University Libraries Promotion and Tenure Recognition

This edited volume by Gary Gereffi and Miguel Korzeniewicz provides a new way of looking at how we study and understand the production and distribution of goods and services in the global economy. The old approach considered some industries (such as apparel) as low-end and conducive to underdevelopment and other industries as high-end and conductive to economic growth. The Global Commodity Chain approach emphasizes it is not what you produce, but what segment of the production and distribution process that matters, with all industries having some low and high-end segments.

The approach goes on to examine the governance of commodity chains, analytically separating those with greater control exerted by buyers such as retail stores and those with control exerted by producers, such as large auto manufacturers. I selected this book because it allowed me to develop the core argument in my own work on how the structure of global commodity chains influences the dynamics of international labor solidarity.