Global Commodity Chains and the Production of Surplus-value on a Global Scale: Bringing Back the New International Division of Labour Theory

Abstract

This paper offers a critique of mainstream and critical versions of Global Commodity Chain analysis of post-1960s global-economy transformations claiming that they suffer from different types of methodological nationalism. After arguing that the key to overcome their intrinsic problems is to be found in the critical revision of Fröbel et al.'s New International Division of Labour theory, the paper advances a novel account of the structural dynamics of the stratified capitalist world-system developed by Iñigo Carrera (1998). Finally, the paper substantiates its main claims with an analysis of the long-term development of the global semiconductors industry.