Global Commodity Chains and Labor Relations: (42 Studies in Global Social History)

Due to the increasing linkage of global production sites, the concept of commodity chains has become indispensable for the investigation of production at a global scale. Although work is the basis of production in every involved location, it is often being neglected as a research subject without taking interest in the workers, the work processes and the working conditions. This edited volume provides a collection of historical and contemporary commodity chain studies by placing labor at the centre of analysis. A global historical perspective demonstrates that splitting production processes to different, hierarchically connected locations are by no means new phenomena. The book is thus an important and valuable contribution to commodity chain research, but also to the fields of social-economic and global labour history. Contributors are: András Pinkasz, Andrea Komlosy, Christin Bernhold, Ernst Langthaler, Franziska Ollendorf, Goran Musić, Jan Grumiller, Johanna Sittel, Jörg Nowak, Karin Fischer, Klemens Kaps, Miroslav Lacko, Santosh Hasnu, Stefan Schmalz, Tamás Gerőcs, Tibor T. Meszmann, and Uwe Spiekermann.

Table of Contents:
List of Maps, Figures and Tables Notes on Contributors 1 Chains of Labor  Connecting Global Labor History and the Commodity Chain Paradigm   Andrea Komlosy and Goran Musić PART 1 Theorizing Commodity Chains, Labor Relations and Upgrading 2 Cycles of Global Expansion and Contraction  Global Commodity Chains and Labor Relations in Textiles and Garments from 17th to 21st Century   Andrea Komlosy 3 Soy Expansions  China, the USA and Brazil in Comparison   Ernst Langthaler 4 Who’s Upgrading? Class Differentiation and Labor Relations in Argentinian Agribusiness   Christin Bernhold PART 2 Commodity Chains and Proto-industrialization in Early Modern Central Europe 5 Grain, Flour, Beer, and Liquor  Commodity Chains, Labor Relations and Economic Development in Habsburg Galicia, 1772–1918   Klemens Kaps 6 Global Commodity Chains and Labor Relations in the Distribution of Central European Copper in the Eighteenth Century   Miroslav Lacko PART 3 Commodity Chains in (Post-)Colonial Settings>/i> 7 Labor as a Bottleneck  Entangled Commodity Chains of Sugar in Hawaii and California in the Late Nineteenth Century   Uwe Spiekermann 8 Coolie Labor, Tea Planters and Transport in Colonial India   Santosh Hasnu 9 Analyzing Structural Change and Labor Relations in Global Commodity Chains  The Ethiopian Leather Industry   Jan Grumiller PART 4 Production Chains in (Post-)Socialist Eastern Europe 10 Outward Processing Production and the Yugoslav Self-Managed Textile Industry in the 1980s   Goran Musić 11 Uneven Development in the European Automotive Industry  Labor Fragmentation and Value- Added Production in the Hungarian Semi-Periphery   Tamás Gerőcs, Tibor T. Meszmann and András Pinkasz PART 5 Trade Union Networks, ngo campaigns, Workers’ Agency 12 Transnational Solidarity Networks between Workers and Global Production Networks   Jörg Nowak 13 Corporate Social Responsibility in the Global Cocoa Chocolate Chain  Insights from sustainability certification in Ghana’s Cocoa Communities   Franziska Ollendorf 14 On the (Re)Production of Informal Work in Argentina’s Auto Industry   Stefan Schmalz and Johanna Sittel PART 6 Conclusion 15 Global Labor and Labor Studies – Breaking the Chains   Karin Fischer  Index of Places, Persons, Companies and Institutions

About the Author :
Andrea Komlosy, Ph.D. (1984), University of Vienna, is a professor at the Department for Economic and Social History, University of Vienna, where she is one of the Global History and Global Studies program coordinators. She has published widely on work and labor, migration, borders and uneven development. Goran Musić, Ph.D. (2016), European University Institute, is a postdoctoral associated researcher at the Centre for Southeast European Studies, University of Graz. His fields of interest include global labor history, the comparative history of workers under state socialism, and the everyday history of socialist Yugoslavia.

Review :
List of Maps, Figures and Tables Notes on Contributors 1 Chains of Labor Connecting Global Labor History and the Commodity Chain Paradigm Andrea Komlosy and Goran Music PART 1 Theorizing Commodity Chains, Labor Relations and Upgrading 2 Cycles of Global Expansion and Contraction Global Commodity Chains and Labor Relations in Textiles and Garments from 17th to 21st Century Andrea Komlosy 3 Soy Expansions China, the USA and Brazil in Comparison Ernst Langthaler 4 Who's Upgrading? Class Differentiation and Labor Relations in Argentinian Agribusiness Christin Bernhold PART 2 Commodity Chains and Proto-industrialization in Early Modern Central Europe 5 Grain, Flour, Beer, and Liquor Commodity Chains, Labor Relations and Economic Development in Habsburg Galicia, 1772-1918 Klemens Kaps 6 Global Commodity Chains and Labor Relations in the Distribution of Central European Copper in the Eighteenth Century Miroslav Lacko PART 3 Commodity Chains in (Post-)Colonial Settings>/i> 7 Labor as a Bottleneck Entangled Commodity Chains of Sugar in Hawaii and California in the Late Nineteenth Century Uwe Spiekermann 8 Coolie Labor, Tea Planters and Transport in Colonial India Santosh Hasnu 9 Analyzing Structural Change and Labor Relations in Global Commodity Chains The Ethiopian Leather Industry Jan Grumiller PART 4 Production Chains in (Post-)Socialist Eastern Europe 10 Outward Processing Production and the Yugoslav Self-Managed Textile Industry in the 1980s Goran Music 11 Uneven Development in the European Automotive Industry Labor Fragmentation and Value- Added Production in the Hungarian Semi-Periphery Tamás Gerőcs, Tibor T. Meszmann and András Pinkasz PART 5 Trade Union Networks, ngo campaigns, Workers' Agency 12 Transnational Solidarity Networks between Workers and Global Production Networks Jörg Nowak 13 Corporate Social Responsibility in the Global Cocoa Chocolate Chain Insights from sustainability certification in Ghana's Cocoa Communities Franziska Ollendorf 14 On the (Re)Production of Informal Work in Argentina's Auto Industry Stefan Schmalz and Johanna Sittel PART 6 Conclusion 15 Global Labor and Labor Studies - Breaking the Chains Karin Fischer Index of Places, Persons, Companies and Institutions