Global production networks, labour and development

This theme issue introduction profiles the small but growing body of research that explores the connections between global production networks, labour and development. It does so in three stages. First, it outlines key ongoing global trends relating to the functional and spatial fragmentation of production and consumption processes. Second, it considers the potential for worker agency within shifting global production network structures, asserting that such agency is shaped both by relations within production networks and territorial institutional systems. Third, the implications for understandings of development are considered, and the need to move beyond the production networks themselves to incorporate other actors and dimensions of place is identified. The introduction also outlines and positions the eight papers that follow against these broader debates. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.