Rudiments

Chapter 1 traces the evolution of how researchers have conceptualized supply chains, from initially viewing them as ‘Global Commodity Chains’ (GCCs) and then Global Value Chains (GVCs) to, more recently, appreciating them in terms of their being parts of Global Production Networks (GPNs). Specifically, we address absent or unsophisticated notions of place, space, and the state. We also seek to establish more nuanced understandings of ‘labour’ through recognition of various different types of worker agency and how this is shaped by the spatial contexts within which workers find themselves, as well as how labour is positioned conceptually as both ‘object’ and ‘subject’. Further, we argue that labour process theory must take space more seriously, for how workplaces are embedded within the broader geography of capitalism has implications for how the labour process is constituted.