths’ social construction of call centre
jobs as high end, aspirational, white collar professional jobs – likewise,
transferable skills

17. ITES-BPO key entry point into other growing
sectors of India’s New Service Economy
Vira and James (2012): Ex call centre agent survey
(250) ave. stay in sector: 23 months; as ‘stop-gap job’
‘It helps you immensely… a lot of learning patience
with work, a lot of time management skills, and most
of it I can apply to my new company here also.’
(female former call centre language trainer, Delhi, July
2006).
‘Everyone should work in a BPO for one or two years
absolutely! One key skill set that everybody acquires if
you work in a BPO is multi-tasking: you know how to
do 10 tasks in a set frame of 9 hours. And that actually
gives you an edge ’. (female former call centre agent,
Delhi, July 2006).
Destinations: banking, insurance, finance, airline
sector, hotel and Information Technology, hospitality,
education, logistics, marketing, real estate, retail,
telecommunications, travel, textiles, exports and
media – also into subsequent education
c.f. Mumbai (Malad BPO campuses) – similar patterns
of cross-sectoral movement, and development of
transferable BPO skills?

18. 2. Labour Market Intermediaries in India’s New Service Economy

19. Engaging with BPO aspirants and ex-call centre workers at Mumbai walk-ins
 Facilitate job search
 Bring jobs closer to workers
(literally on the streets!)
 Provide training in transferable
skills
 Facilitate worker mobility between
sectors
 Increased individual bargaining
power of employees?
 Diversity of size, occupational
niche, relationships with employers
 Bridging diverse ‘LMI’ literatures in
EG (e.g. Benner 2003 on LMIs in
Silicon Valley) and DG (on labour
contractors in rural India) – none
offering one-to-one fit – provokes
hybrid EG/DG dialogue

20. ‘To become a vibrant, world-class city,
Mumbai needs to grow at 9-10 per cent per
annum: an increase of 4-5 percentage points
over what it achieved in the last four to five
years. This will allow it to create 500 000
additional jobs. It must focus on four thrust
areas: high end-services; low-end services;
manufacturing; and consumption’ (p. 13)
Policy attractions of ‘living on thin air’: professional
services
High paying, high profile element of brand ‘India Inc.’
Indian Brand Equity Foundation (July 2012): BFSI
accounts for 60% of India’s GDP
Mumbai seeks to leapfrog from an emerging finance
centre that serves India to a global finance centre that
serves the world (Mohan 2007)
3. Globalising Mumbai: Engaging with ‘Service Professionals’

22. Aspirational Work Environments in Mumbai’s PSFs:
IndiaBulls Finance Centre; Bandra Kurla Complex

23. Mumbai’s Service Economy: From Hypermodern
Global Capital to ‘Low-End’ Local Service Providers
Accounts of Mumbai typically tend to privilege
its high end global at the expense of the local
(see also Harris 2012)
Recent urban development in Mumbai has
often been framed through the abstract
analytical device of ‘hypermodernity funded
by global capital’, rather than through in-depth
studies of the myriad, messy and popular
worlds of local Mumbai
Important to recognise a second set of ‘low-end’
service professionals operating at the local scale
within Mumbai, and who are crucial to the
sustainable development of Mumbai as global city
Laundry services (Dhobi Ghat)
Catering and food delivery (Dabbawalas)
Autorickshaw walas (Bandra)

24. Balakrishnan and Teo 2004
Dabbawala networked labour process

26. Dabbawala Lunchbox Coding System
From Baindur and Macário 2012: 17)

27. Engaging with Mumbai’s Dabbawalas
Competing EG/DG typologies:
 Formal / informal?
 Organised / non-organised?
 Low-end / high-end?
 Professional / non-professional?
 Apprenticeship, charitable trust welfare
Functional connections to high-end PSFs:
 Servicing Mumbai’s middle classes
 Marketing consumer products & services
 Dabbawala aspirations for children
 5000 workers, 180 000 lunchboxes delivered
daily, less than 1 error per 6 million deliveries
Reversing the traditional / neocolonial
direction of academic knowledge
production
 E.g. FORBES (1998): Fast Food
 Harvard Business School
 Branson and Virgin

28. 4. Reconsidering Marginality in Dharavi
 Slum Tour voyeurism?
 Expanding EG focus to invisible
communities?
 Economic ‘marginality’
 Political marginality: 5* slum votebanks
 Diverse entrepreneurial economies
 QMUL risk assessment

29. Concluding Comments
Contemporary labour geographies of India’s New
Service Economy in EG/DG no go zone
Requires more than simply more of the same EG in
new place – exposes limits of ‘core’ EG concepts
Engaging future generations of scholars in EG/DG
hybrid earlier: several students since motivated to
pursue MA post-Mumbai
‘Most stimulating module of my entire university life
to date’; ‘I have learned and developed more as a
Geographer on this trip than I have ever felt in the
classroom’; ‘This is real Geography’; ‘You have to
experience it to understand’ (Mumbai Unbound 2013
student feedback).
Powerful undergraduate recruitment tool
Methodological implications of EG-DG hybrid: e.g.
language & translation, data availability, non-
transferability of tried-and-tested EG methods,
physical challenges of fieldwork – amplified with 26
undergrads in tow
Need to build new research partnerships with
Indian scholars (e.g. Institute Management?)

30. There’s more to life in 21st
century
India than Development
Williams et al. (2009): the point is to give places in the
Global South more attention than they normally receive
from mainstream economic geography in the Global
North, and to challenge standard ways in they are
represented: “‘Development’ may be an important part
of the national aspirations of Southern countries, or
impact on elements of people’s everyday lives, but …
there is much more to life in the Global South than
development alone. Looking at people and places only
through categories of development theory … can blind
us to this richness and diversity” (p. 8).