16.10.2023 Global Division of Labor#

Colonial Origins#

Why did some countries develop eralier than others?

Classical Theory:

  • internal factors

  • development as linear progress

  • therfore low-growth countries

Dependency Theory

  • external conditions

  • core-periphery with industrialized core and periphery

  • core depends on extraction from periphery => underdevelopment

Core: Industrialized with Firms, Labor Unions, Rich

Periphery: Dual Structure, Extraction

History#

  • British East India Company (spice Trade + slave Trade)

  • land expropriation + slave trade => plantation economy

    • division of labor on global scale

  • alliances between convicts and slaves = stopped with racism

  • reproduction

    • at first: reproduction limited, due to cost to slave owner

    • after ban on slave trade: actively encouraged to grow population

  • trade relations = unequal to this day

    • prodution at begin 20th Century = determinant of current income

    • net transfer from south to north

Gendered Division of Labor#

key apsects established in colonial times

  1. women left with more work (farm) due to men drawn to wage labour

  2. women lost control over productive resources (land)

  3. young women migrated to cities