IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rripxx/v25y2018i1p98-121.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The political economy of state governance in global production networks: change, crisis and contestation in the South African fruit sector

Author

Listed:
  • Matthew Alford
  • Nicola Phillips

Abstract

Within the global value chain (GVC) and global production network (GPN) literature, one of the most vibrant areas of debate focuses on dynamics of governance. However, the evolution of these debates has been underpinned by a persistent firm-centrism, with insufficient attention paid to states, public authority and politics. Building on a renewed interest in these themes in recent literature, we contribute to growing demand for a more robust political economy of governance in GVC/GPN debates, wherein the key governance functions of the state can be classified as facilitative, regulatory and distributive in nature. In this context, we explore how the politics of state governance play out in the South African fruit sector, and particularly focus on the labour crisis that occurred in 2012/2013. Our analysis underscores the centrality of the state in governing GVCs/GPNs, and highlights important tensions within and across the three arenas of state governance, and between public and private governance, with significant developmental implications for local actors operating at the base of GVCs/GPNs. Our findings to the importance of a 'relational' understanding of state governance, which reveals how the dynamics of state governance are shaped both by continual political contestation and the competitive commercial context of GVCs/GPNs.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew Alford & Nicola Phillips, 2018. "The political economy of state governance in global production networks: change, crisis and contestation in the South African fruit sector," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 98-121, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:rripxx:v:25:y:2018:i:1:p:98-121
    DOI: 10.1080/09692290.2017.1423367
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09692290.2017.1423367
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09692290.2017.1423367?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ernesto Noronha & Premilla D’Cruz & Muneeb Ul Lateef Banday, 2020. "Navigating Embeddedness: Experiences of Indian IT Suppliers and Employees in the Netherlands," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 95-113, June.
    2. Margareet Visser & Matthew Alford, 2024. "Governance and Power Across Intersecting Value Chains: The Case of South African Apples," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 189(1), pages 69-86, January.
    3. Giovanni Pasquali & Shane Godfrey, 2022. "Governance of Eswatini Apparel Regional Value Chains and the Implications of Covid-19," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(1), pages 473-502, February.
    4. McWilliam, Sarah E. & Kim, Jung Kwan & Mudambi, Ram & Nielsen, Bo Bernhard, 2020. "Global value chain governance: Intersections with international business," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(4).
    5. Jensen, Federico & Whitfield, Lindsay, 2022. "Leveraging participation in apparel global supply chains through green industrialization strategies: Implications for low-income countries," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    6. Johanna Gammelgaard & Stine Haakonsson & Sine Nørholm Just, 2021. "Linking Malawi’s agricultural sector to global value chains: The case for community governance," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(4), pages 523-540, December.
    7. Pritish Behuria, 2018. "The politics of upgrading in global value chains: The case of Rwanda’s coffee sector," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-108-18, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    8. Valentina De Marchi & Matthew Alford, 2022. "State policies and upgrading in global value chains: A systematic literature review," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 88-111, March.
    9. Liena Kano & Eric W. K. Tsang & Henry Wai-chung Yeung, 2020. "Global value chains: A review of the multi-disciplinary literature," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 51(4), pages 577-622, June.
    10. Xinyu Yang & Weidong Liu, 2022. "Agricultural Production Networks and Upgrading from a Global–Local Perspective: A Review," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-14, October.
    11. Dallas, Mark P. & Horner, Rory & Li, Lantian, 2021. "The mutual constraints of states and global value chains during COVID-19: The case of personal protective equipment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    12. Krummel, Daniel & Siegfried, Patrick, 2021. "The Dark Side of Samsung’s Value Chain: The Human Costs of Cobalt Mining “BLOOD, SWEAT AND COBALT”," MPRA Paper 111405, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Rory Horner, 2022. "Global value chains, import orientation, and the state: South Africa’s pharmaceutical industry," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 68-87, March.
    14. Shyamain Wickramasingha, 2023. "Geographies of dissociation: informality, ethical codes and fragmented labour regimes in the Sri Lankan apparel industry," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(6), pages 1191-1211.
    15. Pritish Behuria, 2019. "African development and the marginalisation of domestic capitalists," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-115-19, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    16. Stephan Manning & Cristiano Richter, 2023. "Upgrading against the odds: How peripheral regions can attract global lead firms," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(1), pages 1-23, March.
    17. Noronha, Ernesto & D'Cruz, Premilla, 2020. "The Indian IT industry: A global production network perspective," IPE Working Papers 134/2020, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    18. Huw Thomas & Mark Anner, 2023. "Dissensus and Deadlock in the Evolution of Labour Governance: Global Supply Chains and the International Labour Organization (ILO)," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 184(1), pages 33-49, April.
    19. Edmund J. Malesky & Layna Mosley, 2021. "Labor upgrading and export market opportunities: Evidence from Vietnam," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 483-513, November.
    20. Johan, Sofia & Kayani, Umar Nawaz & Naeem, Muhammad Abubakr & Karim, Sitara, 2024. "How effective is the cash conversion cycle in improving firm performance? Evidence from BRICS," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    21. Giovanni Pasquali & Matthew Alford, 2022. "Global value chains, private governance and multiple end-markets: insights from Kenyan leather," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(1), pages 129-157.
    22. Stefano Ponte & Valentina De Marchi & Marco Bettiol & Eleonora di Maria, 2023. "The horizontal governance of environmental upgrading: Lessons from the Prosecco and Valpolicella wine value chains in Italy," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(8), pages 1884-1905, November.
    23. Giovanni Pasquali & Shane Godfrey & Khalid Nadvi, 2021. "Understanding regional value chains through the interaction of public and private governance: Insights from Southern Africa’s apparel sector," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(3), pages 368-389, September.
    24. Lorenzo Cresti & Maria Enrica Virgillito, 2023. "Weak sectors and weak ties? Labour dependence and asymmetric positioning in GVCs," LEM Papers Series 2023/10, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rripxx:v:25:y:2018:i:1:p:98-121. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/rrip20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.