Markus HESSE, Université du Luxembourg , Luxembourg
In a seminal paper, Walker (1989) suggested a requiem to corporate geography, in the light of “alternative forms of industrial organization and their spatial configurations” (Walker 1989, 43) that were observed then. 30 years after, with electronic commerce, digitalization and platform economies gaining momentum, it seems wise to re-visit the geography of the firm, inspired by logistics as power (Neilson 2012, Gregson et al. 2017). This paper looks at the subject matter by exploring the practices, geographies and politics of Amazon.com. The firm is not only one of the key players in global e-commerce, but is about to become the template corporation of the 21st century. The goals of this paper are twofold: Firstly, we explore how the company’s two worlds, the material and the virtual, intersect. The firm’s geographies are not confined to cyberspace, but unfold in real-world circumstances, which are primarily of logistical nature: the fine-tuned coordination of flows and facilities (servers, distribution centres, mobile devices), operated through labour, bodies, vehicles, conveyor belts, and increasingly AI and robots. Secondly, the paper illustrates Amazon.com’s peculiar politics of circulation (Hesse 2018). By establishing its exclusive web of infrastructure, the firm has almost gained statecraft in its supply chain power. (It seems quite ironic that Amazon.com is about to supersede the postal institutions that once had monopolistic power on behalf of the nation states). However, the nature of Amazon.com to become systemic, also a result of successful lobbying for full-fledged tax-avoidance, is highly problematic: the firm not only aims to rule the market, but it is on its way to becoming the market. Its associated power over competitors, employees and regulatory bodies has severe political ramifications. While there is good reason to re-visit corporate geography again, the question for practice is how to deal with “logistics as power” locally.
Mots clés : logistics|corporate geography|digitalisation|flows|Amazon.com
A104168MH