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States,
Firms, and Raw Materials
The World Economy and
Ecology of Aluminum
Edited by Bradford Barham, Stephen G. Bunker, and Denis O'Hearn
States, Firms, and Raw Materials, offers a closely integrated
collection of case studies on aluminum production, blending detailed
empirical data with current theories of the state, the firm,
industrial organization, and industrial development. The contributors
consider historical, sociological, economic, and ecological factors
affecting the organizational dynamics of aluminum production,
exposing the tensions and contradictions in world systems of
extraction and refining. The volume as a whole is ideal as a
text, arranged in three thematic sections with introductions
that tie the case studies to larger issues about regional development.
The contributors, North American and European scholars as well
as representatives of state-owned mineral firms in the third
world, trace the aluminum production process from the local communities
where mines, smelters, and hydroelectric dams are located to
the world market where refined aluminum is sold. They scrutinize
interactions between the major aluminum consumers (the United
States, Japan, and the European Economic Community), and several
of the exporters and producers (Jamaica, Brazil, Guinea and Canada),
demonstrating that strategic collusion between states and firms
in industrial nations has left exporting nations with more expense
and fewer benefits than might have been expected, given their
wealth in bauxite and hydroelectric power. The editors conclude
that firms and states in resource-rich nations can improve the
returns and developmental outcomes of exporting raw materials
only if they understand the complex dynamics of extraction, processing,
and sale in strategically constructed global markets.
"An excellent book about a very important
set of questions. The overall project is to determine the causes
and consequences of the organizational dimensions of raw materials
acquisition. These matters touch upon the most basic issues regarding
our understanding of nature of our global political economy and
its possibilities."—Christopher Chase-Dunn, Johns Hopkins
University
Bradford L. Barham is assistant professor of agricultural
economics and staff economist at the Agricultural Technology
and Family Farm Institute, University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Stephen G. Bunker is professor of sociology at the University
of Wisconsin–Madison. Denis O'Hearn is lecturer in
sociology at Queens University in Belfast.
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January 1994
LC: 94-014005
HD
320 pp. 6 x 9
17 line art graphs, 1 map
ISBN-10: 0-299-14110-1
ISBN-13:
978-0-299-14110-3
Cloth $50.00 s
ISBN-10: 0-299-14114-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-299-14114-1
Paper $24.95 s
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