Thread by @ingridharvold

Last week I wrote about how I think dependency theory can be best understood as a research programme in @DevandChg.

Today I summarize how a dependency programme can be employed to understand global inequalities in the wake of #COVID19!

via @_ourEconomy
opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/…

How is dependency theory particularly relevant now?

First of all, how industry is structured globally still reproduces relations of dependence and leaves workers in developing countries especially exposed during the pandemic.

While global economic integration has deepened, which has been associated with an increase in efficiency and ‘flattening’ of the world, the spread of global value chains involves rigid power imbalances & deep vulnerabilities for those at the bottom of the hierarchy.

Many developing countries have been able to move into just-in-time manufacturing, but this production is still characterized by relatively low-skilled and low-tech work and a heavy reliance on companies concentrated in the centre.

Therefore, as global demand grinds to a halt, manufacturing workers in the periphery are seeing their jobs disappear as multinational corporations cancel their orders (an issue raised by the ILO recently). ilo.org/global/topics/…

Secondly, developing countries continue to be vulnerable to financial cycles generated by the center – which was a key insight by dependency theorists. In the wake of #COVID19, there have been dramatic reversals of capital flows – indeed the largest outflow ever recorded.

As the much needed fiscal space of developing countries is constrained by these external factors, activists, academics, and policy-makers have called for debt moratoria, IMF support, and debt relief as necessary policies. developingeconomics.org/2020/04/04/deb…

Not only does the structure of the global financial system make developing countries more vulnerable to shocks and capital flight, but it also makes it particularly difficult to organize an effective response.

This has prompted @UNCTAD (established by one of the forefathers of dependency theory) to propose the establishment of an international body to oversee developing country debt relief programmes in the wake of COVID-19. unctad.org/en/pages/newsd…

COVID exacerbates constraints developing countries already faced. While domestic policies are important, especially w/regards to provisioning of health services & income support, a dependency perspective highlights how an exclusively domestic response is completely inadequate.

This leads us to discussions about how to change the global economic architecture, e.g. through a global green new deal, reform of the international monetary system, reform of global systems of food production, & reform of governance of trade & intellectual property rights.

At a time when the murder of George Floyd has again drawn attention to stark racial inequalities as well, it's important to also remember the strands within dependency theory that refer specifically to racial inequalities – as these strands are often forgotten (see Kay 1989).

I argue that now is the time to acknowledge the hierarchies and dependencies in our global economy as well as structural inequalities in terms of race and gender. This is necessary to support bold steps towards global structural solutions.

And here's my thread from last week again

https://twitter.com/ingridharvold/status/1268916737917038593

and the @DevandChg article 👇onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11…