Commodity Chains and Extractive Peripheries: Coal and Development

Abstract

This chapter will utilize the raw materialist lengthened global commodity chains model to examine how the coal global commodity chain has shaped extractive peripheries over the last three centuries. Coal is the quintessential “old economy” raw material that powered the Industrial Revolution. Coal was a key ingredient in economic ascent over the past three centuries in Great Britain, the U.S., and Japan and remains essential to economic ascent in the twenty-first century for China and India, despite its contribution to climate change and efforts in many countries to promote a transition toward more sustainable energy systems. After presenting the theoretical model guiding this analysis, the chapter will outline how the role of coal commodity chains has changed over time as they have grown in scale from small localized chains to truly global chains, highlighting the roles that the global coal commodity chain plays in the world economy today and the drivers of change in the coal industry. How do raw materialist lengthened global commodity chains based on the extraction, processing, and consumption of coal shape the extractive peripheries that supply coal?