Constantinos Antonopoulos

First Degree (Ptychion) in International and European Studies, Department of International and European Studies, Athens Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, 2001-2005.

EU Erasmus grant to the Department of Political Science, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany, October 2004-March2005.

MSc in Local Economic Development, Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2005-2006.

MSc in Urban Management, Management of the European Metropolitan Region, Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 2008-2009.

The evolving interface between port-city and global production networks. A case study of Piraeus, Athens.

Ongoing since September 2009.

Supervisors: Martin Hess and Neil Coe.

Global logistics and shipping networks are highly important social, technological and business systems for the world economy as a whole but also for the functioning and development of regional and urban economies and logistics transport hubs.

As the recent economic crisis has served to manifest ‘the old is dying and the new is not yet born’:

1. the global shipping, logistics and transport network actors are being forced to dynamically adapt to a persistently fluid and volatile situation in the world economy;
2. the established local transport and logistics hubs, in their varied roles as spaces of flows and centres of command in the logistics system, are undergoing multifold changes in organization, their share of activities, and business models.
3. Equally states and local polities are struggling to maintain a socially acceptable way of development in view of relentless competitive pressures and the long term geo-economic shifts.

As a topic of inquiry the shifting realities of ports, cities and transport spaces have drawn the attention of many different disciplines which have addressed aspects of it. However integrative approaches regarding this interface are rare. In my work I have sought firstly to critique the existing approaches and conceptualizations, and secondly to formulate an empirical account of the underlying phenomena through an in depth study of a local context.  I believe that an empirical case study on the interface between city-port and globalization in the context of Piraeus/Athens serves as one such research window. First because Piraeus is an established Mediterranean commercial port and important command centre for global shipping, and thus worth looking at from an industry point of view beyond the commonly examined northern industrial ports; second because its hub role and foreland and hinterland connections have changed markedly in 2007-2011; and third because its variable ‘embeddedness’ in the agglomeration of Athens, the Greek economy, and the EU bloc have had a strong bearing on the developments.

A central contribution of my study will be to re-think the nature of port-studies by drawing on the relational perspectives of economic geography (and especially Global Production Networks). In particular empirical questions such as the expanding role of East Asian investments in terminal operations, the entry and exit of carrier Transnational Corporations, as well as the role of ‘transnationalizing’ maritime firms, are core structuring elements.

The project uses a period of intensive fieldwork on locations in Athens-Piraeus and qualitative interviews with respondents from the Greek maritime cluster industries. My aim is to analyze the ways that the core issues of value enhancement, economic change and environmental adaptation in the extended shipping value chain are affecting and are in turn affected by spatial and territorial developments. Thus the case of Piraeus will serve as a focal point in my analysis of a shipping ‘nexus’ area while ‘locally based and globally leading major firms’ in port services, container shipping, and logistics serve as the focal firms.

Published

• C.N.Antonopoulos and V.G.Papadakis, (2011) “Learning from past investment incidents in peripheral regions: semiconductors in Patras, Greece”, International Journal of Innovation and Regional Development 2011 - Vol. 3, No.3/4  pp. 417 - 440, Inderscience Publishers.
• Antonopoulos, C.N., V.G. Papadakis, C.D. Stylios, M.P. Efstathiou, and P.P. Groumpos, "Mainstreaming Innovation Policy in Less Favoured Regions; The case of Patras Science Park, Greece", Science and Public Policy, 36(7), 511-521 (2009).

Authored Reports and consultancy work

• Consultancy Report, “Recent international practices in the management and re-development of port lands” (2011).
• Final report of the Regional Innovation Pole of Western Greece “Economic and Organizational Sustainability of the Regional Innovation Pole” (2008).
• Project implementation in the INTERREG IIIB HUREDEPIS Project (Human Resources and Development Planning on both Sides of the Ionian Sea). Authored Review Papers on Services, SMEs in the transnational region of the Ionian sea, Regional Innovation Pole Western Greece, (2007).

Previous research

• MSc Thesis in Urban Management /MEMR : "Sustainable Urban Governance of waterfront regeneration in Copenhagen-Hamburg", Department of Geography, University of Copenhagen (2009).
• MSc Thesis in Local Economic Development : "Institutions of Local Economic Development in Greek-Bulgarian border regions", Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science (2006).
• Dissertation: "IMF Conditionality as a form of International Intervention", Department of Political Science, Technische Universität Darmstadt (2005).
• Report: "Foreign Interventions in the conflict of Abkhazia", Department of Political Science, Technische Universität Darmstadt (2005).

Work experience

• Project Implementation at the Patras Science Park S.A. (January 2007 – 2008). Co-authored papers on Inward Investment and Benchmarking for creativity in local firms. Co-organized and participated in workshops, workgroups, drafted reports, and proposals for policy. Authored review Papers on Services, SMEs. Work in Policy implementation (Regional Innovation Pole Western Greece).
• Adviser to the Regional Innovation Pole of Western Greece (2007-2008), Greece’s cluster policy initiative in the 3rd CSF, investigated financial and organisational aspects of the viability of the RIP.

Conference participation

• Speaker IASP 28th World Conference on Science and Technology Parks, 19-22 June 2011, Copenhagen.
• European Urban Knowledge Network Conference, Rotterdam 2008 “Cities of Opportunity-the urban promise of upward mobility”.
• Plenary Speaker at the XXV IASP World Conference on Science and Technology Parks, Johannesburg 2008, “The role of Science Parks in accelerating knowledge economy growth”.
• Plenary Speaker at the XXIV IASP World Conference on Science and Technology Parks Barcelona 2007, “Creative Jobs and Creative Companies – Key Factors for Growth and Competitiveness”.

Language skills
Modern Greek (native),
English (as a second language),
German (as a second language),
French (working knowledge),
Latin & Ancient Greek (reading).