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Dear Colleagues, Some of you may be interested in a newly published paper on Poverty Chains and Global Capitalism (abstract and link below). Happy to send out a copy if not possible to access the journal. All the very best Ben http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1024529418809067 Poverty Chains and Global Capitalism Abstract The proliferation of global value chains is portrayed in academic and policy circles as representing new development opportunities for firms and regions in the global south. This article tests these claims by examining original material from non-governmental organizations' reports and secondary sources on the garment and electronics chains in Cambodia and China, respectively. This empirical evidence suggests that these global value chains generate new forms of worker poverty. Based on these findings, the article proposes the novel Global Poverty Chain approach. The article critiques and reformulates principal concepts associated with the Global Value Chain approach - of value-added, rent and chain governance - and challenges a core assumption prevalent within Global Value Chain analysis: that workers' low wages are a function of their employment in low productivity industries. Instead, it shows that (1) many supplier firms in the global south are as, or more, productive than their equivalents in the global north; (2) often predominantly female workers in these industries are super exploited (paid wages below their subsistence requirements) and (3) chain governance represents a lead firm value-capturing strategy, which intensifies worker exploitation. Professor Benjamin Selwyn Professor of International Relations and International Development +44 1273 678191 http://www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/230531 My latest book, The Struggle for Development http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1509512780.html 21st Century International Political Economy - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1354066114556659 [cid:5B983C36-B593-45FA-94B1-1AB6E7BEBC46] ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the ECONOMIC-GEOGRAPHY list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=ECONOMIC-GEOGRAPHY&A=1