Editorial
Journal Articl
Roepke Lecture in Economic Geography—From Exploitation to Expropriation: Historic Geographies of Racialized Capitalism
Nancy Fraser, Pages 1–17
Abstract |Complete Article | Enhanced Article
Commentary on “From Exploitation to Expropriation: Geographies of Racialization in Historic Capitalism”
Sharad Chari, Pages 18–22
Abstract | Complete Article | Enhanced Article
Agents of Structural Change: The Role of Firms and Entrepreneurs in Regional Diversification
Frank Neffke, Matté Hartog, Ron Boschma, and Martin Henning, Pages 23–48
Abstract |Complete Article | Enhanced Article
Financialization and Value-based Control: Lessons from the Australian Mining Supply Chain
Rachel Parker, Stephen Cox, and Paul Thompson, Pages 49–67
Abstract | Complete Article | Enhanced Article
Digital Control in Value Chains: Challenges of Connectivity for East African Firms
Christopher Foster, Mark Graham, Laura Mann, Timothy Waema, and Nicolas Friederici, Pages 68–86
Abstract | Complete Article | Enhanced Article
BOOK REVIE
The Rise of the Hybrid Domain: Collaborative Governance for Social Innovation By Yuko Aoyama with Balaji Parthasarathy
Trevor J. Barnes, pages 87–88
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Enterprising Nature. Economics, Markets, and Finance in Global Biodiversity Politics By Jessica Dempsey
Bram Büscher, pages 89–91
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The Contradictions of Capital in the Twenty-First Century: The Piketty Opportunity Edited by Pat Hudson and Keith Tribe
Peter Lindner, pages 92–93
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Shrinking Cities: Understanding Urban Decline in the United States By Russell Weaver, Sharmistha Bagchi-Sen, Jason Knight, and Amy E. Frazier
Maxwell Hartt, pages 94–95
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ABSTRACTS
Roepke Lecture in Economic Geography—From Exploitation to Expropriation: Historic Geographies of Racialized Capitalism
Nancy Fraser
Abstract: Familiar, exploitation-centered conceptions of capitalism cannot explain its persistent entanglement with racial oppression. In their place, I suggest an expanded conception that also encompasses an ongoing but disavowed moment of expropriation. By thematizing that other ex, I disclose, first, the crucial role played in capital accumulation by unfree and dependent labor, which is expropriated, as opposed to exploited; and second, the equally indispensable role of politically enforced status distinctions between free, exploitable citizen-workers and dependent, expropriable subjects. Treating such political distinctions as constitutive of capitalist society and as correlated with the color line, I demonstrate that the racialized subjection of those whom capital expropriates is a condition of possibility for the freedom of those whom it exploits. After developing this proposition systematically, I historicize it, distinguishing four regimes of racialized accumulation according to how exploitation and expropriation are distinguished, sited, and intertwined in each. I end by making the case for combined struggles against both exes and against the larger social system that generates their symbiosis.
Key words: exploitation, expropriation, racialization, subjection, subjectivation
Complete Article | Enhanced Article
Commentary on “From Exploitation to Expropriation: Geographies of Racialization in Historic Capitalism”
Sharad Chari
Abstract: Commentary
Key words:
Complete Article | Enhanced Article
Agents of Structural Change: The Role of Firms and Entrepreneurs in Regional Diversification
Frank Neffke, Matté Hartog, Ron Boschma, and Martin Henning
Abstract: Who introduces structural change in regional economies: Entrepreneurs or existing firms? And do local or nonlocal establishment founders create most novelty in a region? We develop a theoretical framework that focuses on the roles different agents play in regional transformation. We then apply this framework, using Swedish matched employer–employee data, to determine how novel the activities of new establishments are to a region. Incumbents mainly reinforce a region’s current specialization: incumbent’s growth, decline, and industry switching further align them with the rest of the local economy. The unrelated diversification required for structural change mostly originates via new establishments, especially via those with nonlocal roots. Interestingly, although entrepreneurs often introduce novel activities to a local economy, when they do so, their ventures have higher failure rates compared to new subsidiaries of existing firms. Consequently, new subsidiaries manage to create longer-lasting change in regions.
Key words: change, entrepreneurship, diversification, relatedness, regions, resource-based view, capability base
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Financialization and Value-based Control: Lessons from the Australian Mining Supply Chain
Rachel Parker, Stephen Cox, and Paul Thompson
Abstract: Lead firms operate on multiple scales, and although their corporate functions may be globally organized, they are anchored in various territories through the formation of relations with local suppliers, some of whom have specialized knowledge, capabilities, or technologies that are essential to the lead firms’ business activities. Global value chain and global production network analyses have recognized that financialization is increasingly driving the way that lead firms coordinate their relationships with supplier firms. The contribution of this article is to unpack the mechanisms that lead firms adopt to govern their supply chains in the context of financialization and the implications this has for the territorial embeddedness of lead firms. The boom–bust cycle of mining, arising from massive fluctuations in global commodity prices, provides a revealing context in which to explore the changing agendas of financial markets and their implications for lead firm connections to territory. This article examines the mechanisms lead firms use to coordinate relations with local suppliers in the Queensland coal industry, which accounts for 50 percent of international trade in metallurgical coal and which has evolved in the context of the most recent boom–bust cycle of global coal prices.
Key words: global value chains, global productionnetworks, financialization, resources industry
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Digital Control in Value Chains: Challenges of Connectivity for East African Firms
Christopher Foster, Mark Graham, Laura Mann, Timothy Waema, and Nicolas Friederici
Abstract: In recent years, Internet connectivity has greatly improved across the African continent. This article examines the consequences that this shift has had for East African firms that are part of global value chains (GVCs). Prior work yielded contradictory expectations: firms might benefit from connectivity through increased efficiencies and improved access to markets, although they might also be further marginalized through increasing control of lead firms. Drawing on extensive qualitative research in Kenya and Rwanda, including 264 interviews, we examine 3 sectors (tea, tourism, and business process outsourcing) exploring overarching, cross-cutting themes. The findings support more pessimistic expectations: small African producers are only thinly digitally integrated in GVCs. Moreover, shifting modes of value chain governance, supported by lead firms and facilitated by digital information platforms and data standards are leading to new challenges for firms looking to digitally integrate. Nevertheless, we also find examples in these sectors of opportunities where small firms are able to cater to emerging niche customers, and local or regional markets. Overall, the study shows that improving connectivity does not inherently benefit African firms in GVCs without support for complementary capacity and competitive advantages.
Key words: Internet, global value chains, connectivity, East Africa, development
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