Geography, networks and trust:The evolution of production networks in the context of global financial crisis
地理、网络与信任:金融危机背景下的生产网络演化

Network evolution is one of the key issues in recent studies of evolutionary economic geography.Current studies in this field mainly focus on path dependency and routines within networks,while the mechanism of dynamics of the network remains underdeveloped yet.Previous researches tend to ignore the importance of trust on network evolution.To take this step forward,this paper unpacks the role of trust in network evolution in textiles and garment industry in Guangdong.Particularly,the authors conduct a comparative study between the Pearl River Delta and Chaoshan region(eastern part of Guangdong)during the 2009global financial crisis based on in-depth interviews.The study finds out that trust is a primary variable in keeping ties between nodes in production networks.The degree of trust varies due to three critical factors:cooperation types(market relations),geographical proximity(spatial relations)and network embeddedness(social and cultural contexts).As an exogenous shock,the influence of the global financial crisis restructured the spatial structure of networks within Guangdong Province.During the restructuring process,ties with higher trust maintained such as networks in Chaoshan region,while lower trust tiers were disconnected such as networks in the Pearl River Delta.After the crisis,stronger ties in Chaoshan region were reinforced to replace some weak ties in Pearl River Delta.By doing so,Chaoshan region is playing a more important role in the global production networks of textile and garment industries.