“Ambiguities of Globalization: The Urban Economy as a Nexus of Disembedding and Reembedding Processes – The Case of the City of Hamburg”

of Paper Much of recent literature on globalization has focused on the impact of worldwide telematics, corporate globalization strategies and the rise of global economic ne tworks – tendencies which foster the disembedding of economic functions and social relationships from their locally bound contexts of interaction. In my paper I shall argue that globalization does indeed foster processes of regional disembedding. However, when looking at a city as a local or regional “socioeconomy”, some forms of re-embedding and new forms of local governance can be found at the same time. A case study of the city of Hamburg will show how globalization processes reshape the urban socio-economy in very different ways. In an empirical analysis the urban economy will be subdivided into “urban clusters” according to their specific historical traditions and linkages as well as their different forms of integration into global, n ational, and local contexts. This approach will facilitate highlighting the interplay of disembedding and re-embedding processes. Globalization versus „Neo-Regionalism“ In view of the dynamism of international transactions, the growing performance of worldwide telematics, and the increase in mobility of people, goods and capital, the current debate on globalization suggests that traditional ties to places dissolve, and working and living conditions are being de-anchored from their established local and regional contexts. Transnational firms are considered the key players in these globalization dynamics. Such “global players” organize their value chains through a targeted fragmentation and dislocation that transcends national borders as well as the boundaries of indu stries and firms. They mutate, as it were, into transnational network corporations, “into a temporary, constantly changing, more or less loose cooperation of teams, tel eworkers, subcontractors and suppliers” (Altvater/Mahnkopf 1996: 356). According to this view, transnational corporations become “placeless” since their actual “location” 1 This is an abbreviated version of my paper. The full version is, as yet, only available in German language.