Global Commodity Chains and the Spatial-Temporal Dimensions of Labor Control: Lessons from Colombia’s Coffee and Banana Industries

Abstract

In this paper, the author seeks to explain the trajectories of local labor regime dynamics in Colombia’s coffee and banana industries from the post war developmental decades until the present. In order to explain these dynamics, the author first develops a neo-Gramscian ideal-typical schema to highlight the full range of labor regime dynamics emergent in Colombia, including “hegemonic,” “despotic,” and “crisis” regimes. The author then develops a theory of local labor regime types that draws from Giovanni Arrighi’s work on commodity chains. Finally, using comparative and world-historical methods, the author finds that the shifting trajectories of labor regimes in Colombia are affected by the nodal location of these regimes within their respective commodity chains.