What Can be Learned about the International Division of Labor from the Literature on Global Commodity Chains?

Drawing upon an established research project that investigates global production networks spanning North America, this paper asks what can be learned about the international division of labor from the literature on global commodity chains (or international production networks, more broadly conceived). In addition to tracing the forgotten (and largely discarded) roots of the global commodity/value chain framework to the political economy of world-systems approach, I also draw on relevant insights from the literature on multinational corporations and a number of early papers regarding organizational externalization, including work by Hymer and Helleiner, as intellectual precursors to the contemporary literature on global chains. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]