IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v58y2026i1p144-155.html

A decolonial approach to value chain analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Lund-Thomsen

Abstract

In this article, I advance a decolonial perspective on global value chains (GVCs) that moves beyond the dominant focus on lead-firm governance and upgrading to interrogate the epistemic hierarchies shaping how global production is studied and governed. This perspective rests on three commitments: exposing the coloniality of knowledge that privileges certain categories and voices in GVC analysis, adopting pluriversality to recognize diverse worldviews on labor and nature, and advancing epistemic justice in the field. I situate this approach in relation to earlier critical strands of GVC research—including disarticulation, inequality and poverty chains, monopsony capitalism, and feminist and ecological critiques—that trace how colonial histories and capitalist logics continue to shape GVC dynamics. In doing so, the article develops a decolonial approach that broadens both the explanatory and normative horizons of GVC analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Lund-Thomsen, 2026. "A decolonial approach to value chain analysis," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 58(1), pages 144-155, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:58:y:2026:i:1:p:144-155
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X251401438
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308518X251401438
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0308518X251401438?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Matthew Alford & Stephanie Barrientos & Shane Godfrey & Khalid Nadvi & Maggie Opondo & Margareet Visser, 2025. "Private and public governance of decent work in regional and domestic value chains: the case of horticulture and garments in Sub-Saharan Africa," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(5), pages 1643-1668, September.
    2. Andrew K. Jorgenson, 2016. "Environment, Development, and Ecologically Unequal Exchange," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-15, March.
    3. 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.
    4. Shyamain Wickramasingha & Neil M. Coe, 2022. "Conceptualizing Labor Regimes in Global Production Networks: Uneven Outcomes across the Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan Apparel Industries," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 98(1), pages 68-90, January.
    5. Timothy Sizwe Phakathi, 2012. "Worker agency in colonial, apartheid and post-apartheid gold mining workplace regimes," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(132), pages 279-294, June.
    6. John Humphrey & Hubert Schmitz, 2002. "How does insertion in global value chains affect upgrading in industrial clusters?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(9), pages 1017-1027.
    7. Elizabeth Havice & Liam Campling, 2017. "Where Chain Governance and Environmental Governance Meet: Interfirm Strategies in the Canned Tuna Global Value Chain​," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 93(3), pages 292-313, May.
    8. Barrientos,Stephanie, 2019. "Gender and Work in Global Value Chains," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108492317.
    9. Andrew Herod & Graham Pickren & Al Rainnie & Susan McGrath Champ, 2014. "Global destruction networks, labour and waste," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 14(2), pages 421-441.
    10. Matthew Alford & Giovanni P Pasquali & Stephanie Barrientos & Maggie Opondo, 2024. "Governance of intersecting value chains in an era of polycentric trade: the case of Kenyan fresh fruit and vegetables," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 24(5), pages 663-678.
    11. Marion Werner, 2012. "Beyond Upgrading: Gendered Labor and the Restructuring of Firms in the Dominican Republic," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 88(4), pages 403-422, October.
    12. Valentina Marchi & Gary Gereffi, 2023. "Using the global value chain framework to analyse and tackle global environmental crises," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 50(1), pages 149-159, March.
    13. Stephanie BARRIENTOS & Lara BIANCHI & Cindy BERMAN, 2019. "Gender and governance of global value chains: Promoting the rights of women workers," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 158(4), pages 729-752, December.
    14. Andrew Herod & Graham Pickren & Al Rainnie & Susan McGrath-Champ, 2017. "Innovation, development and global destruction networks," Chapters, in: Harald Bathelt & Patrick Cohendet & Sebastian Henn & Laurent Simon (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Innovation and Knowledge Creation, chapter 46, pages 752-770, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Dev Nathan, 2021. "From Monopoly to Monopsony Capitalism," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(4), pages 843-866, December.
    16. Aarti Krishnan & Valentina De Marchi & Stefano Ponte, 2023. "Environmental Upgrading and Downgrading in Global Value Chains: A Framework for Analysis," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 99(1), pages 25-50, January.
    17. Subhabrata Bobby Banerjee, 2022. "Decolonizing Management Theory: A Critical Perspective," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(4), pages 1074-1087, June.
    18. Natalie J. Langford & Khalid Nadvi & Corinna Braun-Munzinger, 2023. "The shaping of ‘Southern’ sustainability standards in a value chain world: comparative evidence from China and India," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(3), pages 1151-1176, May.
    19. Marion Werner, 2012. "Beyond Upgrading: Gendered Labor and the Restructuring of Firms in the Dominican Republic," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 88(4), pages 403-422, October.
    20. Nathan,Dev & Silliman Bhattacharjee,Shikha & Rahul,S. & Kumar,Purushottam & Dahagani,Immanuel & Singh,Sukhpal, 2022. "Reverse Subsidies in Global Monopsony Capitalism," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781316512272.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. 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.
    2. Annelies Goger, 2013. "From Disposable to Empowered: Rearticulating Labor in Sri Lankan Apparel Factories," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(11), pages 2628-2645, November.
    3. Valentina Marano & Miriam Wilhelm & Tatiana Kostova & Jonathan Doh & Sjoerd Beugelsdijk, 2024. "Multinational firms and sustainability in global supply chains: scope and boundaries of responsibility," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 55(4), pages 413-428, June.
    4. Marslev, Kristoffer & Staritz, Cornelia & Raj‐Reichert, Gale, 2022. "Rethinking Social Upgrading in Global Value Chains: Worker Power, State‒Labour Relations and Intersectionality," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 53(4), pages 827-859.
    5. Bataka, Hodabalo, 2024. "Global value chains participation and gender inequalities in Sub-Saharan Africa: Importance of women education," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    6. Evans Appiah Kissi & Christian Herzig, 2024. "The implications of governance factors for economic and social upgrading in Ghana’s cocoa value chain," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, December.
    7. Pipkin, Seth & Fuentes, Alberto, 2017. "Spurred to Upgrade: A Review of Triggers and Consequences of Industrial Upgrading in the Global Value Chain Literature," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 536-554.
    8. 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.
    9. Sarah Lyon & Tad Mutersbaugh & Holly Worthen, 2017. "The triple burden: the impact of time poverty on women’s participation in coffee producer organizational governance in Mexico," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(2), pages 317-331, June.
    10. Sheba TEJANI & Sakiko FUKUDA‐PARR, 2021. "Gender and COVID‐19: Workers in global value chains," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 160(4), pages 649-667, December.
    11. Dev Nathan & S. Rahul & Lakshmi Bhatia & Rekha Chakravarthi & Pradeepan Ravi, 2024. "Global Monopsony, Contracting Practices and Labour Outcomes: A Study of Garment GVCs in India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 67(4), pages 993-1014, December.
    12. 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).
    13. 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.
    14. Jonathan Morris & Jean Jenkins & Jimmy Donaghey, 2021. "Uneven Development, Uneven Response: The Relentless Search for Meaningful Regulation of GVCs," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 59(1), pages 3-24, March.
    15. Thai Thi Minh & Charity Osei‐Amponsah, 2021. "Towards poor‐centred value chain for sustainable development: A conceptual framework," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 1223-1236, November.
    16. Eduardo Hernandez-Rodriguez & Ron Boschma & Andrea Morrison & Xianjia Ye, 2024. "Functional upgrading and downgrading in global value chains: The role of complementary interregional value chain linkages in EU regions," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2432, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Oct 2024.
    17. Simon Oldham & Laura J. Spence, 2022. "A typology of small‐ and medium‐sized supplier approaches to social responsibility," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 33-48, January.
    18. Giovanni Pasquali & Aarti Krishnan & Jakob Engel, 2021. "Pulling up or binding down: a review of upgrading trajectories in apparel and agro-processing global value chains for developing countries," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-112, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    19. Ari Van Assche & Kristin Brandl, . "Harnessing power within global value chains for sustainable development," UNCTAD Transnational Corporations Journal, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    20. Tanja Verena Matheis & Christian Herzig, 2026. "Revisiting Research on Gender Equality and Sustainability Multi‐Stakeholder Initiatives: A Scoping Review," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(2), pages 1099-1117, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:sae:envira:v:58:y:2026:i:1:p:144-155. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.