Production, trade, and consumption in South-South commodity flows: Re-theorizing from below

The objective of this project has been to develop current theories about international economic relations by studying value chains spanning across countries in the global south. Trade between developing countries constitutes a growing share of the total world trade. Global production is increasingly directed towards consumers in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The data collection for this project is collected along value chains stretching between China and Nigeria/Ghana. The project has aimed to unravel what consequences the changes in the global demand for goods have on the organization of production in China and trade patterns in Nigeria and Ghana. Global value chains analysis explores how the global production, distribution, and consumption are organized. However, these theories have so far rarely been based on analyses of value chains stretching between developing countries. The project has presented new analytical frameworks for understanding such exchanges. In particular, it has documented how informal networks and relations of trust often replace legally binding contracts. Each link in these value chains typically has many actors, who often operate with narrow profit margins and limited amounts of financial capital. The journal articles deriving from the project discuss how this affects governance and opportunities for profit generation along South-South value chains.

The point of gravity in the world economy is shifting towards the global South. The qualitative changes associated with this shift remain poorly understood. Current theories on the organization of production, distribution, and consumption are rooted mainl y in studies of North-North and North-South interaction. The proposed project aims to advance theories on transnational economic relations by examining commodity flows within the Global South, where economic environments are characterized by informality, financial instability, political uncertainty, and numerous small-scale actors. The analysis is based on case studies of Chinese exports to Nigeria. These countries carry great weight in the global economy, and trade between the two epitomizes South-South economic interaction. Official statistics and documents provide limited and unreliable data in such contexts. The project takes a perspective 'from below', using as its starting point the individuals who create economic opportunities in the intersections of formal regulations and informal institutions. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews in China and Nigeria constitute the principal data sources. Two main bodies of literature inform the analysis: 1) scholarship on global value chains, commodity chains and production networks, and 2) ethnographic studies of small-scale cross-border trade. The project demonstrates the possibilities for cross-fertilization between these traditions: global value chain theory can be advanced through explor ing economic relations in qualitatively different contexts; economic ethnography holds an unrealized potential for synthesis to elucidate broader trends. The project in an ambitious one, made realistic by the candidate's solid expertise, networks and lin guistic skills. A proven publication record supports the publication plan. The project includes visiting fellowships at Sun Yat-sen University and the London School of Economics and Political Science.