Global Commodity Chain Analysis Research Articles

Place, food, and agriculture: the use of geographical indications in olive oil production in western Turkey

AbstractThis study concerns how olive oil producers and local bureaucrats in western Turkey use geographical indications (GIs) as a localist strategy to strengthen their position in global markets by challenging conventional agricultural practices. The study employs the disarticulation approach of global commodity chain analysis in order to understand which factors delink people and places from conventional commodity chains/industrial chains and link them instead to GI chains. The results of the study indicate that regional disadvantages—e.g., high production costs due to land characteristics—are the main factor delinking local actors from the conventional olive oil commodity chain. Furthermore, certain dynamic rent opportunities that are related to characteristics of territorial quality and to local cultural characteristics also contribute to the linking of the region and producers to GI chains.

Global Commodity Chains and the Production of Surplus-value on a Global Scale: Bringing Back the New International Division of Labour Theory

This paper offers a critique of mainstream and critical versions of Global Commodity Chain analysis of post-1960s global-economy transformations claiming that they suffer from different types of methodological nationalism. After arguing that the key to overcome their intrinsic problems is to be found in the critical revision of Fröbel et al.'s New International Division of Labour theory, the paper advances a novel account of the structural dynamics of the stratified capitalist world-system developed by Iñigo Carrera (1998). Finally, the paper substantiates its main claims with an analysis of the long-term development of the global semiconductors industry.

Commodity chains, creative destruction and global inequality: a class analysis

The majority of global commodity chain analysis is concerned with producer firm upgrading, because it is held to engender local-level development. This represents a myopic comprehension of the interaction of firms under capitalism. This article argues, in contrast, that lead firm chain governance and supplier firm upgrading attempts constitute strategies and practices that reproduce global poverty and inequality. Schumpeter’s concept of creative destruction represents a starting point in undertaking this endeavour. However, his formulation of capitalist competition ignores class and global economic relations. A Marxian conception of creative destruction, in contrast, rests upon an understanding of globally constituted class relations, which provides a novel perspective in comprehending and investigating processes that re-produce global poverty and inequality. The article substantiates these claims by examining cases of buyer-driven global commodity chains, and lead firm strategies of increasing labour exploitation throughout these chains.

Workers, State and Development in Brazil. Powers of Labour, Chains of Value, by BenSelwyn. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012. Pp. xvi+208. £65 (hb). ISBN: 9780719085314

__Abstract__ This book is written in the best of political economy tradition. Selwyn places class and labour at the centre of his analysis of Brazil’s agrarian change and capitalist development. The text starts with an impressive, enlightening and critical discussion of global commodity chain analysis within mainly Marxist and world systems theories of capitalist development. The author engages with a large number of authors such as Banaji, Bernstein, Brenner, Byres, Gereffi, Kaplinsky, Silver, E.P. Thompson, Wallerstein,Wood, E.O.Wright and, interestingly, Schumpeter. In a most original way, he weaves these different contributions into a theoretical framework appropriate for his research on the struggles of rural labour and how they shape processes of capitalist development. Selwyn’s aim is to write labour history from the bottom up within the context of globalization.

Rethinking governance and value in commodity chains through global recycling networks

The dominant political‐economic approaches to global trade flows known as global value chains and global production networks offer powerful insights into the coordination and location of globally stretched supply chains, in particular from global South to North. By way of both conceptual and empirical challenge, this paper highlights flows of end‐of‐life goods from the global North towards the global South. This involves the disassembly and destruction of goods to recover secondary resources for further rounds of commodity production. Global recycling networks take things of rubbish value (often spent or end‐of‐life goods) and turn them back into resources in other places and production networks. They operate not through adding value, but by connecting different regimes of value. The paper does not set out a new conceptual framework, but asks what challenges the rekindling of value in used goods creates for global commodity chain analysis and what insights those approaches bring to looking at waste flows. The examples of used clothing and end‐of‐life merchant ships are mobilised to illustrate the dynamics of global recycling networks and to challenge prevailing commodity chain approaches in three key areas – supply logics and crosscutting networks, value and materiality, and inter‐firm governance. We argue that resource recovery engenders highly complex and brokered forms of governance that relate to practices of valuing heterogeneous materials and that contrast markedly with the modes of coordination dominated by big capital typical of global production networks for consumer goods.

Beyond firm-centrism: re-integrating labour and capitalism into global commodity chain analysis

Since the mid-1990s, global commodity chain (GCC) analysis has contributed much to our understanding of processes of globalization and development. It has however, broadly failed to integrate class relations generally and labour in particular into its approach. This article suggests that we can understand this failure by revisiting and critically interrogating GCC's intellectual foundations—in World Systems Theory and Schumpeterian conceptions of capitalist innovation. It also argues that if carefully reformed, these foundations can provide a useful framework from which to conduct research into processes of contemporary development. A central argument of this paper is that evolving capital–labour relations co-determine processes of capitalist expansion and development, and that a commitment to understanding and investigating these relations should be placed more firmly at the centre of GCC analysis.

Review and Positions: Global Production Networks and Labour

Commodity chains that are global in extent have increasingly come to be seen as the defining element of the contemporary globalized world economy. Since the 1990s a body of theory — evolving from global commodity chain analysis to global value chain analysis to global production network analysis — has focused upon understanding how such commodity chains function. However, despite providing many important insights, these bodies of literature have generally suffered from a major deficiency in that they have failed to consider labour as an active agent capable of shaping such chains' structure and geographical organization. Here, then, we present a case for locating more centrally labour, in production network analysis.

Upgrading or Decline? Globalization, Retail Structure, and Labour in the Chilean Textile and Clothing Industry

Trade liberalization has plunged the textile and clothing industry in many countries — both in the developed and developing world — into a crisis with important employment losses. Important differences across countries exist regarding the extent of decline, the productivity performance, and the working conditions for the remaining workers in this industry. Based on elements of global commodity chain analysis and the varieties of capitalism (VoC) approach, these different patterns have been explained for developed countries, placing particular emphasis on the scope and effective implementation of industry-wide minimum wages and labour regulations, as well as on retail concentration. In this article, we apply the above framework to Chile, where the process of downsizing of the industry has followed the least virtuous pattern, with meagre productivity results and precarization of remaining employment. Part of the remaining textile and clothing employment has moved to the informal economy and sweatshop-type enterprises. This outcome is explained by the high degree of retail concentration in Chile, the virtual absence of sectoral collective bargaining and the partial coverage of labour inspection among micro and small enterprises.

World City Networks and Global Commodity Chains: towards a world‐systems' integration

AbstractThere are two literatures that explicitly describe the spaces of flows that constitute contemporary globalization – World City Network analysis and Global Commodity Chain analysis. We explore the possibilities of their integration by returning to their common origins in world‐systems analysis. Each model is described and critiqued and it is argued that each can be used to address some of the other's limitations. This is illustrated through world city process additions to understanding the coffee commodity chain and commodity chain additions to understanding Mexico City and Santiago's positioning in the World City Network. This complementarity is just a first step towards a more complete integration; the conclusion describes the next steps towards just such a research agenda.

City networks and commodity chains: identifying global flows and local connections in Ho Chi Minh City

AbstractAny analytical framework for understanding actual forms of the intensified incorporation of cities into the world economy needs to go beyond the exclusive focus on advanced producer services, which is characteristic of most of the World City Network (WCN) approach. Simultaneously, an account of the role of advanced producer services will strengthen Global Commodity Chain (GCC) analysis. A combination of the literatures on WCN and GCC can contribute to a broader conceptualization of the connections and connectivities of global cities. In addition, a combined approach will improve our understanding of globalization processes within many so‐called ‘third‐world’ cities that are experiencing booms in export‐oriented industrialization and in migration from rural hinterlands as they are being integrated into Global Commodity Chains. We illustrate our argument with insights from GCC analyses of the electronics industry located in Ho Chi Minh City and the agricultural sector in its rural hinterland, the Mekong Delta.

Capitalist Measures within a Socialist Model: a Commodity Chains Analysis of the Emerging Cuban Tourism Industry

Over the past several years Cuba has evolved from a relatively isolated country that shunned tourism to one of the Caribbean's most important leisure destinations for international visitors. The island's reliance on tourism has forced it to reinsert itself into the global capitalist economy and undergo substantial economic transformation, including several capitalist measures. This analysis uses a Global Commodity Chain (GCC) analysis to map the geography and organization of the different segments involved in the Cuban tourism industry. A GCC allows us to examine the physical and human geography of the area, the conception, planning, and implementation involved in the development of the various sites, the major local and foreign organizations involved, and marketing and advertising strategies. I find that the organizational and cultural cohesiveness managed by the Cuban government along the segments of the chain, its ability to maintain key areas of control over tourism sectors even when foreign partners are heavily involved, and its ability to reinsert itself into the global economy through the tourism industry are major factors that explain the unprecedented growth rates in the Cuban tourism industry. This research supports much of the recent literature on GCCs, which contend that developmental performance is affected by a state's ability to strategically participate in an increasingly integrated internationalized system. The Cuban case further illustrates how market mechanisms can be reconciled with state planning while maintaining the socialist orientation of the economy.

Power, political economy and environmental governance: staple chains as media of power

This paper critically compares radical and reformist global commodity chain analysis with two other traditions: Canadian staples analysis and the analysis of filieres. It considers what each can contribute to a critical analysis of essentially linear production and exchange complexes, particularly for the extraction and export of raw materials and semiprocessed goods. The article offers elements of a schematic model for such 'staple chains' and for the effective exercise of power through them. The article understands staple chains as media of power (Innis, [1930] 1970; 1936; 1954; McLuhan, [1964] 1965) and a problem of governance for environmentalists, fair-trade advocates and staple-chain stakeholders.

Institutions, Upgrading and Development: Evidence from North East Brazilian Export Horticulture

The central concern of Global Commodity (or Value) Chain analysis is to identify upgrading possibilities for poor country (or region) producers as a mechanism for accelerating local-level development. Whilst the framework has made impressive progress in explaining how chain governance impacts upon suppliers' upgrading opportunities it has been relatively weak in integrating local-level institutions into its analysis and policy advice. This paper addresses this weakness by focusing on the interaction between suppliers' organisations and state development agencies in facilitating systematic upgrading for large numbers of producers. It is based on research on export grape production in North East Brazil, and finds that whilst exporters may be particularly well informed about changing market and buyer requirements, state agencies play a key role in both establishing initial conditions of production and assisting producers to overcome evolving technical gaps generated by fast-changing markets.

Intersectoral partnerships for a sustainable coffee chain: Really addressing sustainability or just picking (coffee) cherries?

In recent years intersectoral partnerships for sustainable development have been on the rise in many global commodity chains. Taking the coffee chain as an example, we explore the role of partnerships with the help of Global Commodity Chain analysis and Convention Theory. By means of production standards, partnerships are able to influence sustainability challenges at the production level. However, these partnerships show an imbalance in actor involvement, compete with each other and mainly create a parallel production integrated into the conventional chain. While being important initiators of change, partnerships are unable to turn the coffee chain into a sustainable chain.

Assessment of the Cotton Industry Using the Global Commodity Chain Analysis Approach in Katsina State, Nigeria

Assessment of the Cotton Industry Using the Global Commodity Chain Analysis Approach in Katsina State, Nigeria

Stephen Hymer and the externalization of production

Stephen Hymer has rightly been credited with predating much of the literature on internalization and the theory of the multinational corporation (MNC) that has emerged over the past thirty years. But relatively little attention has been given to his insights on the externalization of production by corporations—a phenomenon also commonly referred to as subcontracting. Hymer clearly envisaged the circumstances under which MNCs might choose to subcontract production to independent enterprises. Such subcontracting has, of course, become a significant phenomenon in the global economy since the 1980s yet, in contrast to most of the extant literature on the topic, Hymer clearly sees it as means by which MNCs might extend, rather than relinquish, control over production. Our objectives in this paper are threefold. First and foremost, we want to highlight Stephen Hymer's prescient insights regarding the externalization of production by MNCs. Second, we want to demonstrate how Hymer predated the literature on Global commodity chain (GCC) analysis. A key feature of GCC analysis is the explicit recognition that firms may exploit their ownership advantages without having to internalize productive activities, and yet may retain control over the essential aspects of the production process. And last but not least, we want to illustrate the applicability of these insights using the example of the global garment industry.

Low-wage manufacturing and global commodity chains: a model in the unequal exchange tradition

The institutional setting of subcontracted manufacturing has a profound impact on how the benefits of trade are distributed. This paper develops a model that combines insights from unequal exchange theorists and global commodity chain analysis to clarify the distributive dynamics of production networks in which subcontracting and branding are defining features. In this framework, the ability of productivity growth to increase income from exports is constrained and depends on how the benefits of productivity improvements are captured—as lower consumer prices or higher rents for brand-name multinationals. Increasing consumption in affluent consumer markets raises export earnings. However, developing countries, acting alone, are constrained in their ability to affect the demand side of global commodity chains. Instead, supply-side policies to support industrial upgrading represent a more viable option for raising incomes.

In the Market But Not of It: Fair Trade Coffee and Forest Stewardship Council Certification as Market-Based Social Change

Summary This paper discusses two well-known market-based social change initiatives, Fair Trade coffee and Forest Stewardship Council certification, which harness market forces to pursue social and environmental objectives. A serious challenge for both is to operate in the conventional market without undermining their original objectives. A global commodity chain analysis approach is combined with insights from economic sociology embeddedness theory to explore the social, cultural and organizational factors shaping the initiatives’ governance structures. Both initiatives are seen to move along opposite organizational trajectories, but face similar pressures from conventional market logics, practices and dominant actors. A preliminary framework is proposed for comparative assessment, focusing on distribution of benefits, how conventional market institutions may be questioned, and how internal governance manages diverse stakeholder interests and influence.

Global Care Chains

This article critically examines the utility of the ‘global care chain’ concept and considers various modifications required to that concept in order to render it a major generative force in feminist and non-feminist research. By way of progressing this research agenda, the discussion critically evaluates the possibilities and limitations of a more rigorous application of global commodity chain analysis, from which the global care chain concept is presently only loosely derived, to transnational care services. The incompatibility of (non-feminist) commodity chain analysis and (feminist) care chain analysis, together with the weaknesses in each of these bodies of analysis, requires the integration of a range of modifications into a revised global care chain framework. These modifications involve foregrounding transnational labour networks and applying an engendered global commodity chain perspective to the analysis of these networks as well as broadening the application of the global care chain concept to embrace a variety of groups and settings. Further research required to progress the development of this field of study is outlined.

Renegotiating a Timber Commodity Chain: Lessons from Indonesia on the Political Construction of Global Commodity Chains

This paper shows how political strategies and negotiations influence the construction of the market linkages that form global commodity chains. It provides an account of how an oligopoly of timber-producing firms in the peripheral nation of Indonesia came to dominate the production and export of processed tropical plywood from 1985 to 1998. The oligopoly forged alliances with the state to gain domestic control over producers of the raw material and negotiated an external alliance with Japanese importers to penetrate that core market. Exposing processes of political influence can enrich global commodity chain analysis of market processes in the global political economy.