Financialization, price risks, and global commoditychains: Distributional implications on cotton sectorsin Sub-Saharan Africa

The functioning of commodity markets has changed related to processes of financialization that involve two major developments – the rise of financial interest on commodity derivative markets through the increasing presence of financial investors and the changing business models of international commodity trading houses and the increasing importance of these markets in price setting and risk management since the liberalization of national commodity sectors. A critical question is how these global financialization processes affect commodity producers in low income countries via the operational dynamics of global commodity chains and distinct national market structures. This paper investigates how global financialization processes influence how prices are set and transmitted and how risks are distributed and managed in the cotton sectors in Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Tanzania. It concludes that uneven exposure to price instability and access to price risk management have important distributional implications. Whilst international traders have the capacity to deal with price risks through hedging in addition to expanding their profit possibilities through financial activities on commodity derivative markets, local actors in producer countries face the challenge of price instability and increased short-termism – albeit to different extents deepening on local market structures – with limited access to risk management

The Foundational Economy as a Cornerstone for a Social–Ecological Transformation

This theoretical paper synthesises research on the foundational economy and its contribution to a social–ecological transformation. While foundational thinking offers rich concepts and policies to transition towards such transformation, it fails to grasp the systematic non-sustainability of capitalism. This weakness can be overcome by enriching contemporary foundational thinking with feminist and ecological economics. Whereas the feminist critique problematises foundational thinking’s focus on paid labour, the ecological critique targets Sen’s capability approach as a key inspiration of foundational thinking, arguing that a theory of human needs is better suited to conceptualise wellbeing within planetary boundaries. Based on this, we outline a novel schema of economic zones and discuss their differentiated contributions to the satisfaction of human needs. By privileging need satisfaction, such broadened foundational thinking demotes the tradable sector and rentier economy, thereby revaluating unpaid work as well as respecting ecological imperatives. This empowers new articulations of social and ecological struggles to improve living conditions in the short run, while having the potential in the long run to undermine capitalism from within

Soziales Upgrading und Beschäftigtenmacht in globalen Wertschöpfungsketten

Dieser Beitrag kritisiert das herkömmliche, in der Forschung über globale Wertschöpfungsketten (GWK) geläufige Konzept von sozialem Upgrading, da es den Zusammenhang zwischen Machtbeziehungen und Beschäftigungsbedingungen unzureichend berücksichtigt. Die Autor*innen stellen eine Neukonzeptualisierung vor, die auf einem kritischen Verständnis von Beschäftigtenmacht beruht. Beschäftigtenmacht in GWK wird auf einer vertikalen und einer horizontalen Achse bestimmt. Die erste Achse betrifft die Beziehungen innerhalb von GWK, die zweite die lokalen Kapital-Arbeit- und Staat-Gesellschaft-Beziehungen. Zudem betonen die Autor*innen die Bedeutung einer Analyse der Intersektionalität von Beschäftigtenidentitäten im Rahmen von Machtverhältnissen und bei der Machtausübung. Beschäftigtenmacht - hier als strukturelle und Assoziationsmacht betrachtet - wird am Schnittpunkt der beiden Achsen ausgeübt und ist verwoben mit den Staat-Gesellschaft-Beziehungen und multiplen Beschäftigtenidentitäten. Eine exemplarische Analyse der Bekleidungsindustrie Kambodschas zeigt, dass die Neukonzeptualisierung bei der Untersuchung sozialer Up- und Downgradingprozesse hilfreich sein kann.This article criticises the conventional social upgrading concept in global value chain (GVC) research based on an inadequate consideration of how power relations affect workers' conditions. The authors present a re-conceptualisation based on a critical understanding of worker power that is conditioned by different relationships on a vertical axis and local capital-labour and state-society relations on a horizontal axis of GVCs. They also call for an analysis of the intersectionality of worker identities in power relations and the exercise of power. Hence, worker power, discussed in this article as structural and associational power, is exercised at the cross-section of the vertical and horizontal axes and embedded in state-society relations and multiple identities of workers. An exemplary analysis of the clothing sector in Cambodia shows how the re-conceptualisation can be useful to assess social up- and downgrading processes

Greening Red Vienna: lessons for social-ecological housing provision

AbstractContemporary housing systems neither live up to their social nor their ecological aims, resulting in affordability and environmental crises. We explore the potentials for securing access to affordable and adequate housing for all while rapidly reducing energy and resource use and associated greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. For this purpose, we carry out a case study of the housing system in Vienna to scrutinize how social-ecological provision has been enabled or restrained by Viennese housing regulations. We introduce a broad conceptualization of housing that encompasses material objects (housing as noun) and socio-cultural practices (housing as verb) and embed these concepts in a provisioning perspective. The history of Vienna’s housing system is outlined with an emphasis on the radical municipal reformism of Red Vienna (1919–1934) and path dependencies from welfare capitalism to neoliberalism. Based on the historical analysis, we highlight barriers hindering social-ecological housing provision today and suggest three sets of measures for greening Red Vienna: (1) Establishing social-ecological obligations to property ownership, prioritizing ecological upgrading, and favoring retrofitting instead of new constructions; (2) introducing lower and upper limits on housing provision to reduce inequalities; and (3) overcoming the focus on individual building sites and widening the scope of housing policies toward securing habitation for all residents

Foundation economy: the infrastructure of everyday life

Privatisation, market choice, outsourcing: these are the watchwords that have shaped policy in numerous democratic states in the last generation. The end result is the degradation of the foundational economy. The foundational economy encompasses the material infrastructure at the foundation of civilised life - things like water pipes and sewers - and the providential services like education, health care and care for the old which are at the base of any civilised life. This book shows how these services were built up in the century between 1880 and 1980 so that they were collectively paid for, collectively delivered and collectively consumed. This system of provision has been undermined in the age of privatisation and outsourcing. The book describes the principles that should guide renewal of the foundational economy and the initiatives which could begin to put these principles into practice

Foundation economy: the infrastructure of everyday life

Privatisation, market choice, outsourcing: these are the watchwords that have shaped policy in numerous democratic states in the last generation. The end result is the degradation of the foundational economy. The foundational economy encompasses the material infrastructure at the foundation of civilised life - things like water pipes and sewers - and the providential services like education, health care and care for the old which are at the base of any civilised life. This book shows how these services were built up in the century between 1880 and 1980 so that they were collectively paid for, collectively delivered and collectively consumed. This system of provision has been undermined in the age of privatisation and outsourcing. The book describes the principles that should guide renewal of the foundational economy and the initiatives which could begin to put these principles into practice