Introduction: Globalisation, Value Chains and Development

Globalisation has become a catchword for the international economy at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The increasing importance of export-oriented industrialisation has made integration into the global economy virtually synonymous with development for a number of nations. However, there is an acute awareness that the gains from globalisation are very unevenly distributed within as well as between societies. A growing body of work analyses globalisation processes from the perspective of ‘value chains’; that is that international trade in goods and services should not be seen solely, or even mainly, as a multitude of arm’s-length market-based transactions but rather as systems of governance - involving multinational enterprises - that link firms together in a variety of sourcing and contracting arrangements. Understanding how these value chains operate is very important for developing country firms and policymakers because the way chains are structured has implications for newcomers trying to participate in the chain and to gain access to necessary skills, competences and supporting services. Most of the papers in this Bulletin build on the results of a workshop in Bellagio, Italy in September 2000, where all these issues were discussed

Introspective physicalism as an approach to the science of consciousness

Most ‘theories of consciousness’ are based on vague speculations about the properties of conscious experience. We aim to provide a more solid basis for a science of consciousness. We argue that a theory of consciousness should provide an account of the very processes that allow us to acquire and use information about our own mental states – the processes underlying introspection. This can be achieved through the construction of information processing models that can account for ‘Type-C’ processes. Type-C processes can be specified experimentally by identifying paradigms in which awareness of the stimulus is necessary for an intentional action. The Shallice (1988b) framework is put forward as providing an initial account of Type-C processes, which can relate perceptual consciousness to consciously performed actions. Further, we suggest that this framework may be refined through the investigation of the functions of prefrontal cortex. The formulation of our approach requires us to consider fundamental conceptual and methodological issues associated with consciousness. The most significant of these issues concerns the scientific use of introspective evidence. We outline and justify a conservative methodological approach to the use of introspective evidence, with attention to the difficulties historically associated with its use in psychology

Exploring the relationship between upgrading and capturing profits from GVC participation for disadvantaged suppliers in developing countries: A review of the upgrading literature

The existing literature on global value chains (GVCs) suggests that functional upgrading is a key determinant of whether suppliers are able to capture higher profits in GVCs. However, it is unclear whether the same argument holds for disadvantaged suppliers who face high barriers to achieving functional upgrading. Through a review of existing empirical studies, the present paper aims to explore how disadvantaged suppliers in developing countries increase their profits in the face of barriers to functional upgrading. The findings from the literature analysis suggest that the ability of disadvantaged suppliers to benefit from GVC participation depends on the extent of their managerial agency and their ability to leverage multiple upgrading/downgrading trajectories (whether product, process, or functional) and transform them into profitable outcomes

What lies between market and hierarchy? Insights from internalization theory and global value chain theory

In this paper, we suggest that internalization theory might be extended by incorporating complementary insights from GVC theory. More specifically, we argue that internalization theory can explain why lead firms might wish to externalize selected activities, but that it is largely silent on the mechanisms by which those lead firms might exercise control over the resultant externalized relationships with their GVC partners. We advance an explanation linking the choice of control mechanism to two factors: power asymmetries between the lead firms and their GVC partners, and the degree of codifiability of the information to be exchanged in the relationship

Local Embeddedness and Economic and Social Upgrading in Madagascar's Export Apparel Industry

Over the past decade, several Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries have developed or expanded export-oriented apparel industries in the context of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) quotas and preferential market access, most importantly under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Madagascar is different to the other main SSA low-income country (LIC) apparel exporters - Kenya, Lesotho and Swaziland - given its more diverse end markets and ownership structures and the political instability that led to the loss of AGOA status at the end of 2009. This paper assesses the development of Madagascar's export-oriented apparel industry and economic and social upgrading dynamics in particular in the context of the AGOA loss. It identifies four types of firms and value chains that differ with regard to ownership patterns, end markets and, most importantly, 'local embeddedness', with important implications for both economic upgrading dynamics and possibilities and the sustainability of the industry. The paper concludes that, despite the contraction in the exportoriented apparel industry post-AGOA, Madagascar is still a more successful apparel producer in terms of economic upgrading than the other main apparel-exporting LICs in SSA. The key to this trajectory lies in the differentiation of global value chain (GVC) relationships, local embeddedness and export diversification

Bringing the real world into the fMRI scanner: Repetition effects for pictures versus real objects

Our understanding of the neural underpinnings of perception is largely built upon studies employing 2-dimensional (2D) planar images. Here we used slow event-related functional imaging in humans to examine whether neural populations show a characteristic repetition-related change in haemodynamic response for real-world 3-dimensional (3D) objects, an effect commonly observed using 2D images. As expected, trials involving 2D pictures of objects produced robust repetition effects within classic object-selective cortical regions along the ventral and dorsal visual processing streams. Surprisingly, however, repetition effects were weak, if not absent on trials involving the 3D objects. These results suggest that the neural mechanisms involved in processing real objects may therefore be distinct from those that arise when we encounter a 2D representation of the same items. These preliminary results suggest the need for further research with ecologically valid stimuli in other imaging designs to broaden our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying human vision