Commodity Frontiers and Global Capitalist Expansion

This interdisciplinary edited collection explores the dynamics of global capitalist expansion through the concept of the 'commodity frontier'. Applying an inductive approach rather than starting at the global level, as most meta-narratives have done, this book sheds light on how local dynamics have shaped the process of capitalist expansion into 'uncommodified' spaces. Contributors demonstrate that ultimately the evolution of frontier zones and their reconfiguration over time have transformed human ecology, labour relations and social, economic and political structures across the globe. Chapters examine agricultural and pastoral frontiers, natural habitats, and commodity frontiers with fossil fuels and mineral resources located in various regions of the world, including South America, Asia, Africa and the Arabian Gulf.

Approaches the issue of commodity frontiers from an interdisciplinary, bottom-up perspective, focusing on the ecological, economic, policy and/or social implications of frontier creation and perpetuation on nature and people at the local level Analyses the drivers of commodity frontier expansion Examines the key features of a commodity frontier Explores how the commodity frontier expansion impacted local, regional and global ecologies Reviews the ways labor relations and land tenure patterns have been transformed by commodity frontier expansion Looks at the relationship between commodity frontier expansion and state power

Autorentext
Sabrina Joseph is Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and Professor of History at the American University in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Her research interests are in the field of Middle Eastern and Ottoman history, encompassing work on land use, environmental management, women and inter-faith relations during the early modern and modern periods.

Inhalt

Chapter 1: Introduction; Sabrina Joseph.- Chapter 2: Making Cheap Nature on High Altitude: A World-Ecological Perspective on Commodification, Communities, and Conflict in the Andes; Hanne Cottyn.- Chapter 3: Agricultural Commodities on the Philippine Frontier: State-Sponsored Resettlement and Ecological Distress in the 1930s; Karen Miller.- Chapter 4: Gendering Farmer Producer Companies at the Agricultural Frontier of India: Empowerment or Burden?; Indrakshi Tandon.- Chapter 5: Ecosystems as Commodity Frontiers: Challenges faced by land set aside as Protected Areas (PAs) in the Dubai Emirate, United Arab Emirates (UAE); Brigitte Howarth, Tamer Khafaga, Greg Simkins, and Sabrina Joseph.- Chapter 6: From the Amazon to the Congo Valley: A Comparative Study on the Violent Commodification of Labour during the Rubber Boom (1870s-1910s); : Louise Cardoso de Mello and Sven Van Melkebeke.- Chapter 7: Chilean Expansion and Southern South America's Integration into theModern Capitalist System, 1879-1931; James Lockhart.- Chapter 8: Red Fever: Natural Resource Companies and the Global Copper Mining Frontier 1890-1939; Robrecht Declercq.- Chapter 9: A Toxic Development: Pollution and Change in an Amazonian Oil Frontier; Deborah Delgado Pugley.- Chapter 10: Conclusion; Sabrina Joseph.