New Publications of the Economic Geography Working Group (July 2023 – May 2025)

Geographies of Food and Critical Agrarian Studies

Marit Rosol, together with Abby Landon, presents inclusive, multi-scalar approaches to overcoming the “local trap” and reforming industrial food systems in “Overcoming the local trap through inclusive and multi-scalar food systems” (2025, Local Environment).

Together with Hanna Augustin, Marit Rosol has also developed an innovative model for analyzing food access in „Beiträge kommunaler Planung für mehr Ernährungssicherheit in deutschen Städten” [Contributions of Municipal Planning for Greater Food Security in German Cities] (2024, Standort), which incorporates both physical-spatial and socioeconomic aspects.

In 2024, Sina Hardaker coordinated, together with Peter Dannenberg from the University of Cologne, the special issue „Geographien einer Weltmacht im Krisenmodus?“ [Geographies of a World Power in Crisis Mode?] for Geographische Rundschau. In this issue, Sina Hardaker and Eva Sternfeld analyze in their article „Chinas Agrarpolitik und Nahrungskonsum” [China’s Agricultural Policy and Food Consumption] the challenges of food security in the context of limited agricultural land and increasing geopolitical tensions.

Labour Geographies

In the field of Labour Geographies, Tatiana López and colleagues „Cloudwork als Chance für den Globalen Süden? Einkommens- und professionelle Entwicklungschancen von Online-Plattformarbeiter*innen im Übersetzungs- und Transkriptionssektor“ [Cloudwork as an Opportunity for the Global South? Income and Professional Development Opportunities for Online Platform Workers in the Translation and Transcription Sector], (2024, Standort) show that while cloudwork opens up new income opportunities in the Global South, these are often accompanied by precarious working conditions and a high proportion of unpaid labor.

In "Rethinking labour risk in global production networks: Resilience strategies of cruise ship workers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic" (2023, Geoforum), Thomas Neise, Tatiana López, and Abdul Fikri Angga Reksa examine the resilience strategies of Indonesian cruise ship workers during the pandemic.

Economic, Social, Ecological, and Spatial Implications of Digitalization and New Technologies

In the 2024 edited volume “Geographies of the Platform Economy. Critical Perspectives" (Springer-Verlag), Tatiana López and colleagues from the University of Cologne analyze labor struggles in Berlin’s online grocery retail sector and compare management practices between quick-commerce and traditional e-commerce. In another chapter (“A critical perspective on the increasing power of digital platforms through the lens of conjunctural geographies”), Sina Hardaker critically examines the changing role of digital platforms—such as Amazon—in retail, analyzing their power as market makers and gatekeepers.

Sina Hardaker has also published four articles in renowned geographic journals. Together with Alica Repenning, she critically examines the role of digital platforms like Google in "The Platform Fix: Analyzing Mechanisms and Contradictions of How Digital Platforms Tackle Pending Urban-Economic Challenges" (2024, Journal of Economic Geography), showing that while these actors present themselves as solution providers for urban and economic challenges, they also create new dependencies and leave structural causes unresolved.

In the article “(Retail) Platform Legitimation through Municipal Partnerships?” (2025, Digital Geography and Society), Sina Hardaker, together with Alexandra Appel (IKEM Berlin), examines how collaborations between digital platforms and municipalities contribute to the legitimation of platforms, using the example of eBay Deine Stadt.

In "From Bytes to Bricks: Advocating for a Turn Toward Platform-led Infrastructuralization in Economic Geography" (2025, Progress in Economic Geography), Sina Hardaker argues that digital platforms are increasingly actively shaping and controlling physical infrastructures—a shift that brings new forms of power asymmetries and vulnerabilities.

Her fourth contribution, “Platformizing Structural Policy Instruments? Fostering (Infrastructural) Power in the Context of Digital Free Trade Zones” (2025, Geoforum), analyzes the role of the tech company Alibaba in Digital Free Trade Zones (DFTZ) in Malaysia. Using Malaysia as a case study, Sina Hardaker interprets the DFTZ as an evolution of traditional special economic zones, in which digital platform companies are increasingly assuming infrastructural shaping power.

Additionally, together with Cordula Neiberger and Thomas Wieland, Sina Hardaker has edited the book “Onlinehandel und Raum. Eine geographische Perspektive auf den Einzelhandel” (“Online Retail and Space: A Geographical Perspective on Retail,” 2025, Springer Verlag). This book analyzes, from a geographical perspective, how digital commerce is transforming traditional retail structures and spatial concepts. Furthermore, theoretical and practical approaches are used to examine the impacts of these developments on cities and rural regions.

Critical Perspectives on Infrastructure, Space, and Governance

In the book “China – Geographies of a World Power” [„China – Geographien einer Weltmacht“] (2023, Springer Verlag), edited by Sina Hardaker and Peter Dannenberg, nearly 50 authors shed light on current developments and challenges in China’s geography, politics, society, and culture from a variety of academic perspectives.

In "Investment as Community Development? Business–Society Relations around Brazilian and Chinese Projects" (2024, Oxford University Press), Michael Godet Sambo and Phyllis Bußler explain how local communities in Mozambique actively shape Brazilian and Chinese agrarian projects, modify prescribed development models, and thus play a decisive role in the success or failure of these projects.

Rebekka Kanesu argues in "Liquid Lines: Exploring the Moselle River between France, Luxembourg and Germany" (2024, Area) that rivers should be understood as fluid and material border spaces that challenge rigid political border concepts. The analysis of border rivers enables a dynamic perspective on the interplay of territory, society, and environment. The article is part of the special section on ‘Rivers as borders’, co-edited with Vanessa Lamb and Eva McGrath. In their editorial article to the special section “Rivers as borders? Navigating in-between the tensions of water-state-society geographies'" the authors adopt a river-centric perspective on borders and discuss the implications of this approach for geographical border research.

Together with Rossella Alba, Rebekka Kanesu uses the example of water infrastructure in "Working with water: a dialogue on care, infrastructure and labour" (2024, Territory, Politics, Governance), to show that the perspective of care enables a deeper understanding of the diverse, technical as well as social and emotional, work processes involved in the operation, maintenance, and repair of water infrastructures.

Sina Hardaker examines in "Unfolding the relationship between regional resilience and policy instruments: the case of Brexit and enterprise zones in the UK" (2025, Local Government Studies) the interplay between regional resilience and policy instruments using the example of British Enterprise Zones (EZs) in the context of Brexit. The study establishes a conceptual link between EZs and resilience theories and shows in a differentiated way how EZs—depending on the timing of their designation and random contextual factors—can make a limited but not negligible contribution to addressing regional challenges.

All articles at a glance (by publication date):

HARDAKER, S. & A. APPEL (2025): (Retail) Platform Legitimation through Municipal Partnerships? Digital Geography and Society, 8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diggeo.2024.100111. Open access.

HARDAKER, S. (2025): From Bytes to Bricks: Advocating for a Turn Toward Platform-led Infrastructuralization in Economic Geography. Progress in Economic Geography. DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.peg.2025.100038. Open access.

HARDAKER, S. (2025): Platformizing structural policy instruments? Fostering (infrastructural) power in the context of Digital Free Trade Zones. Geoforum, 160. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2025.104218. Open access.

HARDAKER, S. (2025): Unfolding the relationship between regional resilience and policy instruments: the case of Brexit and enterprise zones in the UK. Local Government Studies. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2025.2483792.

KANESU, R., LAMB, V. & E. MCGARTH (2025): Rivers as borders? Navigating in-between the tensions of water-state-society geographies. Area, 57, e70001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/area.70001. Open Access.

LANDON, A. & M. ROSOL (2025): Overcoming the local trap through inclusive and multi-scalar food systems. Local Environment 30(8), 923-943. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2025.2450492.

NEIBERGER, C. & HADRAKER, S. & T. WIELAND (2025): Onlinehandel und Raum. Eine geographische Perspektive auf den Einzelhandel. Berlin: Springer Spektrum. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-70185-0.

ALBA, R. & R. KANESU (2024): Working with water: a dialogue on care, infrastructure and labour. Territory, Politics, Governance. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2024.2313584. Open Access.

AUGUSTIN, H. & M. ROSOL (2024): Beiträge kommunaler Planung für mehr Ernährungssicherheit in deutschen Städten. Standort, 48, 147-155. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00548-023-00840-7. Open access.

DANNENBERG, P. & S. HARDAKER (2024): Geographien einer Weltmacht im Krisenmodus? Geographische Rundschau, 5/2024, 4-7.

FUCHS, M., LÒPEZ, T., WIEDEMANN, C., RIEDLER, T. & P. DANNENBERG (2024): Digital work and the struggle for labour representation: the food and grocery online retail sector in Berlin (Germany). In: Vale, M., Ferreira, D., Rodrigues, N. (eds.): Geographies of the platform economy. Critical perspectives. Berlin: Springer, 105-120. 

HARDAKER, S. (2024): A critical perspective on the increasing power of digital platforms through the lens of conjunctural geographies. In: Vale, M., Ferreira, D., Rodrigues, N. (eds.): Geographies of the platform economy. Critical perspectives. Berlin: Springer, 75-88.

KANESU, R. (2024): Liquid Lines: Exploring the Moselle River between France, Luxembourg and Germany. Area. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12935. Open Access.

LÒPEZ, T., FEUERSTEIN, P., DE VERA, J., VARASCHIN, G., KARLIDAĞ, Z. & M. GRAHAM (2024): Cloudwork als Chance für den Globalen Süden? Einkommens- und professionelle Entwicklungschancen von Online-Plattformarbeiter*innen im Übersetzungs- und Transkriptionssektor. Standort, 48, 10-17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00548-023-00904-8. Open Access.

REPENNING, A. & S. HARDAKER (2024): The Platform Fix: Analyzing Mechanisms and Contradictions of How Digital Platforms Tackle Pending Urban-Economic Challenges. Journal of Economic Geography, 25(5), 615-636. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbae015.

SAMBO, M. G. & P. BUSSLER (2024): Investment as Community Development? Business–Society Relations around Brazilian and Chinese Projects. In: Honke, J., Cezne, E., Yang, Y. (eds): Africa's Global Infrastructures: South - South Transformations in Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 183-214. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197775363.003.0008. Open Access.

STERNFELD, E. & S. HARDAKER (2024): Chinas Agrarpolitik und Nahrungskonsum - Ernährungssicherheit in Zeiten globaler Krisen. Geographische Rundschau, 5/2024, 30-35.

HARDAKER, S. & P. DANNENBERG (2023): China - Geographien einer Weltmacht. Berlin: Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-66560-2.

NEISE, T., LÒPEZ, T., & F. A. ANGGA REKSAAngga Reksa (2023): Rethinking labour risk in global production networks: Resilience strategies of cruise ship workers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Geoforum, 145, 103842. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2023.103842.