Culture and competitiveness in glocal capitalism

Abstract

This paper argues for a stronger emphasis on spatial micro-macro relations when analysing the relations between culture and competitiveness in local production systems. The term “glocal” is applied to emphasise this micro-macro dialectics, and the paper suggests a methodology to capture such dialectics. It also discusses how untraded assets and institutionalised informal rules of conduct are maintained in economic practice despite increasing time-space compression. It further discusses how divergent development patterns in glocal capitalism milieus can be explained by analysing the cultural and spatial dynamics of the field systems of the milieus. Finally it analyses how specific spatial and cultural embeddedness of glocal capitalism can be advantageous as well as disadvantageous in an economic restructuration process, like that experienced by the fish processing industry in Norway during the 1990s.