Open AccessGlobal Commodities
Author(s) -
Erich Landsteiner,
Ernst Langthaler
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
commodity frontiers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2667-2448
pISSN - 2667-243X
DOI - 10.18174/cf.2021a18076
Subject(s) - commodity , frontier , commodity chain , negotiation , economics , economic geography , economy , political science , market economy , sociology , social science , microeconomics , production (economics) , law
Focusing on coca, coffee, gold, soy, sugar, and tea, articles in a special issue of the Austrian Journal of Historical Studies 30/3 (2019) on Global Commodities aim at tracing the emergence of commodity chains through the expansion and contraction of commodity frontiers. Frontier shifts imply complex – and potentially conflicting – interactions shaped by as well as shaping socio-natural systems. Thus, the contributions reveal commodity chains and their frontiers to be subject to negotiations between multiple actors, both human and non-human. Each of the contributions concentrates on one or more world region(s) of frontier shifts, while taking into account the transregional, transnational, and transcontinental connections via commodity chains. Thereby, these commodity-focused histories reveal the benefit of combining global with regional or even local perspectives (Joseph, 2019).