Introduction: governance, rent-seeking and upgrading in global value chains

Over the past decades, the concept of global value chains (GVCs) has become an important analytical landmark within different strands of social sciences for making sense of the increasingly spatially and organizationally fragmented international system of production. The question arises what effects this internationalization has, especially from the perspective of countries in the Global South, where government regulations are weak and workers frequently lack institutional power and the ability to independently represent their interests. This introductory chapter serves to give an overview of several of the theoretical considerations and key analytical concepts that form a reference point or underpin many contributions in this book. Economic and social upgrading are defined, and the conditions under which they can be realized are discussed. Explanations include governance modes and market constellations in GVCs as well as the strength of trade unions and their effect on upgrading trajectories and income. Finally, short summaries of each of the book’s chapters are provided.