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Commodity frontiers and the transformation of the global countryside: a research agenda

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  • Beckert, Sven
  • Bosma, Ulbe
  • Schneider, Mindi
  • Vanhaute, Eric

Abstract

Over the past 600 years, commodity frontiers – processes and sites of the incorporation of resources into the expanding capitalist world economy – have absorbed ever more land, ever more labour and ever more natural assets. In this paper, we claim that studying the global history of capitalism through the lens of commodity frontiers and using commodity regimes as an analytical framework is crucial to understanding the origins and nature of capitalism, and thus the modern world. We argue that commodity frontiers identify capitalism as a process rooted in a profound restructuring of the countryside and nature. They connect processes of extraction and exchange with degradation, adaptation and resistance in rural peripheries. To account for the enormous variety of actors and places involved in this history is a critical challenge in the social sciences, and one to which global history can contribute crucial insights.

Suggested Citation

  • Beckert, Sven & Bosma, Ulbe & Schneider, Mindi & Vanhaute, Eric, 2021. "Commodity frontiers and the transformation of the global countryside: a research agenda," Journal of Global History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(3), pages 435-450, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jglhis:v:16:y:2021:i:3:p:435-450_7
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    1. repec:fan:istois:v:html10.3280/isto2022-046003 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Jérôme Sgard, 2023. "Imperial Politics, Open Markets and Private Ordering: The Global Grain Trade (1875-1914)," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-04081417, HAL.
    3. Hannah Bradley & Serena Stein, 2022. "Climate opportunism and values of change on the Arctic agricultural frontier," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(2), pages 207-222, June.
    4. Matthew Gandy, 2023. "Zoonotic urbanisation: multispecies urbanism and the rescaling of urban epidemiology," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(13), pages 2529-2549, October.
    5. Piva da Silva, Mariana & Fraser, James A. & Parry, Luke, 2022. "From ‘prison’ to ‘paradise’? Seeking freedom at the rainforest frontier through urban–rural migration," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    6. Jérôme Sgard, 2023. "Imperial Politics, Open Markets and Private Ordering: The Global Grain Trade (1875-1914)," Working Papers hal-04081417, HAL.
    7. Hanaček, Ksenija & Kröger, Markus & Scheidel, Arnim & Rojas, Facundo & Martinez-Alier, Joan, 2022. "On thin ice – The Arctic commodity extraction frontier and environmental conflicts," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    8. Will Lock & Anthony Alexander, 2023. "Sustainable Development Frontiers: Is ‘Sustainable’ Cocoa Delivering Development and Reducing Deforestation?," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 54(4), pages 691-713, July.

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