AN EVENING WITH PROF DR PETER TAYLOR

On 23 December 2009 is my last day in Loughborough University. I have a chance with Prof Dr Peter Taylor for the end of my day in Loughborough. He gave me a few tips how to be a good researcher. We talk about the future of world cities development and what is the role of urban governance for next 5 years. He hopes that my research will bring a few changes of the role of city-region stakeholders. City should be more equaltibility, harmony and peaceful in order the enhance city sustainability and competitiveness.

ASSIGNMENTS DATELINE

I have gave a chance to do a few assignments under module 09GYP005 which related to my research. The lenght of the assignments are 6 pages. The content and format presentation are related to the high impact journal format. It's must be analytical and synthesis about the literature reviews and focus the question.

Block 1 : An Introduction to Key Debates and Issues in Globalization by Dr Ed Brown

Assignment : The idea of globalization is too broad to be of much use in forming our understanding of the development challenges facing Southern countries in the 21 st century. To what extend do you agree with is assertion? Your answer should combine a general discussion of the utility of the ideas of globalization with a detailed case study of one particular country.

Dateline : Friday 13th November, 12 noon

Block 2 : Imperial Geopolitics in a Globalizing World by Prof Dr David Slater

Assignment : Discuss the key feastures of imperial politics in today's globalizing world

Dateline : Friday 27th November 2009, 12 noon

Block 3 : Regions and Cities in Globalization

Part A : In What Sense a Regional World? By Dr John Harrison

Assignment : Regions are the fundamental building blocks of an increasingly post-national and globally interconnected modern world. Discuss

Dateline : Friday 11th December 2009, 12 noon

Part B : Cities and Globalization by Prof Dr Peter Taylor

Assignment : Consider in which ways Janes Jacobs' ideas on moral syndromes might enhance the thesis advanced in Global City-Regions and Cities in a World Economy

Dateline : Friday 11th December 2009, 12 noon

Block 4 : Financial Globalization by Dr Jonathan Cloke

Assignment : Are economic crises inevitable?

Dateline : Friday 15th January 2010, 12 noon

THE END OF DISCOURSE SESSIONS WITH PROF DR PETER TAYLOR

Beginning from 14 October 2009 until 11 November 2009, I am so lucky enough to have a fruitful discourses with Prof Dr Peter Taylor (I namely him as THE GURU OF WORLD CITY NETWORK). The weekly session with him started from 11 am until 12 noon is so meaningful for my research. I really gain a new knowledge about urban economic, city competitiveness and urban-region. His horizon ideas, vision and wisdom about urban development in the past, current and the future really motivate me to keep finding deeper about my PhD research. Here are a few topics that we discussed during my session with him.

14 October 2009

• NEW WAYS OF THINKING ABOUT ABU DHABI AS EMERGING GLOBAL CITY

21 October 2009

• THE ECONOMY OF CITY : HOW NEW WORK BEGINS
• CITIES WITHIN SPACES OF FLOWS
• JANE JACOBS (1916-2006) AN APPRECIATION
• EXPLOSIVE CITY GROWTH IN THE MODERN WORLD SYSTEM

28 October 2009

• PRIMACY OF CITIES IN THE EXPANSION OF ECONOMIC LIFE
• PROBLEMATIZING CITY/STATE RELATION
• SPACE AND SUSTAINBILITY : THE PRODUCTION OF SOCIAL SPACES THROUGH CITY-WORK

11 November 2009

• EXTERNAL URBAN RELATIONAL PROCESS : INTRODUCING CENTRAL FLOW THEORY TO COMPLEMENT CENTRAL PLACE THEORY
• URBAN ECONOMICS IN THRALL TO CHRISTALLER : A MISGUIDED SEARCH FOR CITY HIERARCHIES IN EXTERNAL URBAN RELATIONS

The findings of the above discussion I will explore in my PhD research. For next week my discourses will be with Dr John Harrison. Our discussion will focus more on urban governance. The topic and detail of our discussion, I will inform later in my next blog.

ASSIGNMENT PRESENTATION - 09GYP005 30 OCTOBER 2009

In Loughborough University, every student before submitting their assignment they have to do their presentation on the preliminary finding of their research. They only give 5 minutes presentation with simple slides presentation. Here are my slides presentation.

DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS GATHERING 21 OCTOBER 2009

CHAPTER REVIEW ON THE ECONOMY OF CITIES BY JANE JACOBS

On second meeting with Prof Dr Peter Taylor dated 5 October 2009, 10am , he said " Well, Azmi before we go further, I want you to read a book by Jane Jacobs - The Economy of Cities (1969). I want you to read only Chapter 2 - How New Work Begins. You can find this book in the library.Then we will meet again next week" Oh my god I hate to do book / chapter review.

Then I went to Pilkington Library, Loughborough University to look for that book. I look at this small book. I think have this book that I bought in Singapore February 2007. I read only chapter 1- Cities First - Rural Development later... then I ignored this book for 2 years. Now I have to read again. This book was published 2 years after I was born. Its takes 4 days for me to understand Janes Jacobs's idea. And it is not easy. I read twice chapter 2 then I understand her vision and wisdom on city by Janes Jacobs.

I discussed with one of PhD student at Department Geography, Loughborough University. She said "Jane Jacobs's books are Prof Dr Peter Taylor and Dr Kathy Pain main references. Even though Janes Jacobs's books are classic books, many authors on global city such as Peter Hall etc always refer her books. If you work with them you should read Jane Jacobs's books." Kindly read my review below.

The Economy of Cities is about the importance of cities as the source of innovative economic change, a point that she believes economists have not understood, going back at least to Adam Smith, whom she chides for having misdirected subsequent thinking by glibly adopting the view that successful urban commerce must be founded on a successful agricultural economy. There are five major processes at work in a growing city economy:

(1) Anascent city finds a market in older cities for its initial export work and builds up a collection of numerous local businesses to supply producers’ goods and services to the initial export work;

(2) Some local suppliers of producers’ goods and services start exporting their own work. New local businesses begin to supply various goods and services for this new export work, and some of them eventually begin to export their own work. In the process, the city imports a growing volume and diversity of goods and services;

(3) Many of these imports are replaced by locally produced goods and services through “import replacement”, which is not the same process as the “import substitution” policies adopted by the leaders of various developing economies in the 1960s and 1970s. For one thing, import replacement must take place in logical stages, beginning with the parts or inputs most in demand, and must be self sustaining. For example, Japanese imports of bicycles from the West gave an incentive to local entrepreneurs and mechanics to open repair workshops, to begin manufacturing the most sought after bicycle parts, and eventually to assemble and later export bicycles entirely made of local components. For economic and practical reasons, successful import replacing can only be a city process. Import replacement creates a powerful multiplier effect and, as result, cities built their diverse economic foundations in “boom” phases. After an import-replacement boom, a local economy contains rooms for goods and services that were formerly neither imported nor locally produced, including unprecedented goods and services;

(4) The city’s greatly enlarged and diversified local economy becomes a potential source of numerous and diversified exports. The city’s exporting organizations arise by a) adding the export work to other people’s local work; b) adding the export work to different local work of their own; c) exporting their own local work. The city earns more imports by generating new exports, but many of the new exports merely compensate for declining lost work through obsolescence of older exports, transplants of some organizations into the rural world and replacement of exports by goods now produced in former customer cities; and,

(5) The city continues to generate new exports and earn imports, replaces imports with local production, and so on.

GLOBALIZATION AND WORLD CITIES (GaWC) RESEARCH NETWORK MEETING

I was invited by Prof Dr Peter Taylor to join the GaWC (they say as 'Gook') meeting. The meeting will be 7 October 2009 at 1pm. I was so excited that I am a apart of the 'think tank'. There are 10 core peoples in the meeting such as Prof Dr Peter Taylor, Dr Ed Brown, Dr John Harrison, Dr Micheal Hoyler, Dr Heike Jöns and a few others key persons in GaWC. The meeting chaired by Prof Dr Peter Taylor. A few issues have been discussed including their recent seminar in Abu Dhabi...New Ways of Thinking about Abu Dhabi as an Emerging Global City. However other matters I cannot reveal here....secret....I thought I wanted to take a few photos of the members and meeting arrangement but I think its not appropriate at the moment...may be later.

One thing I learned from this meeting..10 items they have discussed but they can managed to finish the meeting within 1 hour...from 1 until 2pm. All members prepared and readied with issues need to be highlighted and what resolution need to be done. Every each of the member give their inputs and ideas...excluding me. I hope I will join next GaWC meeting.

CLASS 09GYB210 - GLOBALIZATION

Last Monday and Tuesday, I attended Dr John Harrison's lecture on Globalization. He has listed below some questions to help guide me reading of Neil Brenner’s book ‘New State Spaces’ (NSS), but also other material relevant to this block of lectures. I will see that most of it is not asking me to understand every line/paragraph/page of the book, more where the ideas come from and key terms/concepts to explain what is going on:

1. What 2 word concept does Bob Jessop use to explain the rescaling of state power?

2. In which 3 directions has state power been rescaled? example 2 are obvious but what is the 3rd?

3. What 3 terms does Bob Jessop attach to the 3 directions that state power has been rescaled?

4. Have Bob Jessop and Neil Brenner's paths crossed? (look at their biographies - webpage’s online!) Have they collaborated, and if so, who else has been involved and what have they done?

5. Who do Bob Jessop and Neil Brenner draw their main inspiration from? You are looking for one person in Neil's case and two in Bob's; example could this explain their slightly different take on the same topic?

6. Where did Neil Brenner visit to get inspiration for NSS? (see intro/preface to NSS) nb most of it is based on studying one part of the world. Why do you think this area of the world was a good place to study? What was going on during the late 1980s through the 1990s when Neil was there?

7. Which major geographical debate of the last decade has Neil Brenner been involved in? Does this link into any of the concepts/debates covered in this block of lectures?

8. Why do they both talk about 'governance' and not 'government'? What is the difference - how does it fit into what you know from lectures? Think pre-1970 and post-1970.

A WEEK IN GaWC LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY

After a week in GaWC, I was amazed by lecturers here how they are focused on the content and crititical review of the assignment prepared by postgraduate students. They will assess student coursework through these criteria by :
a. Answers the question

b. Clear and logical structure

c. Independent thought

d. Quality of argument

e. Use of evidence and examples

d. Breath of reading

e. Referencing

f. Writing style

g. Presentation

The most important is "YOU MAY BE REQUIRED TO SUPPLY THIS ASSIGNMENT IN ELECTRONIC FORMAT FOR SUBMISSION TO THE UNIVERSITY'S PLAGIARISM DETECTION SERVICE".... they are so serious about postgraduate's coursework...