Ashok Kumar’s research while affiliated with University of London and other places

In this Part 1, Material Conditions, I look at the changing material conditions of capital in the most labour-intensive manufacturing sectors in world production. I argue that these changes are leading to a waning in monopsony power. The paper introduces a universal logic that governs competition and reshapes the chain around the question of monopsony in the global supply chain. Put simply, deregulation produces high degrees of monopsony power, increasing the value share for the lead firm. This intensifies competition, exerts downward pressure, and winnows the number of suppliers able to compete. The result is a supplier consolidation. Consolidation increases the surviving suppliers’ share of value, which expands access to finance, facilitates self-investment, and raises entry barriers. In Part 2, Subjective Agency, I look at how this leads to the emergence of market spatial inflexibility, which has given labour new openings by increasingly their disruptive power.

The question of capitalism’s relationship to issues of race, racism and processes of racialisation has become increasingly prominent in contemporary debates. This special issue of Historical Materialism on ‘Race and Capital’ seeks to intervene in these debates. In this Introduction, we situate the special issue within this wider political, historical and theoretical context. We begin by reconstructing some of the key tensions and fault lines within contemporary discussions of race and racism, particularly in relation to the Marxist tradition. Against those who claim a primarily oppositional relationship between the Marxist tradition and anti-racist thinking, we chart a historical account of key moments in which Marxist movements and thinkers have attempted to articulate distinctively historical-materialist accounts of race and racism. We then situate the key themes of the special issue – and the various articles that compose the issue – against this background.

In a globalized world, the distribution of value-added across firms depends on a number of factors that vary across space. A key factor is related to the different types of competition on the multilayer structure of production, which are characterized by different types of (market) power. In this paper, we first argue that PageRank centrality is able to capture sectoral market power within the complex structure of global production. We then study the empirical properties of this market power measure and demonstrate a power-law relationship between sectoral PageRank centrality and relative sectoral profits. This power-law relationship has (international) political economy implications as it demonstrates the high incentives of sectors to become more central to increase their relative profits.

This presentation explores the notion of Positionality in Global Value Chains and Global Production Networks and investigates whether it is possible to have an alternative view of the power asymmetries between economic actors in globalized capitalism.

Power is one of the key components in understanding and analyzing global production and is central to the analytical frameworks of both GVCs and GPNs. By focusing on firms’ power within GPNs, we are able to draw a novel analytical link between the governance structures ofGVCs and network configuration presented in recent versions of GPNs. Using global input-output data, we show that the network structure of global production helps determine the distribution of power among firms in different economic sectors and, consequently, it influences the governance structures of supply networks. More specifically, we find a very high correlation between the distribution of profits and a sector’s position in global production, captured by its (total strength) centrality. Based on this, we are able to provide a quantitative measure of power within global production and its governance structures.

This paper presents a novel understanding of the changing governance structures in global supply chains. Motivated by the global garment sector, we develop a geographical political economy dynamic model that reflects the interaction between bargaining power and distribution of value among buyer and producer firms. We find that the interplay between these two forces, in combination with the spatial specificities of global production and consolidation, can drive governance structures towards a more symbiotic position.

Power is one of the key components in understanding and analyzing global production and is central to the analytical frameworks of both GVCs and GPNs. By focusing on firms’ power within GPNs, we are able to draw a novel analytical link between the governance structures of GVCs and network configuration presented in recent versions of GPNs. Using global input- output data, we show that the network structure of global production helps determine the distribution of power among firms in different economic sectors and, consequently, it influences the governance structures of supply networks. More specifically, we find a very high correlation between the distribution of profits and a sector’s position in global production, captured by its (total strength) centrality. Based on this, we are able to provide a quantitative measure of power within global production and its governance structures.

In this paper we argue that the structural characteristics of global economic networks allow for an alternative understanding of the power relations between capital and labor, as expressed by the functional income distribution patterns. In particular, we utilize the concept of positionality, found in the literatures of Labor Sociology, Economic Geography and Network Theory, in order to reflect the structural advantages of economic sectors, due to their position in a global interdependent economy. Empirically, we build on the World Input-Output Database and the OECD Inter-Country Input-Output Tables, in order to construct sector-specific measures of positionality, based on the concept of network centrality, and correlate them with the shares of each sector to the total value-added. The results show that more centralized country-specific economic sectors benefit from a 'network-effect' and gain higher profit-shares compared with less centralized.

Book synopsis: The contributions in this volume all revisit and reformulate Marx’s concept of primitive accumulation from diverse empirical contexts in the present global age. The chapters present research drawn from Gaza, Syria, Greece, the Philippines, DR Congo, and the Yucatan; global locations that have in common the ongoing, varied, and often repetitive occurrence of dispossession forced by violent conflict, crisis and austerity politics, and corporate expansion. Each chapter also examines changing forms of resistance from across the political spectrum; responses which in themselves serve to demonstrate the deeply embedded, historically specific, class, race and gendered relations implicit in contemporary capitalist expansion. This collection of original work also pushes us to reconsider the old distinct mappings of urban and rural by comparing dispossession and resistance to it inside and outside of the city and within sites which call for a reconstituted understanding of ‘the urban’. Overall, the scholars included use rich and detailed research to variously correct and adjust Marx from their sites of study and through engagements with theoretical reformulations ranging from modernity/coloniality, through to autonomous Marxism. The chapters originally published as a special issue in City: Analysis of Urban Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action.

This paper examines a 2014 strike in South China of Taiwanese footwear giant Yue Yuen to analyze changes in the power relationship between lead firms, manufacturers and workers. The paper demonstrates a connection between increased labor costs and capital consolidation and greater value capture at the bottom of the global supply chain. It is argued that footwear value chains are undergoing a falling degree of monopsony power and an emergence of enormous oligopolistic suppliers, transforming the power imbalances of global supply chains towards a more mutually dependent ‘buyer-producer symbiosis’. The Yue Yuen strike uncovers a maturing industrial working class and pressures on social reproduction in China, adapting its bargaining strategies vis-à-vis the developmental state. Influxes of profit raise the ceiling for what can be demanded of employers, stimulating those same employers to pursue more aggressive means of holding onto their profits. The example of the Yue Yuen strike is an indicator of what are fundamental changes in the production process, dynamics within the value chain, and power and agency of workers in labor-intensive production. The strike demonstrates that consolidation is playing a decisive role in shaping the power relationship between domestic manufacturers and transnational brands, this, in turn, directly affects the bargaining power of workers.