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This paper uses a global commodity chain (GCC) framework to explore the nexus of illicit economic activities and rural change. We unpack the micro-level economic processes by which a de facto land grab in eastern Honduras' Moskitia region was catalyzed and accelerated by the region's ascendance as a global hub of cocaine transit (ca. 2008–2012). We show how 'narco-brokers' mobilized a long-standing economic infrastructure to harness land and labor in the service of moving drugs, and how these 'mid-stream' activities captured millions of dollars from the cocaine commodity chain. We detail the processes by which those dollars ultimately concentrated land among in situ and ex situ elites by profoundly distorting social relations around land governance, labor, food production, and—ultimately—land ownership. The result was widespread dispossession, land and resource privatization, increased food insecurity, community conflict, and increased social stratification. Lands transferred from resident smallholders to elites helped to (a) integrate the region horizontally into Honduras' rentier-based cattle economy, and (b) improve the vertical integration of the pan-hemispheric cocaine trade through the speculation and profit- laundering services that the region's enclosure provided. This case highlights how economic coercions work synergistically with the more well-studied role of overt physical violence in frontier land grabs. We urge greater attention to the role of illicit capital in agrarian transformation globally. The study also points to the potential for transit spaces to shed much light on the workings of (illicit) global commodity chains and illicit economic geographies more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last few decades, many environmental certification schemes were developed to enhance transparency and traceability within commodity chains. Most of them are transnational schemes, which means that they were created by non-governmental organizations and/or the private sector, independently from governments. This article aims to examine how local certified companies assess the functioning of such private environmental certification. It presents the results of an empirical research about the expectations and satisfaction of certified companies in Lithuania. Empirical data were collected through a survey with 90 companies certified by one of the three major transnational environmental standards: Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for the forestry and logging, Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) for fishing and aquaculture, and Oeko-Tex for the production of textiles. The results revealed that most companies have adopted these standards quite recently, indicating that it is generally a new trend in Lithuania. The findings suggest that the overall expectations with the standards’ functions, such as sending signals to clients or getting more market share, were higher than the satisfaction in all cases. The main transnational environmental standard adoption motive was the client demand. It turned out, however, that later after the certification procedure the majority of the companies were most satisfied with the market opportunities that opened up. Furthermore, the companies expected certification to operate best as a market-based mechanism; but most satisfactory performance was accredited to the signalling mechanism. Research suggests that certification provides various benefits for the companies, but the expectations might be rather exaggerated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of telecoupling is increasingly used as a framework to understand globally distant interconnections and their sustainability implications. Although there is a growing research focus on issues of governance related to global telecoupling, there appears little consensus over the meaning of "governance" in this respect. Papers in the recent Ecology and Society special feature titled "Telecoupling: A New Frontier for Global Sustainability" reveal quite different understandings of the telecoupling-governance relationship. We want to suggest that greater clarity and a common understanding of how governance figures in telecoupled systems will aid constructive dialogue on how to govern telecoupling toward more sustainable pathways in the face of pressing global social and environmental issues. This response, though not aiming to define a single, definitive framework of governance as it pertains to telecoupling, seeks to identify three distinct perspectives applied to governance in the context of global telecoupling: (1) governance by states or other actors that induces or fosters telecoupling in the first place, often irrespective of its sustainability implications; (2) governance mainly by private companies that coordinates telecoupled flows; and (3) governance by states, nonstate actors, and hybrid or multistakeholder initiatives that aims to address the negative externalities of telecoupling. By distinguishing these perspectives, we aim to make underlying understandings of governance explicit, and to foster further constructive exchange on the topic.

The article focuses on Industrial Revolution and the accompanying racialized interpretation of differences between parts of the world's population according to their degree of domination over and exploitation of natural resources. It mentions idea of global commodity and value chains receives an enormous impetus from here, as does the practice of extractivism. It also mentions responsibility in the current debate on the human-nature relationship.

This paper is motivated by the observation that our understanding of global cities in Germany and beyond is limited because the practices through which producer service firms (PSFs) are involved in managing and governing their clients’ global commodity chains (GCCs) have barely been studied. Based on interviews with representatives of PSFs in the secondary global city of Hamburg, the paper scrutinises whether and how service professionals contribute to the functioning and the control of their clients’ cross-border operations. It also analyses why clients choose global PSFs located in Hamburg, and it discusses which place Hamburg occupies in the network of German global cities. The paper concludes that because PSFs fulfil management functions for their clients’ global operations Hamburg is, beyond the role of its port, a critical node in many GCCs. Secondly, PSFs influence their clients’ decision-making processes. They are part of economic governance processes, though this impact cannot be straightforwardly equated with ‘command and control’. The paper also confirms that (and explains why) the world city network is the spatial correlate of a globalising economy. Finally, there is no such a thing as a ‘global city hierarchy’ because the division of labour between the offices of PSFs is functional. As regards further research, a first task is to verify this paper’s findings through interviews with clients of PSFs to consolidate our knowledge on the role of PSFs in GCCs. Secondly, the contention that the world city network is flat has to be re-examined against the backdrop of an evident clustering of PSFs in specific cities. Finally, the discussion of whether and how PSFs are involved in the governance of their clients‘ GCCs needs to be continued and deepened.

Over the past several decades, global economic relations within the fisheries sector have intensified creating a “global fish-food economy”. Until recently, relatively little attention has been paid to the gendered spatial relations underlying this system and the differential way globalization shapes men and women fish workers’ livelihood options. This paper integrates insights from feminist commodity chain analysis and livelihood analysis to analyze household-level economic data and gendered patterns of labor among three fisherfolk communities in Trivandrum District, Kerala, India. The objective is to investigate the diverse impacts of globalization within fisheries on women and men in local fishing communities. Different gender divisions of labor across the three communities studied inform very different livelihood strategies in response to economic transformations. Thus, globalization in the fisheries plays out differently for men and women in different fishing communities as a result of different configurations of gender, work, culture, identity, and economy and the different ways households and communities are connected to fish economies at different scales. Identifying these differences offers a means by which we might broaden our theoretical understanding of the gendered nature of globalization in resource-based economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging forms of governance and many academic analyses of seafood commodity chains currently have a strong focus on financial value, transmitted in a linear ‘vertical’ fashion from fisher, through traders to eventual consumers. This Brief Communication argues that the social dimensions of value must be given explicit attention in analysis if seafood commodity chains are to be made more equitable and sustainable in changing governance contexts. The paper draws on evidence from selected seafood commodity chains across the Philippines, demonstrating the range of co-produced social values that are of equal or greater significance than financial value. Fishers, traders and consumers, all generate multiple social values that shape the nature and outcomes of seafood commodity chains. In contrast to forms of fisheries governance that focus exclusively on financial or ecological values, the paper suggests that integrating multiple social values into the governance of seafood commodity chains, as well as at the site of production, should become a core focus of research and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of serving as the purported goal of the global production network (GPN) approach, development has been left undefined in the GPN literature, with ‘GPN 2.0’ now offering an impoverished understanding of development. This article reviews the elaboration of the ‘core concepts’ of the GPN approach: value, power, embeddedness – and development. I argue that the dis/articulations perspective is useful in offering a critical interrogation of d/Development, and that this has implications for value, power and embeddedness. The disarticulations perspective takes the determination of value into account and highlights the role of borders and discursive boundaries in structuring power relations [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major problem in communication networks is how to efficiently define the routing paths and to allocate bandwidths in order to satisfy a given collection of transmission requests. In this paper, we study this routing problem by modeling it as a bi-objective single path multicommodity flow problem (SMCFP). Two conflicting objective functions are simultaneously optimized: the delay and reliability of the generated paths. To tackle the complexity of this problem (NP-hard), most of the existing studies proposed approximate methods and metaheuristics as solution approaches. In this paper, we propose to adapt the augmented ϵ-constraint method in order to solve small sized instances of the bi-SMCFP. For large scale problems, we develop three metaheuristics: a multiobjective multi-operator genetic algorithm, an adaptive multiobjective variable neighborhood search and new hybrid method combining the ϵ-constraint with the evolutionary metaheuristic. The idea of the hybridization schema is to first use the metaheuristic to generate a good approximation of the Pareto front, then to enhance the quality of the solutions using the ϵ-constraint method to push them toward the exact Pareto front. An intelligent decomposition scheme is used to reduce the size of the search space before applying the exact method. Computational results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed hybrid algorithm using instances derived from real network topology and other randomly generated instances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The criminalization of Chinese counterfeit goods in the global market calls for a fresh approach to understanding well‐established binary distinctions such as legal/illegal, licit/illicit, and formal/informal. Based on a multi‐sited ethnography in China, Paraguay and Brazil, I examine five commodity chains of two products – toys and watches – and their regulatory frameworks in terms of merchandise status, business formality, and international transaction legality. Certain merchandise produced in the formal economy has no legal definition a priori, but legal variability starts when goods leave the factory. A great interchangeability of a product's legal status existed along its chain according to governance structures, legal cultures, geographical domains, and power relations. These findings suggest that the illicit is a relational category and the so‐called criminal economy is not a segmented market, but part of a global process integrated with formality and marked by great legal variability within and between nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Antipode is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Financial & Credit Activity: Problems of Theory & Practice is the property of University of Banking of the National Bank of Ukraine and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

ABSTRACT: Restructuring of global and local markets has led to an increased influence of commodity derivatives markets on commodity price setting. This has critical implications for price risks experienced by actors along commodity chains. Commodity derivatives markets have undergone significant changes that have been referred to as the ‘financialization of commodities’, which we define as an increase in trading activity by financial investors and the reorientation of business strategies by commodity trading houses towards risk management and financial activities. This article assesses how these global financialization processes affect commodity producers in low‐income countries via the operational dynamics of global commodity chains and national market structures. It investigates how prices are set and transmitted and how risks are distributed and managed in the cotton sectors in Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Tanzania. It concludes that uneven exposure to price instability and access to price risk management have important distributional implications. Whilst international traders have the capacity to deal with price risks through hedging, in addition to expanding their profit possibilities through financial activities on derivatives markets, local actors in producing countries face the challenge of increased short‐termism — albeit to different extents depending on national market structures — with limited access to risk management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reflects on growth of Angolan coffee production that coincided with an expansion of Portuguese imperial ambitions in that corner of the world. It mentions that author Jeremy Prestholdt has analyzed how East African demand for specific foreign textiles influenced the development of cotton manufacturing in cities like Bombay, India. It states that global commodity chains, focused on the links between producers, middlemen, and world markets.

Copyright of Ager: Journal of Depopulation & Rural Development Studies / Revista de Estudios sobre Despoblación y Desarrollo Rural is the property of Rolde de Estudios Aragoneses and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

▀ The dollar has tended to move in long swings over the last forty years, raising the risk that the recent decline could extend considerably further. This is not our base case, but risks do look skewed towards additional dollar weakness. Our modelling work suggests that a large further dollar slide would have significant effects on the pattern of world growth – the US and some emerging markets would gain, with other advanced economies the main losers. ▀ There have been several large multi‐year swings in the dollar over the last four decades. We identify seven such episodes since 1971 including three long declines averaging 31%, the last being in 2002‐08. Since 2017 the dollar has fallen 10%, implying a possible further considerable drop. ▀ Our dollar strength indicator, which covers a range of economic variables associated with dollar moves in the past, does not currently point to a re‐run of the dollar weakness of the 2000s. But we do expect some further near‐term dollar losses and risks to our baseline forecast look skewed to the downside, especially given the emergence of large twin deficits in the US. ▀ Should a further large dollar slump nevertheless occur, our modelling suggests large effects on the pattern of world growth. The main gainers would be commodity‐producing emerging markets (EM) benefitting from improved terms of trade, positive balance sheet and external liquidity effects and scope to ease local interest rates. Rising US yields would erode some of these gains in later years. ▀ The main initial losers would be advanced economies outside the US which would lose competitiveness. In the case of the Eurozone and Japan, undershoots of inflation targets would be likely. There could also be some other negative consequences such as stoking protectionism and creating financial bubbles in some EMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A growing body of research points to the ‘Rise of the South’ and the growth of South–South trade. In this article, we consider the implications of the shifting dynamics of global trade and the greater prominence of Southern actors for the conceptualization of global value chains (GVCs) and global production networks (GPNs). We use trade data analysis to explore the changing geography of global trade and to highlight the emergence of more polycentric trade. We argue that our understanding of GVCs and GPNs, in a context where Southern actors and Southern end markets have more prominent roles, requires greater attention to the existence of multiple value chains (VCs) and production networks (PNs) serving different end markets – including domestic, regional and global. Consequently, there is a need to refine our understanding of both governance dynamics – lead firm strategies and standards requirements – and upgrading prospects through recognizing this shifting trade geography. We conclude by raising several new research questions regarding the conceptualization of VCs and PNs in a world where Southern actors and Southern markets are increasingly important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In many parts of the world, people access consumer goods mainly via informal economic networks. In this article, I analyse the governance of petty commodity chains through a case study of Chinese fashion jewellery produced for the Ghanaian market. ‘Petty commodity chains’ denotes a particular type of global value chain, where production, trade, and distribution are carried out by small, unregistered businesses, between which personalized relationships and informal infrastructure enable transactions. These chains are neither controlled by lead firms at the production or distribution ends, nor made up of pure market linkages. Weak formal institutions and an intensely competitive commercial environment encourage business actors to establish enduring relationships. Credit relations run through long stretches of the chain and create mutual dependencies. The concept of ‘beholden value chains’ is introduced to describe the co‐dependency between business actors and the coordination of activities in petty commodity chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Regional value chains (RVCs), involving regional lead firms that trade within a single world region, are increasingly prominent within the Global South. Yet, emerging analyses of RVCs have not adequately interrogated how the expansion of RVCs relates to global value chains (GVCs), how actors in RVCs interact with overlapping chains, or the implications for development. Through a case study of horticulture value chains in Kenya, two main types of RVC–GVC interactions are identified. First, opportunistic RVCs emerged when suppliers found their produce rejected from GVCs for lack of standards compliance and began selling spillover produce in regional markets. Second, a more independent targeted RVC has evolved since suppliers began selling produce directly to regional supermarkets that had established their own regional procurement strategies and private standards. Some suppliers are also involved in hybrid interactions – participating in both opportunistic spillovers and targeted RVCs. The analysis concludes that the expansion of RVCs must be considered in the context of GVCs, leading to more nuanced understandings of the characteristics and development implications of RVCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this article we analyse the conditions for industrial upgrading in the Chinese LED industry, which proactive local state policies and expanding domestic markets have greatly facilitated. State initiatives provoked overinvestment, but eventually led to the emergence of competitive domestic enterprises. Simultaneously, firms benefited from a growing domestic market on which they outcompeted foreign companies in mid‐price segments. The combination of these factors accounts for the peculiarly Chinese upgrading experience. Neither the resources provided by a new version of the ‘developmental state’ nor domestic market growth alone can explain the Chinese players' success. Based on these results, and given that the emerging economies have become the most important markets for certain consumer goods – a development that (local) industrial policies for industrial upgrading can influence – we provide further proof that it is necessary to rethink the export‐led upgrading paradigm in theories of globally dispersed production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This is the second of a two‐part series of review articles on ethical agro‐food networks (AFNs) in global peripheries, with a focus on Latin America. This article focuses on origin or locality‐based strategies, including geographical indications (GIs) as well as alternative approaches to valorising place–product connections. It compares the impacts of origin‐based networks to fair trade and organics and identifies possibilities for alternative or hybrid conceptualisations of these networks. It concludes by suggesting some directions for future research on ethical AFNs in the Global South. These include more study of local agro‐food networks in the South, more explicit attention to the role of the State, and analysis of the discursive as well as material construction of ethical AFNs in global peripheries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe the student learning outcomes (SLOs) for a sustainability major, evaluate faculty incorporation of the SLOs into the courses in the sustainability major curriculum and measure student performance on the SLOs from entry into the major to the senior capstone course.Design/methodology/approach Through an iterative approach with a faculty advisory committee, SLOs were developed for the sustainability major. Curriculum mapping followed by evaluation of course syllabi were used to determine the extent to which each course addressed the SLOs. Student performance on most SLOs was measured through student assessment in an introductory and capstone course to evaluate the change in performance over time.Findings The core courses of the sustainability major were more likely to address the SLOs of the major than that of the elective courses. Where measured, student performance on the SLOs increased from the introductory course to the capstone course. Sustainability majors participated in an average of almost ten experiential learning opportunities focused on sustainability.Originality/value This research provides a longitudinal assessment of student learning in an undergraduate sustainability major. Because undergraduate sustainability degrees are generally new, this research can serve as a base upon which to continue to improve sustainability curriculum design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015, West Virginia’s flagship food bank confronted a financial crisis that threatened to cut off the supply of emergency food to some 600 agencies serving 300,000 people a month. Focusing on this crisis, we explore the evolution of charitable food networks across the United States with a particular focus on the role of food banking within agro-industrial supply chains. Drawing on a three year institutional ethnography of West Virginia’s food banking economy, we analyze the transition from producer to buyer driven supply chains in a network that is dependent on charitable giving and affective labor to process surplus foods and revalue obsolete corporate inventories. We argue that food banks and their affiliate agencies have become key institutions within a vast food destruction network increasingly serving the needs of large food firms. While food banks and their affiliate agencies provide tax relief for food corporations and offer a highly efficient vent for state subsidized and corporate food waste, they are primarily funded by community-based organizations who are themselves stretched thin by economic crises within their own locales. The entrenchment and evolution of the food waste qua hunger relief circuit is producing new tensions in a network that is conflicted over whom they are ultimately working for, and sheds light on the paradox of hunger relief in the 21st-century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advances geographical perspectives on household sustainability by extending the range of insights from consumption scholarship that are brought to bear on the issue. Research that links consumption to the dynamics of variously sustainable practices currently dominate, resulting in a particular and partial reading of material culture. I suggest that geographical approaches to the social life of things may yield new insights into materiality and household sustainability. Specifically, I argue that "following the thing"-which is typically focused on commodity chains -could usefully be extended into people's homes. This is not introduced as a way to acknowledge the connections between points in a network, rather, it is positioned as a set of theoretical and methodological resources that can be utilised to explore the movement and placing of things as they move through a critical juncture - in this case the household. To illustrate, I present material drawn from two empirical studies of households in the UK. The first is an ethnographically-informed study of how food becomes waste; the second is a quantitative survey of laundry habits. Attention is paid to the ways in which the ongoing categorisation and valuation of things shape their trajectories and move them in directions that give rise to (adverse) environmental impacts. To conclude I sketch out an agenda for future studies, consider how a focus on households can yield more comprehensive biographies of things and address the implications of this analysis both for consumption scholarship and for engagement with sustainability research and policy beyond human geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transatlantic Italian foods offer a paradigmatic commercial and cultural product of a migrant marketplace in which waves of mobile cooks and eaters from used food as a material and symbolic component of their identity as Italians in America, while also shaping notions of Italian food and the Italian nation. This paper advances the migrant marketplace framework by showing how notions of culinary regionalism and nationalism were constructed through the transatlantic circulation of culinary and cultural imaginaries. Combining commodity chain analysis and ethnic studies methodologies reveals a long-term synchronization of taste between Italy and America and across social and regional lines in Italy. By the mid-twentieth century, the American food industry had standardized diverse Italian regional cuisines into an image of red sauce and pizza, but in the 1970s, a new generation of mobile Italians and Italian Americans recovered those regional traditions and raised the global status of Italian food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fair trade and organic coffee are alternative production and trade systems designed to promote the equitable and environmentally sustainable production of coffee. The purpose of this study is to analyze the functioning of different coffee supply chains in Bolivia and find policy changes necessary to sustain specialty coffee production in that country. Based on the primary and secondary data collected from various market functionaries, we find that the Bolivian coffee growers and other intermediaries have benefited financially from participating in fair trade and organic markets. However, the producers continue to face challenges, including increasing costs of production, stagnant premium, price floors, and declining yield. Institutional reforms within the supply chain and greater support from the government are necessary to ensure a better functioning Bolivian market. The government should also prioritize certified coffee as a part of its national food sovereignty agenda since Bolivians consume increasing amounts of high-quality coffees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between value and nature has become central to critical resource geography (and other nature-society geography). While research demonstrates the problems with efforts to extend capitalist monetary value to ecosystem services or externalities, few scholars have anchored their critiques in their own theory of value. This report reviews this bourgeoning research through a theory of value anchored in Marxian political economy. Drawing from a few basic postulates, I attempt to fill some gaps and clear up some ambiguities in this research. First, I examine research on environmental valuations schemes (e.g. pricing externalities, or payments for ecosystem services). Marx’s value theory (rooted in abstract labor) can help us to explain why these projects seem so destined for failure. Second, I examine research into how resources and value flow through commodity chains or global production networks. Marx’s focus on labor and abstraction can help us to better understand the violence within these chains toward humans and nonhumans alike. Third, I examine research into the financialization of environmental goods in services. I suggest Marx’s value-theoretical approach to the ‘totality’ of capitalist social relations can better help us to theorize financial capital’s contradictory relationship to value production in the realm of production. I conclude by suggesting a unified theory of value can yield a more radical critique of the diverse failures of capitalism in dealing with our current ecological crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista NERA is the property of Revista NERA and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

From urine in India to ampoules in Europe describes the commodity chain of the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) between the 1960s and 1990s. The transfiguration of hCG from an impotent waste product in India to a prized pharmaceutical in Europe was made possible by promises of productivity. These promises mobilized a gendered, classed, and racialized relational infrastructure that made the fertility of the urban poor in Kolkata available and valuable for reproductive medicine in the global North. Traces of these relations, however, were obscured by framing transactions as donations, providing return gifts, and declaring urine as raw material. In this article, I make hCG's relational infrastructure legible. Showing how the pharmaceutical has come into being through manifold relations, allows me to analyze processes of valuation that go beyond biological extraction and chemical metamorphosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the price dynamics and the degree of market integration in the German crustaceans market is examined using cointegration methods. The study focuses on wild caught cold water shrimp, farmed warm water shrimp as well as lobster and derives implications for the fisheries sector. In the analysis, both the import market and the retail market price reactions are distinguished. Therefore, it is evaluated how price changes affect competing commodities within and between the value chain of a given crustaceans commodity. Evidence of partial market integration is found for all species under study at the import level while at the retail level; there is weak evidence of perfect market integration. At the import-retail level linkages, shrimp markets are partially integrated, while the lobster market is fully integrated. Consequently, it can be concluded that the species under consideration are substitutes. Price determination processes for the shrimp markets vary with the level of the value chain. The results imply that the wild and farmed crustaceans markets are interacting through substitution effects. Hence, the markets have the capability to shield volatile and rising prices that would emanate from supply shocks. Overexploited wild caught species would have the potential to recover and the competing farmed species could expand to at least insure against rising prices due to supply shortage. Thus, alternative fisheries management and development strategies should consider competing species, at least from an economic perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global value chain (GVC) analytic, as currently conceived in the literature on global production, tracks 'value added' along commodity chains but does not interrogate where value comes from and where it goes. This tends to deflect narratives that relate to systemic inequalities and the mechanisms by which those inequalities are reproduced. We seek to remedy that defect in two ways. First, we demonstrate that assumptions in GVC analysis about the distribution of value creation along the chain, which are generally adopted to support value chain 'upgrading' as a policy prescription, may be unreliable. Second, we combine the analytic with the emerging 'global wealth chain' analytic regarding tax outcomes, for this will enable us to map contestation over value capture between capital, labour and the state along the chain. We call this synthetic analytic the 'global inequality chain' (GIC). While we deploy Marxian value theory to provide a framework for this schematic mapping exercise, we emphasize that the GIC is amenable to other value-theoretical frameworks (provided such frameworks are objective rather than empirically reliant on realization in the form of prices). We illustrate the utility of the GIC by applying it to the topics of global gender inequality and corporate tax reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report focuses on the now substantial international rural geography literature on the emergence of so-called ‘resource peripheries’, linked to the economic expansion of rapidly industrializing nations such as India and China. The report outlines the major foci and key arguments of this body of work, noting its connections to, but also elaborations of, important concepts used within rural geography, including global commodity chains and their multi-scalar governance, involving, in part, political, economic and social relations between corporations and local communities. Noting the influence of numerous Marxian concepts in this body of work’s intellectual development, the report draws further potential links with the ‘dis/articulations’ scholarship that has recently emerged out of a critique of the global commodity/value chain research, including notions of dispossession, disempowerment and primitive accumulation. Relatedly, aspects of multi-scalar and multi-sector governance in natural resource extraction are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship on the drug trade shares points of convergence with work on mobilities studies and transport history, particularly in the study of the production, commerce, and consumption of licit and illicit drugs in spatial and geographical context. The visibility of the connections between drugs studies and mobility and transport history has become more evident very recently, in part, because of the novelty of both areas of study. The authors identify literature intended to offer a bridge and foster a discussion among specialists in these distinct fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study concerns how olive oil producers and local bureaucrats in western Turkey use geographical indications (GIs) as a localist strategy to strengthen their position in global markets by challenging conventional agricultural practices. The study employs the disarticulation approach of global commodity chain analysis in order to understand which factors delink people and places from conventional commodity chains/industrial chains and link them instead to GI chains. The results of the study indicate that regional disadvantages—e.g., high production costs due to land characteristics—are the main factor delinking local actors from the conventional olive oil commodity chain. Furthermore, certain dynamic rent opportunities that are related to characteristics of territorial quality and to local cultural characteristics also contribute to the linking of the region and producers to GI chains. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The National Food Security Act-2013 (NFSA) in India has the primary aim of ensuring food security through the existing Public Distribution System (PDS). The foodgrains undergo a vast supply chain wherein after procurement from farmers these are transported and stored at various levels before being finally distributed to the intended beneficiaries. It has been seen that this long and complex supply chain is not effective due to various barriers to its efficient implementation. This paper analyses these barriers which impede the implementation of an effective Supply Chain Management (SCM) in PDS using Total Interpretive Structural Modeling (TISM). The work has been divided into two phases, one being the identification of barriers and their qualitative analysis being the other. Initially, the Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) is used to understand the mutual influences amongst the barriers by survey/questionnaire. This part identifies the dominant barriers which prevent the adoption of an effective SCM. Later the TISM approach is used to bring out the exact influence of the barriers on each other. The result of this study would be helpful for the government to formulate an efficient PDS supply chain thereby achieving the aim of NFSA in a more efficient way and also reduce the burden of subsidy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to the complex research of the crisis phenomena results in the Greek polis in the 4-th century BC. The crisis was characterized by the next specific features as a classical slavery and commodity economy and property differentiation of citizens, on the one hand, the concentration of wealth and a poverty on the other hand. The features of the crisis phenomena in the history of Greek polis in the first half of the 4th century B.C. are dealt with the Peloponnesian war in the (4-th century BC). The war led to the ruin of peasant farms, the severance of trade ties and a general decline of the economy. In spite of this fact the polises managed to restore their economy quite quickly and stimulate the development of craft and trade. It's proved by the wide–ranging documental materials that the overall level of the economy in the 4-th century AD did not become much lower in comparison with economic results in the 5-th century BC. Article’s goal in this study is to consider the effects of the Greek polis crisis phenomena in the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mining poses significant and potentially underestimated risks to tropical forests worldwide. In Brazil's Amazon, mining drives deforestation far beyond operational lease boundaries, yet the full extent of these impacts is unknown and thus neglected in environmental licensing. Here we quantify mining-induced deforestation and investigate the aspects of mining operations, which most likely contribute. We find mining significantly increased Amazon forest loss up to 70 km beyond mining lease boundaries, causing 11,670 km² of deforestation between 2005 and 2015. This extent represents 9% of all Amazon forest loss during this time and 12 times more deforestation than occurred within mining leases alone. Pathways leading to such impacts include mining infrastructure establishment, urban expansion to support a growing workforce, and development of mineral commodity supply chains. Mining-induced deforestation is not unique to Brazil; to mitigate adverse impacts of mining and conserve tropical forests globally, environmental assessments and licensing must considered both on- and off-lease sources of deforestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this work is to empirically assess the determinants used in global value chain governance tr ade through interfirm relationship and their effect on competitive advantage of horticultural value chains in developing economies. The paper is based on a Kenyan survey of 83 horticultural exporters of fresh fruits and vegetables accessed out of 120 exporters registered with Fresh Produce Association of Kenya (FPEAK) and Horticultural Crops Directorate (HCD). It employs a nonlinear principal component analysis procedure of categorical principal component analysis (CATPCA). From the CATPCA output, five components considered to be key food value chain governance determinants affecting the export oriented horticultural value chain in Kenya were extracted and named as standards & certification, nature of transactions, level of chain integration, nature of cont ract and relational characteristics. The current research shows that with prioritisation of requisite food safety standards & certification schemes and discernment of transactional demands of heterogeneous export markets, horticultural exporters may expect to be competitive by means of improved product differentiation, process flows, logistical advantage and promotion of marketing & organisation management innovativeness. The implication therefore to the chain managers that standards & certification schemes are taking a critical position in determining food value chain governance especially through remote governance or governance from a distance other than the governance structure continuum of markets and hierarchies previously defined by transactional cost economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primary producers in global value chains, like any other firm, aim for entrepreneurial success through deploying strategic resources, collective action, strategic intent, and a supportive institutional environment. In the current article, we analyze the extent to which members of farmer cooperatives in Ethiopia succeed in deploying strategic resources. We find that non-members utilize resources more efficiently and that the potential for collective action is not realized. The potential for collective action remains unrealized due to the institutional environment. We suggest pathways for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conceptual paper discusses the challenges smallholder producer cooperatives in developing countries face while trying to access agricultural global value chains. We assess the problem of competitiveness related to lack of commitment and improper selection. Prioritization of open membership over selection is generally taken for granted in the policy debate on farmers’ market organizations (FMOs). We argue that open membership may work in community-driven organizations, however, it becomes a major threat for entrepreneurial FMOs. Inclusion facilitates free riding, which forms a barrier for investments of members. This is one of the major reasons why so many of these organizations are so much resource constrained, i.e. are not able to compete in the market without external support. FMOs should take targeting and selection serious if entrepreneurial activities are intended. Otherwise, they miss the opportunity to create a committed member base willing to invest in a potentially competitive organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]