As we have seen, the analysis of global production networks and how they relate to socioeconomic
development at various scales has come a long way over the last few years. There
is now a growing body of literature that draws on this framework to answer the main
questions of this strand of research, namely: How are GPNs constructed and how do they
evolve? What are the underlying governance structures driving this evolution? Who,
ultimately, benefits and loses through incorporation in or exclusion from GPNs, and in which
places? In order to answer these questions, it is useful to think along the conceptual lines of
research of the “Manchester School” variety and consider the dimensions of value, power and
the embeddedness of individual and collective actors (see also Johns, 2006).