Structure

There are about 200 independent nation states in the world, and almost all of them are integrated into the global market economy. There are hundreds of thousands of large organisations in the world, the great majority of which have a market-related function. Finally, there are some seven billion people occupying the planet, and although not all of them are involved in the global division of labour, a substantial number do have some involvement. In what follows, the focus of attention will be on the linkages binding together the countries, organisations and individuals that play a role in the global economy. These linkages have been the object of investigation of countless studies, but what is unusual about the present study is its use of a ‘two-space’ perspective, one which starts from the proposition that all of the aforementioned entities simultaneously inhabit a ‘physical’ space where they relate to each other in their differentiated forms as countries, organisations and individuals and a ‘commodity’ space where they relate to each other in their homogenised forms as providers of commodities. ¹ The rationale for deploying such a perspective is that it enables one to gain certain insights into the contemporary human condition that cannot otherwise be gained. In elaborating on this claim, we begin by sketching out the present-day structure of the global commodity system. ²