Globalização e desenvolvimento baseado em matérias-primas: o caso da indústria do alumínio

From the notion that globalization is a long process, which shows distinct characteristics, in different industries and in different periods, the article examines the mutable nature of the globalization process in the aluminum industry. This article confirms the aluminum industry as one of the most truly global industries and analyses its trajectory, since the creation of the oligopoly structure, in the first years of this industry, until the changes that happened in the 20th century.Partindo da noção de que a globalização é um processo longo, que exibe características distintas, em diferentes indústrias e em diferentes períodos, o artigo examina a natureza mutável do processo de globalização na indústria de alumínio, ratifica a sua condição de uma das indústrias verdadeiramente globais e analisa a sua trajetória, desde a criação da estrutura de oligopólio, nos primeiros anos desta indústria, até as mudanças ocorridas no decorrer do século XX

Trade Wars and Disrupted Global Commodity Chains

The literatures on global commodity chains and global value chains rest on an unquestioned assumption: the continual expansion of globalization. The Trump Administration's trade wars challenged this foundational assumption and even today the new Biden regime also hints at the shift away from global supply chains. We find that the prior administration’s efforts caused continued disruption of long-established commodity chains in steel, aluminum, automobiles, and other manufactured products. Flows of raw materials, intermediate products and components, and finished goods now confront higher costs. Firms continue efforts to restructure commodity chains in ways that will require the disarticulation of some nodes and the creation of new nodes. We claim that these trade wars and breakdown of global commodity chains (GCCs) may in fact mark the start of the breakdown of the U.S.-led world order. This shift harkens the onset of a new era of economic and geopolitical conflict. A key question: has this disruption of old patterns and rise of new ones continued in the post-Trump era? Does the familiar pattern of globalization continue – or is competition, contestation and disarticulation leading to sectoral economic changes that drive larger patterns of economic ascent, dominance, and decline in the world economy

Strategy and the Contested Politics of Scale: Air Transportation in Australia

This article explores the ways in which the contested reconfiguration of air transportation infrastructures following deregulation in Australia resulted in the rescaling of air transportation services and their disassociation from the scales of political jurisdictions. In tracing the complex interactions between the state’s and firms’ strategies and their impacts at different scales, the article contends that it is not sufficient to view scale as an arena and outcome of political struggle. Rather, it argues for an activated understanding of scale as strategy. The reconfigurations of the scales of transportation networks in Australia reveal their profound implications for the production of space: for social equity, the fortunes of cities, and the manner of Australia’s insertion in the international division of labor

RESTRUCTURING MARKETS, REORGANIZING NATURE: AN EXAMINATION OF JAPANESE STRATEGIES FOR ACCESS TO RAW MATERIALS

Theorists of hegemony combine a concern with the causes of war and peace with questions of dominant trade regimes. While this combination addresses issues of central importance for studies of international relations, it may somewhat confound the role of hegemony studies within a world systems perspective. The power of the world systems perspective lies in the consideration of entire worlds, not simply as the appropriate unit of analysis, but as integrated units of production and exchange. Hierarchy within this system reflects not simply politically enforced relations of unequal exchange, but the subordination of production in different parts of the world to regimes constructed and manipulated by core powers to their own economic and political advantage. The processes that create the power of the core and the processes by which the core subordinates the periphery constitute the critical questions within this perspective. Part, but only part, of the answer lies in the superior productive capacity and efficiency of the core, and resulting ability to dominate trade. Another part, and we believe this is primary, lies in the ways that, in order to become so productive and so efficient, economies rising to core status must organize other economies and international transport systems to assure the increasing, secure, cheap supplies of the raw materials that support productive efficiency and economic growth