Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism
Priyanka Dass Saharia Saharia 1
Through Ethnographic Examples, discuss Commodity Chains in the context of Global Capitalism
“Globalisation may be thought as a process (or a set of processes) which embodies a transformation in the spatial organisation of social relations and transactions ---- assessed in terms of their intensity, extensity, velocity and impact --- generating transcontinental or interregional flows and networks of activity, interaction, and the exercise of power” (David Held, Professor of Politics and International Relations, Durham University)
On a more compressive note, Economic Globalisation essentially focuses on the phenomenon as a thickening of the global-local nexus or what some studies scholars call ‘glocalization’ (Manfred.B. Steger). Contextually, Globalization here encompasses a series of processes which have to do with social processes and relations through economic transactions. It is an increase of social relations, and multiplication and diversion of the existing ones, in a way to expand and stretch social relations and intensify and accelerate social transactions and activities (Manfred.B.Steger). It operates more on a subjective plane of human consciousness where the framework of reference is ‘globalised’ in a context of connectivity, outreach and expansive networking to facilitate free trade and economic exchange.
Though post the 1980s crisis period was a lesson well learnt, as to how integration with the global economy was a way to develop a local economy, and state industrialisation was a factor of growth stagnation, especially in developing countries, yet eventually new threads of research on commodity chains have inculcated a more inclusive approach where there is an attempt to study and shape the structure and functioning of the economy in a way to balance economic development and internalisation of trade in the domain of local-global nexus.
Commodity Chains focus on centrally looking at the processes which go
Through Ethnographic Examples, discuss Commodity Chains in the context of Global Capitalism
“Globalisation may be thought as a process (or a set of processes) which embodies a transformation in the spatial organisation of social relations and transactions ---- assessed in terms of their intensity, extensity, velocity and impact --- generating transcontinental or interregional flows and networks of activity, interaction, and the exercise of power” (David Held, Professor of Politics and International Relations, Durham University)
On a more compressive note, Economic Globalisation essentially focuses on the phenomenon as a thickening of the global-local nexus or what some studies scholars call ‘glocalization’ (Manfred.B. Steger). Contextually, Globalization here encompasses a series of processes which have to do with social processes and relations through economic transactions. It is an increase of social relations, and multiplication and diversion of the existing ones, in a way to expand and stretch social relations and intensify and accelerate social transactions and activities (Manfred.B.Steger). It operates more on a subjective plane of human consciousness where the framework of reference is ‘globalised’ in a context of connectivity, outreach and expansive networking to facilitate free trade and economic exchange.
Though post the 1980s crisis period was a lesson well learnt, as to how integration with the global economy was a way to develop a local economy, and state industrialisation was a factor of growth stagnation, especially in developing countries, yet eventually new threads of research on commodity chains have inculcated a more inclusive approach where there is an attempt to study and shape the structure and functioning of the economy in a way to balance economic development and internalisation of trade in the domain of local-global nexus.
Commodity Chains focus on centrally looking at the processes which go
References: Mintz, S. (1985) Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History. Harmondsworth: Penguin Caphin, B. (2004) Shea Butter Republic: State Power, Global Markets, and the Making of an Indigenous Commodity. Routledge Bair, J. (2005) Competition and Change Vol. 9, No. 2, 153-180