Journal für Entwicklungspolitik 2009/2 [antikvár]

Journal fur Entwicklungspolitik XXV 2-2009, S.4-19 Leonhard Plank, Cornelia Staritz Introduction: global commodity chains and production networks - understanding uneven development in the global economy i. Context and motivation Over the last three decades the global economy, and in particular the organisation of global production and international trade, has changed significantly. This change has a quantitative dimension, as reflected in a considerable rise in trade (as a share of output) and in foreign direct investment (FDI) since the 1980s (Milberg 2004). However, the qualitative change in the structure of international trade and global production is much more significant. Although already the East India Company or the Hudson Bay Company had set up international trade networks as early as during the long sixteenth century' (Hopkins/Wallerstein 1986), they were distinct in several ways from today's global production networks. In particular, these companies were primarily concerned with trade and exchange, rather than organising production on a global scale (Gereffi 2005). Today, international trade and global production is increasingly organised in highly fragmented and geographically dispersed production networks where transnational corporations (TNCs) break up the production process in different parts and locate them in different countries. To illustrate the principle, take the example of a computer which is made up of semiconductor chips made in New Mexico (US), Scotland or Malaysia, a disk drive made in the Philippines, Singapore or Thailand, a monitor made in Japan, circuit boards made in China, and finally assembled in Mexico or Hungary (SOMO 2005). Such global production arrangements - which have been referred to as "integration of trade and disintegration of production" (Feenstra 1998) - can be found in many sectors and are mirrored by the rising share of intermediate goods in total trade (Milberg 2004). Hence, the global economy has been trans-