Project description:

Development corridors are development programs for a specific region. As spatial instruments, they are intended to promote the economy in the region. Corridors are also intended to integrate the region into the global economy. To this end, many corridor plans pursue the strategy of linking the corridor regions with global production networks.

The project examines how the goals for development corridors develop both spatially and temporally. To this end, it evaluates how the effects of these corridors are distributed along the value chains. The focus is particularly on spatial and social inequalities in value creation. In the first project phase, the focus was on global chains for agricultural products and tourism services.

In the second project phase, research will concentrate on two specific development corridors: the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) and the Walvis Bay - Ndola - Lubumbashi Development Corridor (WBNLDC). A particular focus is on border regions and their importance for regional and global value chains.

Research activities:

The project is part of the Collaborative Research Center TRR 228 "Future Rural Africa: Future-making and socio-ecological transformation", which is funded by the German Research Foundation.

Two research groups of the Institute of Geography at the University of Cologne are involved in the project described here:

1. Working Group Anthropogeography - Urban and Regional Development
   Prof. Dr. Peter Dannenberg & Victoria Luxen
    
2. Economic Geography and the Global South working group
   Prof. Dr. Javier Revilla Diez & Mfundo Mlilo

Selected publications

Luxen, V., Tups, G. & Dannenberg, P. (2022). What makes Tanzanian smallholder farmers satisfied with their life? It’s not farming! DIE ERDE – Journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin, 153(4), 259–263. https://doi.org/10.12854/erde-2022-623

Tups, G., & Dannenberg, P. (2023). Supplying lead firms, intangible assets and power in global value chains: Explaining governance in the fertilizer chain. Global Networks. https://doi.org/10.1111/glob.12431

Tups. G. & Dannenberg, P. (2021). Emptying the Future, Claiming Space: The Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania as a Spatial Imaginary for Strategic Coupling Processes. Geoforum, 123, 23-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.04.015

Tups, G., Mbunda, R., Ndunguru, M., & Dannenberg, P. (2024). Multiple Krisen und Globale Produktionsnetzwerke: Neue Sojapartnerschaften zwischen China und Tansania im Rahmen der Belt and Road Initiative. Standort, 1-8.

Tups, G., Sakala, E. N., & Dannenberg, P. (2023). Hope and path development in ‘left-behind’places–a Southern perspective. Regional Studies, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2023.2235396

Hartmann, G., Nduru, G. & Dannenberg, P. (2020): Digital connectivity at the upstream end of value chains: A dynamic perspective on smartphone adoption amongst horticultural smallholders in Kenya. Competition & Change, 25(2), 167-189. https://doi.org/10.1177/1024529420914483

Lawhon, M., Follmann, A., Braun, B., Cornea, N., Greiner, C., Guma, P., Karpouzoglou, T., Revilla Diez, J., Schindler, S., Schramm, S., Sielker, F., Tups, G., Vij, S. & Dannenberg, P. (2023). Making Heterogeneous Infrastructure Futures in and Beyond the Global South. Futures, 103270. 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2023.103270

Selected Talks

Tups, G., Sakala, E. & Dannenberg, P. (2022, 02. September). Future Aspirations in ‘Left Behind Places’ under Severe Stress – The Case of Rural Zambia. Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference, Newcastle

Tups, G., (2021, 07. April). Turning Global Value Chains upside down? Governing agricultural production through the supplier-driven fertilizer GVC. AAG Annual Meeting 2021, Seattle

Hartmann, G. & Dannenberg, P. (2018, 25. July). Going digital: A dynamic perspective on smartphone adoption amongst smallholders in agricultural value chains in Kenya. Fifth Global Conference on Economic Geography, Cologne