Local trajectories in the global economy

Abstract

This article offers a framework for conceptualizing local development, specifically in the context of foreign direct investment (FDI). I establish my conceptual framework through a critique of three inter-related yet distinct literatures - the literature on development, broadly conceptualized (i.e., not necessarily referring to local development), the literature on globalization, also broadly conceptualized (i.e., not necessarily focused on FDI) and the literature on local impacts of FDI, which is a crosscutting subset of development and globalization. All these literatures are polarized; I wish to offer a more nuanced perspective. My critique offers a normative definition of ‘local development’ based on 1) an inclusionary definition of development and 2) convergence of corporate and worker well-being. Although empirical realities rarely correspond with normative constructs, such constructs are useful in examining and assessing change, if we specify the contingent conditions that impede or foster an idealized outcome. I specify these conditions with reference to several mediating factors, notably: mode of production, and its interplay with policy and local context, understanding that agency crosscuts all these factors.