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Global Production Networks (GPNs) have become a key focus of research in economic geography and related fields in recent years. This article has two main aims. First, I offer a critical appraisal of GPN research, focusing on its contribution to the rethinking of regional development processes and the notion of ‘strategic coupling’ in particular. Second, the article aims to forge a new set of links between GPNs and evolutionary economic geography (EEG), which has also attracted considerable recent interest as a framework for assessing the evolution of economic landscapes. In particular, I use evolutionary approaches and the concept of path dependence to develop a broader and deeper conception of the range of coupling, recoupling and decoupling processes that take place between regions and GPNs, going beyond strategic coupling per se.
Danny MacKinnon (Tue,) studied this question.