Rethinking Semiconductor Global Production Networks: From Geopolitics to Environmental Sustainability

The Institute of Geography and Sustainability, the Faculty of Geosciences and Environment from the University of Lausanne, HEC Lausanne, and the Enterprise for Society Center (E4S) are pleased to invite Professor Henry Wai-chung Yeung to give a public lecture entitled ‘Rethinking Semiconductor Global Production Networks: From Geopolitics to Environmental Sustainability’ on Thursday 28 November 2024.

The public lecture will take place in Anthropole 1129, from 17h00 to 18h30, followed by an apéro. The lecture will be in English.

Entry is free, but you are invited to register by clicking on this link: https://www.unil.ch/gse/fr/home/menuinst/vie-facultaire/evenements/2024-rethinking-semiconductor-global-production-networks.html

This public conference will be held in a hybrid mode.
For online participation, the live broadcast will be available via the following link https://rec.unil.ch/channels/geopolitics-to-environmental-sustainability/

Abstract

Based on his lead-authored chapter on semiconductors in Global Value Chain Development Report 2023 (WTO/ADB, October 2023) and Josh Lepawsky’s (2024) important work in iScience on the environmental risks of chipmaking, this lecture offers some key empirical observations on the highly contested and politicized nature of semiconductor global production networks since the US-China trade war and the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this capital-intensive manufacturing industry, governance and power dynamics are manifested differently from many other industries due to highly complex technology regimes, production network ecosystems, and, more recently, geopolitical imperatives. The industry is also confronted with immense environmental and sustainability challenges due to the very demanding manufacturing requirements in terms of water, electricity, waste treatment, and other issues.

While some of these critical dynamics had been in play ahead of the 2020s in China, Taiwan, and South Korea, their intensity and significance have become more apparent since the early 2020s. As more chipmaking fabs are being built in the US and Western Europe, these environmental challenges remain key governance and policy issues. This lecture ends with a discussion of some relevant future research agendas on technology, environmental resilience, and politics for the interdisciplinary studies of global production networks and global value chains.

Biography

Henry Wai-chung Yeung is a leading academic expert in global production networks and the global economy. He is currently Distinguished Professor and Professor of Economic Geography at the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore. In January 2025, he will take up the Choh-Ming Li Professorship at the Department of Geography and Resource Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Manchester in 1995 under the supervision of Peter Dicken, who is renowned for his seminal book Global Shift: Mapping the Changing Contours of the World Economy (7 editions).

His research interests cover broadly theories and the geography of transnational corporations, East Asian firms, and developmental states. His most recent books are Theory and Explanation in Geography (2023), Interconnected Worlds: Global Electronics and Production Networks in East Asia (2022), Strategic Coupling: East Asian Industrial Transformation in the New Global Economy (2016), and Global Production Networks: Theorizing Economic Development in an Interconnected World (with Neil Coe, 2015). He is the recipient of the 2022 Sir Peter Hall Award for Lifetime Contribution by the Regional Studies Association in the UK, the 2018 Distinguished Scholarship Honors by the American Association of Geographers, and the 2017 Murchison Award by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), UK.

Related Event

The Institute of Geography and Sustainability will organise a seminar to discuss Henry Yeung's latest book Theory and Explanation in Geography on Friday 29 November 2024. Please click here for the details.