Alexander Dodge

Here the students will explore the anticipatory politics surrounding oil which is actively shaping economic activity in the present moment. At the same time students will engage with the community to outline pathways for prefigurative politics for creating a just and fair urban economy.

Excellent first day excursion with Makerere University students in Uganda's Oil City. Hoima is facing many challenges similar to other oil cities: high population growth, rent theft, crime, poor infrastructure - but with one caveat - unlike other oil boomtowns oil production hasn't started yet.

Meanwhile, China is going to continue to focus on building capacity in advanced manufacturing and dominating clean-tech and digital sectors, while the US continues to fall behind.

What's happening at the Foxconn site in Wisconsin five years after the company announced its plans It's been 5 years since Foxconn was rumored to be coming to the state. Now the company has been here many things have changed during that time.

This is Trumps "Art of the Deal" - all show and no substance from a reality TV personality. And we have been through this before - just look at Foxconn in Wisconsin eu.jsonline.com/story/money/...

They will be highly automated, foreign-owned, and result in few economic spillovers in the places they are located. The proposed investments will be largely inflated, but in reality the investments will at a much lower scale than initially proposed.

I can imagine a situation where Trump's tariff policy does result in some investment in manufacturing, but these factories will be put in "right to work" states with low taxes, and located in regions with little supporting industry and poor unions.

For example, reintroduce EV subsidies to stimulate investment in EV manufacturing to cover the shortfall of US automotive markets.

Heres a crazy idea: Instead of the EU running around to resolve the US self-imposed tariff crisis, why don't we take advantage of available industrial capacity, low inflation, and redirected investment flows together with the rest of the world to scale-up a global energy transition?

Special Issue: Shaping Globalisation: Revisiting the State-Global Production Network Nexus; Guest Editors: Martin Hess and Rory Horner Volume 68, issue 3-4 of the journal ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography was published in 2024.

Great to see this special issue on the State-GPN Nexus edited by Rory Horner and Martin Hess out. With great contributions from, among others, @tiagoteixeira05.bsky.social, @rubenvezzoni.bsky.social, Yuko Auyoma, @gtups.bsky.social, Jiří Blažek, and Linus Kalvelage. www.degruyter.com/journal/key/...

We suspect that similar contradictions are likely to be found in industries that require capital intensive infrastructure development where the dimensions of ownership, commodification and risk-allocation are present such as critical minerals, hydrogen and CCS.

We find that the resource-making interventions needed to deliver natural gas to markets contradicted with the configurations of ownership, commodification, and risk allocation through which the Indonesian government has sought to realize state strategies.

The discussion in the paper is informed by an empirical case study of failed plans by the Indonesian government from 2016 to 2019 to draw upon public-private partnerships to create markets for LNG in the peripheral regions of the country.

The configurations of ownership, commodification, and risk allocation that states draw on will vary based on ideological, political, and economic reasons related to state strategies. The success of these strategies will depend on the alignment of public-private interests.

We posit that when private capital fails to create markets for resources on its own initiative, states may intervene by facilitating resource-making and governing market development through configurations of ownership, commodification, and risk allocation.

We coin the term "the resource-making" state to describe states that play an active role in resource-making and governance related to the development of markets. Resource-Making refers to entails attention to interventions deployed to exploit and commercialize nature.

In the article we argue that geopolitical uncertainty, climate change, and new technologies are leading resource-producing states to take a more active role in creating markets for resources, but doing so requires complex material transformations.

Our article "The resource-making state: liquefied natural gas production networks and state strategies for domestic market development in Indonesia" is now published in a ZFW special issue on the "State-GPN nexus" edited by Rory Horner and Martin Hess 🎉 doi.org/10.1515/zfw-...

Scales of accountability: Solar mini-grids and clean energy for all in Uganda There is great hope pinned on solar mini-grids to fulfil universal rural electrification targets and enable clean energy access, especially in low-inc…

Happy to see this paper out together with @sidsareen.bsky.social, Charlotte Jjunju and Benon Nabaasa on challenges surrounding solar energy transitions at multiple scales in Uganda and the importance of accountability for a just transition.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Absolutely fascinating to join the CITRES team to explore Bojonegoro and Bangka Beiltung and gain invaluable insight into the complicated realities surrounding artisinal oil mining, palm oil biogas production, tin mining, illegal logging and environmental conservation in Indonesia www.citres.net