Department of Geography & Urban Planning
University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh
800 Algoma Blvd
Oshkosh, WI 54901
U.S.A.
bowenj@uwosh.edu
Telephone: (920) 424-4103
Fax: (920) 424-0292

Bowen's research has focused upon three themes related to the airline industry:

1. the liberalization of the airline industry
Liberalization refers to both deregulation (the removal of many government constraints enabling airlines to more freely choose what cities to serve, how often, with what type of aircraft, and at what fares) and privatization (the selling of government owned airlines to the private sector). Bowen’s research has examined how liberalization has affected the structure of airline networks (e.g. the rise of hub-and-spoke networks) and how the scope and degree of liberalization have varied internationally.

2. the role of the air transport in economic development
Railroads, highways and seaports have a profound effect upon the development of cities, regions, and countries. The same is true of airports, especially large hubs. Bowen’s dissertation analyzed the interrelationship among the airline industry, national economic development, and government in the context of Singapore. Subsequently, he has looked at these connections more broadly in Asia.

3. the role of air cargo services in production networks
Production networks for many manufactured goods now span the world. Networks of suppliers, component manufacturers, assembly plants, distribution warehouses, and retail outlets are connected by services, including air cargo services and related logistics.

From 2000 to 2004, Bowen was one of two principal investigators on a project funded by the National Science Foundation exploring how manufacturing firms use such services in Southeast Asia to gain competitive advantage. With the NSF funding, Bowen was able to bring one undergraduate to Southeast Asia in each of 2001, 2002, and 2004 as a research assistant. None had been outside the United States previously. The air cargo services project yielded six publications in such leading journals as Economic Geography as well as two book chapters and nine conference presentations

While wrapping up the air cargo services project, Bowen undertook several new projects. These included an analysis of the geography of NAFTA-induced unemployment in the United States, an exploration of Asia's increased role in the production networks of Airbus and Boeing, and an examination of the the manner in which airline networks shaped the diffusion of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2003. The latter project was undertaken in collaboration with a UW-Oshkosh undergraduate (Christian LaRoe) and resulted in a 2006 article in Geographical Journal.

Bowen's most important recent project has been a book titled The Airborne World: Space, Time, and the Freedom of the Skies. Like the railroad and the automobile, the airliner has changed the very geography of the societies it serves. Fundamentally, air transportation has helped redefine the scale of human geography by dramatically reducing the cost of distance, both in terms of time and money. The result is "the airborne world", meaning all those places (e.g. major hub cities, electronics export processing zones, tuna fishing regions, tropical beaches, Disney themeparks, etc.) dependent upon and transformed by relatively inexpensive air transportation. Drawing upon hundreds of mainly secondary sources, the book answers three questions: how did air transportation develop in the century after the Wright Brothers, what does it mean to live in an airborne world, and what is the future of aviation in this century? The book’s novelty lies in two features: first, its exploration of how air transportation has affected human geography, including everything from sex tourism to the wintertime supply of fresh produce; and, second, its synthesis of aspects of air transportation not usually dealt with jointly. Specifically, the book weaves together the technological development of aviation, the competition among aircraft manufacturers and their stables of airliners, the deregulation and privatization of the airline industry, the articulation of air passenger and air cargo services in everyday life, and the challenges and controversies surrounding airports.