John Smith’s Imperialism in the 21st Century because I’d like to understand the present day economic realities better. I saw someone recommend it here, and it comes recommended by Vijay Prashad (and Michael Roberts), so I feel pretty confident that it’s “good”.
And indeed, it has been so far, I just got into chapter 3. It’s basically about the wildly different capital/labor situation in the Global North vs South, and the nature of the economic connections between the two.
One interesting bit for me was when he spent time talking about “arms length manufscturing” where, for example, Nike doesn’t own any factories, on paper, but has complete control over nominally independent factories in low-wage countries.
I couldn’t help but see this as a precursor to the contractualization and “independent contractors”/gig economy bullshit that’s really taking off in the Global North.
The chickens, folks, they always come back home to roost
John Smith’s Imperialism in the 21st Century because I’d like to understand the present day economic realities better. I saw someone recommend it here, and it comes recommended by Vijay Prashad (and Michael Roberts), so I feel pretty confident that it’s “good”.
And indeed, it has been so far, I just got into chapter 3. It’s basically about the wildly different capital/labor situation in the Global North vs South, and the nature of the economic connections between the two.
One interesting bit for me was when he spent time talking about “arms length manufscturing” where, for example, Nike doesn’t own any factories, on paper, but has complete control over nominally independent factories in low-wage countries.
I couldn’t help but see this as a precursor to the contractualization and “independent contractors”/gig economy bullshit that’s really taking off in the Global North.
The chickens, folks, they always come back home to roost
Have been looking into reading that, keep us updated how it is!