Conectado e subjetivado pela Cibercultura, este estudo busca compreender que formas de aprender estão envolvidas nas práticas comunicacionais através dos dispositivos móveis da conexão contínua, e como estas formas de aprender podem ser apropriadas no/pelo campo da Geografia nos processos educacionais formais. Tem como objetivos específicos: (a) analisar como funcionam algumas das práticas comunicacionais estabelecidas pelos sujeitos a partir e com os dispositivos móveis da conexão contínua; considerando suas características gerais, funções, formas de usos cotidianos; a partir das experimentações de tais práticas empreendidas nas redes comunicacionais da autora em seu processo de construção de pesquisa. (b) compreender as formas de aprender emergentes das práticas comunicacionais na cibercultura a partir e com os dispositivos móveis da conexão contínua, através da articulação das ferramentas teóricas de três grandes campos do conhecimento: Geografia, Educação e Comunicação; (c) problematizar como as formas de aprender emergentes das práticas comunicacionais da cibercultura podem ser apropriadas pelo campo da Geografia, a partir da análise de plataformas educativas, bem como de práticas públicas dos sujeitos envolvidos em processos educativos e comunicacionais Para os caminhos teórico-metodológicos, foram adotados o Campo dos Estudos Culturais e dos Estudos Foucaultianos, no interior deles foram selecionadas a autoetnografia e a netnografia, utilizando o caderno de campo da pesquisa(dora) como ferramenta de coleta de dados, tais dados foram capturados nos fluxos comunicacionais vivenciados pela própria autora em diferentes espaços. Diante das diferentes metodologias imbricadas nos processos de construção da pesquisa(dora), a investigação direcionou-se para quatro modalidades de bricolagem (metodológica, teórica, interpretativa e política) que geraram instigantes possibilidades para uma pesquisa(dora) bricoleur, inserida em movimentos que implicaram em processos de coleta e análises de dados articulados, possibilitando a experiência de escrita-leitura hipertextual dessa tese. A própria construção da tese contribuiu para compreender que as práticas comunicacionais da cibercultura vêm ocorrendo em espaços intersticiais, em uma cultura de (hiper)mobilidade, possibilitada por dispositivos móveis, que operam em rede, demandam feedbacks constantes dos interagentes envolvidos, em ações pautadas pela colaboração, o engajamento, a confiança. Isso ocorre a partir de informação contextual, filtros e reusabilidade dos produtos comunicacionais gerados, fazendo uma intensa mixagem de conteúdos, linguagens e rompendo o sentir e os sentidos (corporificados) dos sujeitos. As aprendizagens emergentes das referidas práticas comunicacionais são personalizadas, automatizadas, adaptativas, colaborativas, interativas, distraídas, em rede, ubíquas, autônomas, redefinindo a espacialidade do pensamento, hibridizando a mente e alterando tarefas cognitivas As apropriações dessas aprendizagens se inserem em dois grupos principais: um em que as tecnologias em si são as salvadoras dos sistemas educacionais, o papel do professor é relativizado e o foco do discurso de melhoria da qualidade da educação recai sobre o desempenho do aluno e do próprio professor. O outro bloco entende que as tecnologias digitais são dispositivos que apresentam inúmeras possibilidades de aprender, que complexificam o espaço e, por isso, alargam o conceito de aula, demandando um professor reflexivo para pensar em apropriações criativas, críticas e criadoras de tais possibilidades. As problematizações e experiências de escritaleituras postas, no decorrer do texto, instigam outros modos de pensar as espacialidades do sujeito contemporâneo na era da (hiper)mobilidade e suas aprendizagens. Assim, as análises empreendidas apresentam o potencial de serem pensadas nos processos educativos formais da Geografia (escolares e acadêmicos) de forma menos binária e fundamentalista. / Connected to and subjectified by cyberculture, this work aims to understand what ways of learning are involved in communication practices with mobile devices for continuous connection, and how these ways of learning may be appropriated in/by the field of Geography in formal education processes. It aims to: (a) analyse how subjects conduct communication practices with mobile devices for continuous connection, considering their general features, functions, everyday forms of use; by trying these practices in the author’s communication networks in her process of constructing her research work. (b) understand the emerging communication practices ways of learning in cyberculture with mobile devices for continuous connection by articulating theoretical tools in three large fields of knowledge: Geography, Education and Communication; (c) think of how the emerging communication practices ways of learning in cyberculture may be appropriated in Geography, by analysing educative structures and public practices by subjects involved in education and communication processes. For the theoretical and methodological ways we took on Cultural Studies and Foucault studies. Within them we selected autoethnography and netnography by using the research(er) field notes as a tool to collect data and these data were captured in the communication flow the author had in different spaces Due to the different methodologies overlapping in processes of construction of the research(er), investigation was directed towards four types of bricolage (methodological, theoretical, interpretative and political ones) leading to compelling possibilities for the bricoleur work(er), in movements causing collecting processes and analyses of articulated data, allowing for hypertextual writing-reading for this thesis. The very device of construction helped us to understand that communication practices of cyberculture have become intersticial spaces in a (hyper)mobility culture, enabled by mobile devices operating in networks with interactants’ constant feedbacks, encouraging collaboration, in actions based on collaboration, compromise and confidence. This occurs with the aid of contextual information, filters and reusability of communication products, leading to mingling contents and languages breaking with subjects’ (embodied) feeling and senses. Learning emerging from these communication practices are customised, automated, adaptive, collaborative, interactive, absent-minded, online, ubiquitous, autonomous, redefining, spatiality of thought, hybridising the mind and changing cognitive tasks Appropriation of these types of learning belong to two major groups: one in which technologies alone save the education systems, the teacher role becomes relative and the discourse focus on education improvement falls on performance of student and teacher. Another group understands that digital technologies are devices providing umpteen possibilities for learning, which ramify the space and therefore widen the concept of class, demanding reflective teachers to think of creative and critical appropriation. Problematisations and experiences of reading-writing along the text encourage new ways of thinking about the contemporary subject’s modes of spatiality in the (hyper)mobility age and his/her learning. Thus the analyses conducted here provide the potential of being taken in formal education of Geography in a less binary and fundamentalist way. / Conectado y subjetivado por la Cibercultura, este estudio busca comprender qué formas de aprender están envueltas en las prácticas comunicacionales a través de los dispositivos móviles de la conexión continua, y cómo estas formas de aprender pueden ser apropiadas en\por el campo de la Geografía en los procesos en la educación formal. Tiene como objetivos específicos: (a) analizar cómo funcionan algunas de las prácticas comunicacionales establecidas por los sujetos a partir y con los dispositivos móviles de la conexión continua; considerando sus características generales, funciones, formas de usos cotidianos; a partir de las experimentaciones de esas prácticas emprendidas en las redes comunicacionales de la autora en su proceso de construcción de investigación. (b) comprender las formas emergentes de aprender las prácticas comunicacionales en la cibercultura a partir y con los dispositivos móviles de la conexión continua, a través de la articulación de las herramientas teóricas de tres grandes campos del conocimiento: Geografía, Educación y Comunicación; (c) problematizar cómo as formas emergentes de aprender de las prácticas comunicacionales de la cibercultura pueden ser apropiadas por el campo de la Geografía, a partir del análisis de plataformas educativas, así como las prácticas públicas de los sujetos envueltos en la educación y comunicación. Para los caminos teórico-metodológicos fueron adoptados el Campo de los Estudios Culturales y de los Estudios Foucaultianos Los aprendizajes emergentes de ellas prácticas comunicacionales son personalizadas, automatizadas, adaptivas, colaborativas, interactivas, distraídas, en red, ubicuas, autónomas, qué redefinen la espacialidad del pensamiento, hibridando la miente y alterando tareas cognitivas. Las apropiaciones de esos aprendizajes se insertan en dos grupos principales: uno enque las tecnologías en sí son las salvadoras de los sistemas educacionales, el papel del profesor es relativizado y el foco del discurso de mejoría de la calidad de la educación recae sobre el desempeño del alumno y del propio profesor. Otro grupo entiende qué las tecnologías digitales son dispositivos qué presentan innumerables posibilidades de aprender, qué complican el espacio y por eso ensanchan el concepto de clase, demandando un profesor reflexivo para pensar en apropiaciones creativas, críticas y qué crea las posibilidades. Las problematizaciones y experiencias de escritura-lectura durante el transcurso del texto instigan otros modos de pensar las espacialidades del sujeto contemporáneo en la era de la (hiper)movilidad y sus aprendizajes, así que los análisis emprendidos presentan el potencial de ser pensados en la educación formal de Geografía (escolares y académicos) de forma menos binaria y fundamentalista.

O objetivo da presente pesquisa é analisar as formas com que o trabalho, tomado como categoria da análise social, foi inserido na crítica do movimento de renovação da Geografia no Brasil. Tal movimento se inicia na década de 1970, mas se mantém vivo em suas principais perspectivas ainda atuantes. Buscou-se identificar no processo de incorporação do trabalho seu papel na mediação entre a crítica social e a crítica geográfica que se montava, primeiro como denúncia capitalista, depois como consolidação epistemológica. A tese é que, na urdidura da crítica tensionada pelo movimento de renovação (que se pretendera como Geografia Crítica), o trabalho se estabeleceu como importante elemento de transição para a abertura crítica da análise geográfica, mas que, em seu processo de afirmação teórico-epistemológico, não o fora tomado em sua totalidade contraditória e dialética, significando, simultaneamente, sua própria negação. É, por isso, um estudo sobre a afirmação/negação do trabalho na gênese da crítica da Geografia em seu movimento de renovação a partir de suas principais perspectivas teóricas. Considerou-se, para tanto, as proposições teóricas que, de forma direta ou indireta, central ou apenas tangencial, adotaram o trabalho como objeto, tema ou perspectiva política para suas formulações. Essas perspectivas são aqui denominadas como geografias do trabalho. Dentre os objetivos específicos que comporão a argumentativa da presente tese, aponta-se: (1º) o papel fundamental da teoria do valor para a formulação de uma crítica que se volta contra o desenvolvimento e a expansão capitalista. Observou-se como o trabalho fora tomado como cristalização valor para subsidiar uma leitura que, pelo espaço, procurava desvendar os mecanismos de dominação e exploração do capital a partir de sua instrumentalização no território. Nota-se nesse momento, uma forte vinculação à interpretação concreticista confundida como leitura propriamente geográfica; (2º) a montagem de uma leitura geográfica que se pretendia ontológica teve no trabalho uma de suas principais referências. Mas se notou que as formulações, muitas delas por sistemas de montagem ou de fusão teórica, não foram pautadas pela autocrítica, o que levou a um discurso ontológico remoto e, consequentemente, confundido com a gnosiologia e com a própria epistemologia geográfica, dada a manutenção da interpretação concreticista que se conservara; (3º) a natureza da crítica geográfica e sua expressão teórica. Neste último ponto da análise se observou como o problema da contradição foi interpretado e inserido na crítica geográfica; constatou-se, em última análise, sua ausência. Tomando o trabalho como referência, constatou-se ainda que a dialética envolvida em sua formulação tendeu a ser mais um instrumento de conciliação teórica do que uma crítica social. Concluiu-se que, tomando a argumentativa da tese que se pretendeu partir do trabalho como referencial para análise da crítica geográfica, esta apresenta fissuras no interior de suas próprias formulações, fissuras essas que tendem a se desenvolver como autocontradição, deixando ainda incompleta sua efetividade como crítica social emancipatória. / The aim of the present research is analyzing the ways labor, as a category of social analysis, was inserted in the criticism of renewal movement of Geography in Brasil. Such movement has its beginning in the 1970s, but it remains alive in its most active perspective. It was sought to identify, in the process of insertion of labor, its role in mediation between social and geographic criticism which has been coming up; first as a capitalist denunciation, afterwards as epistemological consolidation. The theory is that, in the warp intended by the renewal movement, labor settled as an important element of transition to the critical opening for the geographic analysis, but, in its process of theoretical-epistemological affirmation, it was not considered in its conflicting and dialectical entirety, meaning, simultaneously, its own negation. That is why it is a study concerning the affirmation/negation of labor in the genesis of criticism in Geography in its renewal movement from its main theoretical perspectives. For this purpose, the theoretical proposals which, directly or indirectly, centrally or simply tangentially, have adopted labor as object, core or political perspective for its formulation were considered. Those perspectives are denominated as labor geographies. Among the specific aims which compose the argumentation in this thesis, it is remarkable to mention: (1st) the essencial role of value theory to the formulation of a critique against development and capitalism expansion. It was observed how labor was taken as value crystallization to subsidize a view that, by space, intended to reveal mechanisms of domination and exploitation of capital from its territory instrumentalization. At this moment, a strong linking to a concreticist interpretation, misunderstood as a properly geographical reading is remarkable; (2nd) the construction of a geographical reading supposed to be ontological had one of its main references in labor. But it was noticed the formulations, many of them through assembly or theoretical fusion systems, were not guided by self-criticism, which led to a remote ontological discourse and, consequently, mistaken as the gnosiology and geographical epistemiology itself, considering the remaining of concreticist interpretation. (3rd) the nature of geographical criticism and its theoretical expression. At this latter point of analysis, it was able to observe how the issue of contradiction was interpreted and inserted in the geographical criticism. Its absence was, after all, concluded. In addition, taking labor as reference, it was observed that the dialectics involved in its formulation tended to be more like an instrument of theoretical conciliation than for a social critique. It could be concluded that, considering the argumentation in the thesis, intended to be from labor as a reference to the analysis of geographical criticism, the present thesis presents some fissures in its own formulations, those ones which tend to develop as a self-contradiction, leaving its effectiveness as an emancipatory social critique still incomplete.

Urban peacebuilding has proved particularly challenging in cities contested on grounds of state legitimacy where group identities are salient. Ever since the end of the Kosovo War in 1999, the city of Mitrovica has remained divided and been further polarized by outbreaks of violence, post-war politics, and strained inter-group relations. This single case study describes and conceptualizes the empirical realities of peace in the post-war city by applying the Peace Triangle as an analytical tool for understanding the quality and characteristics of the peace that prevails beyond the cessation of large-scale violence. The author builds on the conceptual model by arguing that a more multifaceted and peace-grounded analysis of peace is necessary. The research paper concludes by suggesting an altered analytical model that may yield a more nuanced understanding of peace(s) by encompassing aspects grounded in peace-conducive activities.

During the vastly transformative stages of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, notions of the urban and definitions of childhood mutually intersected to create and define a modern Argentine landscape. The construction of new urban environments for children defined and reflected larger liberal elites’ definitions of childhood writ large. To better understand the production of this modern childhood in Argentina, this dissertation examines its other through the spatial-discourses behind constructions of childhood for the socio-economic lower classes - children who largely did not meet the expectations of the elite. I employ the use of both published and archival sources, from 1880 to 1955, providing textual analyses of the language of reformers – primarily state and municipal authorities, pedagogues, hygienists, philanthropists and urban planners – alongside spatial analyses of the built environment, including kindergartens, playgrounds, and open-air schools within the city of Buenos Aires, as well as a healthcare facility and themed park in the province of Buenos Aires. Urban intellectuals, educators and overall reformers increasingly considered play as paramount to children’s physical and psychological development, focusing on where children played, how they played and what their play meant. Childhood became a contested ideological space, constructed and negotiated alongside notions of Argentine national identity. By moving beyond textual analyses of professionals’ discourses, this dissertation not only contributes to our understanding of Argentine childhood, but also points to ways in which the built environment embodies modern notions of childhood.

Since 1999 Colombia has experienced dramatic increases in emigration, particularly the emigration of women towards the U.S. as fiancées of U.S. citizens or residents. Parallel to this trend is the increased number of websites facilitating these Colombian-American matches. This dissertation investigates the agency of Colombian women and American men who pursue romantic courtship through the services of International Marriage Brokers (IMBs) from the “Gendered Geographies of Power” (GGP) framework of analysis. It examines how both groups’ social locations, their positioning in multiple axes of differentiation including gender, nationality and social class, affects how and why they exert their agency across and within different geographic scales. Most importantly, it investigates the role the imagination plays (imagination work) in both men and women’s agency, an aspect of the GGP framework that has been under-researched and theorized to date. The research also finds that this imagination work is promoted and cultivated in deeply gendered ways by IMBs seeking to profit off this transnational courtship. Employing data collected via interviews and content analysis of IMBs’ websites, the dissertation analyzes comparatively the expectations each group (women, men and IMBs) bring to their imagination work and experiences of the courtship marketplace. A central question posed and answered in the dissertation is “What do women and men courting each other in cyberspace seek and do they find it?” The dissertation finds that the men seek “traditional” women and the women seek “liberated” less “macho” men. Ironically, the men find Colombian women who are among the most “liberated” women in their homeland but who downplay this aspect of themselves in order to strategically find a more modern man and migrate abroad where they expect to find greater personal and professional opportunities.

For a number of years, Canadian immigration selection policy has deliberately emphasized the human capital characteristics of applicants in determining admissibility for permanent residence. Largely due to these measures, Chinese immigrants today are overwhelmingly well-educated and skilled. This thesis examines the role of geography in shaping Chinese newcomers’ post-arrival employment status, with an emphasis on working in the high-tech sector. Given that Ottawa is a leading node of high-tech employment in Canada, this project initially investigates the probability that Chinese newcomers will work in the high-tech sector in Ottawa-Gatineau relative to other cities. The project subsequently examines the degree to which employment in the high-tech sector in Ottawa-Gatineau is related to ethnic, social and demographic characteristics of local spaces where people live and work. All aspects of the study adopt a gender lens with respect to interpreting employment status. The study finds that Chinese immigrants in Ottawa-Gatineau are more likely to work in this sector than their counterparts in Vancouver and Toronto. They are also more likely to work in high-tech relative to individuals in other immigrant groups or the Canadian-born population. With respect to co-ethnic residential and work spatial configurations, as well as social and demographic characteristics of residential neighbourhoods, the study finds that these factors exert quite different influences on the likelihood that Chinese women and men will work in Ottawa-Gatineau’s high-tech sector. The results are quite distinctly different for women and men, and underline the importance of a gendered analysis of relationships between geographic location/place and employment status.

In economic geography, a main research focus is on the relationship between innovation and space. Based on the observations of spatially clustered innovative activities in urban environments, a central argument is that the exchange of innovation-relevant knowledge across firms and other actors as well as the accompanying learning processes are promoted through geographical proximity. Agglomerations are said to offer multiple advantages, e.g. through frequent face-to-face contacts and opportunities for intense collaboration, a common labour pool and shared institutions. From this perspective, a location in large urban environments is beneficial for innovation, while by contrast, being located outside of agglomerations is not (Fitjar & Rodríguez‐Pose 2019). This dissertation relates to growing debates around the unease with the seemingly accepted truths about the strong connection of agglomerations and firm innovation. The research field has been found to be urban-biased, focussed on cases of successful regions and delivering multiple explanations of their success – while neglecting innovations occurring outside of agglomerations and largely portraying such regions and their actors as disadvantaged (Shearmur 2017). Within the emergent studies of innovation in peripheral contexts, some specifics have been proposed based on empirical studies, but a coherent theoretical framework is missing (e.g. Eder 2019). Against this background, this dissertation aims to contribute to a better understanding of innovation from a peripheral perspective based on comparison of firms by location. It explores knowledge creation processes and innovation activities of Hidden Champions in Germany. These highly innovative and globally active manufacturing firms are quite evenly distributed across Germany. By exploring practices and strategies of these firms towards innovation from a comparative perspective, this study investigates the following overarching research question: • What are the characteristics and main drivers of innovation outside of agglomerations and in how far do these differ from those inside agglomerations? This research builds on relational perspectives on economic action by adopting a geographical lens (Bathelt & Glückler 2003, Yeung 2005). It focusses on actors and how they act and interact in space without privileging any spatial scale or mechanism such as local interaction. Spaces and places are not perceived as territorially bounded units but as contexts in which actors organise their often multi-scalar relations. Following these basic theoretical positions, several concepts and approaches are utilised to develop a detailed understanding of firm innovation in space. While notions of slow innovation and the reliance on firm-internal capabilities point towards reduced interaction requirements especially of firms in peripheral regions to innovate (e.g. Shearmur 2015), the proximity approach (Boschma 2005) and the notion of global pipelines (Bathelt et al. 2004) highlight that geographical proximity is not a necessary precondition for interactive knowledge creation and innovation. Based on these conceptual perspectives and linked to the goal of understanding key mechanisms of innovation from a peripheral perspective, the guiding research question is complemented by the following sub-questions: • How and where do firms gain relevant knowledge for their innovation activities? • Which role do internal capabilities as well as external efforts towards innovation play and how do firms assess both dimensions? • What is the role of the firms’ location, especially regarding local options of knowledge creation? Based on a mixed method research design including a quantitative survey among the Hidden Champions and qualitative interviews with representatives of these firms, three dimensions relevant to the understanding of knowledge creation and innovation are considered for the empirical analyses: practices of knowledge creation at the individual level, strategic approaches towards innovation at the organisational level and the socio-spatial contexts in which knowledge creation processes and innovation are organised. The overarching finding of this dissertation is that firms like Hidden Champions largely follow the same principles to innovate independently from their location. Thereby, the results highlight the commonalities of firm innovation in urban and peripheral contexts instead of pointing towards major limitations or specificities of innovation in more peripheral regions. With taking the firm at the centre of analysis, this research demonstrates that regional economic pre-conditions do not necessarily relate to the capacities of firms to innovate. Neither do investigated firms located inside agglomera-tions largely capitalise on options of local interaction, nor do firms located outside of agglomerations face major disadvantages due to the lack of local options to source knowledge and interact. Instead and irrespectively of their location, firms strategically engage in various firm-internal and -external options to gain knowledge and have the capacities to shape their multi-scalar socio-spatial contexts for knowledge creation according to their needs. The results underline that intense interaction with externals is only one out of many options for firms to gain knowledge. Next to strong internal capabilities, non-interactive modes of knowledge sourcing via desk research, for instance, and more informal modes of knowledge creation via the participation in trade fairs have been identified as integral parts of firms’ innovation activities. This study suggests that such forms of ‘selective openness’ have not been sufficiently addressed in the research field so far. Selective openness not only stresses the strategic approaches of firms towards innovation but also the variety of options for knowledge creation which are usually not reliant on or connected to the regional contexts of firms. Moreover, this study finds that the connection between innovation and agglomeration is not as clear as suggested by urban perspectives, at least for the German context. Rather, much of the urban/rural and core/periphery divide seems to be discursively produced. This dissertation complements existing research on the geographies of innovation by providing insights from a peripheral view on innovation. It contributes to current debates on urban-biased perspectives and the dichotomous representation of firm innovation in urban and peripheral contexts. Based on the empirical results, it proposes a more differentiated view on openness and suggests recommendations for place-based policies towards regional development and innovation.:Summary 9 1. Introduction 11 1.1. Research objectives and questions 13 1.2. Hidden Champions in Germany 16 1.3. Structure of the dissertation 18 2. Re-thinking the geographies of firm innovation 21 2.1. Firms and innovation 22 2.1.1. Understanding firm innovation 24 2.1.2. Coordination of internal and external knowledge for innovation 25 2.1.3. Varieties of open innovation 29 2.2. Geographies and innovation 33 2.2.1. Beyond territorial innovation 34 2.2.2. Questioning the status quo: urban bias and the periphery label 41 2.2.3. Current understandings of innovation outside of agglomerations 45 2.3. Conceptual framework 51 2.3.1. Positioning the own research 51 2.3.2. A relational perspective on economic processes in space 55 2.3.3. Beyond dualistic conceptualisations of innovation and space 59 3. Methodological approach 66 3.1. Critical realism as the basic ontological and epistemological perspective 66 3.1.1. Basics notions of critical realism 67 3.1.2. Implications for research methodologies 68 3.2. Research design 69 3.2.1. Multi-dimensional comparative approach 70 3.2.2. Triangulation 72 3.2.3. Comparison 73 3.3. Empirical and analytical methods and proceedings 75 3.3.1. Development of a database of Hidden Champions in Germany 75 3.3.2. Quantitative survey 81 3.3.3. Semi-structured interviews 85 4. Patterns and socio-spatial contexts of firm innovation – Quantitative results 90 4.1. The spatial distribution of Hidden Champions in Germany 90 4.2. Firm characteristics and innovation patterns 93 4.2.1. Organisational and spatial aspects of firm structures 93 4.2.2. Innovation activities 94 4.2.3. Information sources and collaboration 96 4.3. Comparison of the firms by location 98 4.4. Types of innovative firms 101 4.4.1. Approach, implementation and results of the cluster analysis 102 4.4.2. Types of innovators and their locations 107 4.5. Interim results and arising questions 110 5. Strategies and practices towards knowledge creation and innovation – Qualitative results 113 5.1. Firm profiles 116 5.1.1. Firms located outside of agglomerations 116 5.1.2. Firms located inside agglomerations 120 5.2. The global integration of firms 124 5.2.1. Firms, their niche markets and ways of internationalisation 124 5.2.2. Knowledge creation strategies and the role of geography 127 5.2.3. Organisational structures to secure the global reach 134 5.2.4. The significance of innovation and high quality 136 5.3. Strategies towards innovation 137 5.3.1. Corporate culture and ambition 138 5.3.2. Key internal and external drivers of innovation 139 5.3.3. The temporal dimension of innovation 142 5.4. Firm-internal organisation of innovation activities 144 5.4.1. Main challenges 145 5.4.2. The headquarters as the central corporate unit 148 5.4.3. Internationalisation of knowledge creation and innovation 150 5.5. The external dimension of innovation activities 155 5.5.1. Access to external sources of knowledge 155 5.5.2. Collaboration with partners 158 5.5.3. Evaluation of the external dimension for innovation 164 5.6. The role of the regional contexts for firm innovation 165 5.6.1. The perception of regional contexts at the headquarters 166 5.6.2. The regional embeddedness of firms 171 5.6.3. Evaluation of the regional dimension 175 5.7. Summary of findings and comparison with the quantitative results 176 6. Firm innovation beyond agglomeration – Discussion of results 180 6.1. Globally dispersed knowledge dynamics and secrecy 180 6.2. The processual character of innovation activities 185 6.3. The role of the places and spaces for firm innovation 191 7. Main findings, conclusions and outlook 196 7.1. Summary of main findings and contributions of the research 196 7.2. Conclusions and policy recommendations 200 7.3. Reflections on the study and avenues for future research 202 Appendices 206 References 220

No description available.

Research on post-industrial memory have recently brought to attention the role of workers’ collective memory in deindustrialised landscapes. However, the role of memory in continued and developed industries is a theme largely unexplored. Drawing on tangent research interests in absent-presences, spectrality, and more-than-representational theory, this thesis extends research on post-industrial memory by exploring collective memory in one such continued industry—the transformed and transforming commuter railway Roslagsbanan in Stockholm, Sweden. Through a case-study using autoethnography and mobile in-depth interviews with railway workers, the thesis shows how the past in representational and more-than-representational form provide affective encounters for workers in their everyday lives. Through encounters with remnants of the past, workers’ collective memory provides meaning to the present through materialities, stories, photographs, embodiments, places, and landscapes. However, as the landscape and workplace transform in what workers see as both development and ruination, the opportunity for memory to surface is challenged. With relevance for research on (post)industrial memory, the thesis shows how memory becomes an animating force in everyday work caught up in a liminality between development and ruination. Practiced in a continued industry, memory becomes a way to enliven the present.

No description available.