LECTURE 1 – 3 FEBRUARY 2026
What are commodity chains?
Anna Tsing > a commodity chain is any arrangement connecting producers and consumers of
commodities a full set of connections between producers and consumers of a product
Tsing stresses that commodity chains are broader than supply chains: supply chains are
those commodity chains organized by lead firms’ outsourcing. Lead firms (= powerful
companies at the top of a commodity chain) may be producers, traders or retailers
- Commodity chains include all actors and processes involved in a product’s career
- Supply chains are only the parts that are actively organized and controlled by lead
firms (through outsourcing)
This means that many crucial parts of production (informal labor or financial arrangements)
often fall outside official supply chains, but are still essential to the commodity chain.
To fall outside official supply chains: activities, people or processes are not formally
contracted by lead firms, not monitored or covered by company responsibility claims;
making them unofficial, informal and invisible to governance and accountability.
Stakeholders in this context: all actors, human and non-human actors, who 1) are involved in
a commodity chain, or 2) benefit from it, or 3) are affected by it (positively or negatively).
You do not have to have power or decision-making authority to be a stakeholder
Even the ‘high-tech’ products are grounded in extractive commodity chains. This image
also shows the distinction between supply chain and commodity chain:
- Supply chain (visible, controlled)
o NVIDIA
o TSMC
o Data centers
- Commodity chain (broader, messy)
o Mining in Colombia, Brazil, China
o E-waste dumping in Ghana and Kenya
o Environmental and social damage
The map also makes clear that profits are concentrated in the Global North, and
extraction and low-paid labor are concentrated elsewhere. So, why can exploitation persist?
Because it is geographically distant, fragmented across borders and hidden behind
outsourcing and subcontracting
Salvage accumulation: nature is ‘salvaged’ (minerals, energy), human capacities are
‘salvaged’ (cheap labor) and waste is ‘salvaged’ by dumping it elsewhere. These are not
produced by capitalism, but used by it > the costs (harm) remain local. All of this happens
,outside direct capitalist control, but is essential for profit-making. So, value is created by
taking advantage of human and non-human resources that capitalism itself does not
produce or maintain.
Notice the pattern:
- Extraction (vervuiling) in Global South
- Refining & manufacturing in specific industrial hubs
- Consumption & branding in Global North
Outsourcing and responsibility gap: fragmentation allows firms to say ‘that part is not our
responsibility’, which leads to persistent of exploitation, because responsibility is spread out
Key message: capitalism does not become non-extractive just because its products are
labelled sustainable. The green transition still depends on salvage accumulation and relies
on non-capitalist nature and labor
This is a Greenpeace protest banner
Financial institutions are often invisible stakeholders, they shape commodity chains
without appearing in supply-chain maps. Their decisions determine which projects survive
and which don’t > power in commodity chains is often indirect and hidden
Central question of the course
Why can these forms of exploitation persist?
Multinational firms are powerful, because they control information about commodity chains
which is not easily accessible to outsiders TED Talk > minimize the distance between you
and the supply chain to maximize global welfare. For most products we have no visibility
whatsoever into the supply chains that produce them; a maze of subcontractors unfolds that
hides the social and environmental cost of our demand signal. This information asymmetry
(some know more than others) is how companies gained an advantage over other
,companies, competitors but also their suppliers companies became powerful because
they know things others don’t. Because consumers only valued speed and cost, it led to a
situation where most global companies have modern slavery in their supply chains
Commodity chains and capitalism
Following Tsing’s argument (p.62) that capitalism is a system that:
1. concentrates wealth,
2. makes new investments possible,
3. which further concentrates wealth
(Capitalism = a profit-driven system that organize production through private ownership,
outsourcing and cost reduction, often relying on the exploitation of labor and nature)
Tsing
- Large multinational firms capitalize (control) valuable assets (critical materials, labor,
land, crop plantations/gewasplantages) through competitive, aggressive techniques
o Also benefit from information asymmetry, they know much more about the
chain than outsiders
- Also known as: the race to the bottom > where social and ecological standards are
lowered to maximize profit
o Cheaper labor and less labor rights
o Less environmental regulation
o Opportunistic shareholder mentality (quick profits and future consequences
are less important)
- Large multinationals often get away with it, because the procedures are not
transparent or are unknown
The ‘race to the bottom’ refers to competitive pressure within capitalism that drives
companies, suppliers and states to lower labor and environmental standards in order to
reduce costs and remain competitive
Tsing capitalism is a system for concentrating wealth (= it tends to collect wealth in fewer
hands), which makes possible new investments (= having wealth gives power to invest
more), which further concentrate wealth
- One way to maximize profit is to reduce costs
- Through outsourcing to low-income countries for instance or less environmental
regulations
- This outsourcing results in more scattered commodity chains and less control
(outsourcing makes commodity chains more global, more fragmented and harder to
oversee)
- This results in more alienation (vervreemding) about the origin of labor and material.
We don’t know where our products come from
- Potential result: large risk of social and ecological exploitation (because harmful
practices are hidden or geographically distant)
, But how evolves and what is needed for accumulating wealth?
Tsing argues that capitalism grows by two key things:
- Through taking advantage of human and non-human capacities that are beyond
capitalist control
o Capitalism depends on things it does not create or fully control (nature or
humans > capitalism cannot produce these things, and does not pay for their
reproduction, but uses them to make profit)
- Through connecting non-capitalist and capitalist worlds
o Non-capitalist: households, nature, informal labor, and capitalist: factories,
markets, global supply chains. Capitalism doesn’t replace the non-capitalist
world, but it feeds on it a person learns skills at home (non-capitalist), a
company uses those skills in a factory (capitalist), the cost of learning is never
paid by the company
Salvage accumulation (EXAM!)
Salvage accumulation is a concept coined by Anna Tsing: on how capitalist commodity chains
are organized through the intersection of non-capitalist and capitalist worlds which lead
firms make use of
An example of salvage accumulation: companies depend on cotton growing and human
labor, but they do not produce nature (photosynthesis, water and good soil) or human life
itself. Instead, they take advantage of value that already exist, produced without capitalist
control, and translate it into profit
Salvage means redeeming or securing something before someone else does claiming
something as valuable, taking control over it and turning it into profit.
What is being salvaged? Within capitalist commodity chains we see that all sorts of goods
and service, human and non-human are salvaged for capitalist accumulation. For instance:
wood for furniture of just firewood. Often from small scale workers or companies in the
Global South with little environmental legislation
Pericapitalist spaces
In Mexican sweat shops many women have learnt the ability to sew at home. Capitalist
formations like factory owners make use of that ability = salvage accumulation
This is what Tsing calls a pericapitalist spaces = space where capitalist and non-capitalist
forms a value coexist. An example: women learning to sew at home (non-capitalist space),
whose skills are later used in sweat shops (a capitalist space). Capitalism relies on these
spaces to function, even though they lie outside formal market organization
Anna Tsing: savage and salvage are often twins
- Salvage translates violence and pollution (vervuiling) into profit (but it often escapes
our sight). So, capitalism doesn’t stop these processes, it absorbs their results and
makes money from them > violence it turned into economic value and profit
o These destruction processes (savage): violence, pollution, theft (land-
grabbing), human exploitation, deforestation
- The ‘savage’ destruction (vernietiging) of people and nature is what makes salvage
possible
What are commodity chains?
Anna Tsing > a commodity chain is any arrangement connecting producers and consumers of
commodities a full set of connections between producers and consumers of a product
Tsing stresses that commodity chains are broader than supply chains: supply chains are
those commodity chains organized by lead firms’ outsourcing. Lead firms (= powerful
companies at the top of a commodity chain) may be producers, traders or retailers
- Commodity chains include all actors and processes involved in a product’s career
- Supply chains are only the parts that are actively organized and controlled by lead
firms (through outsourcing)
This means that many crucial parts of production (informal labor or financial arrangements)
often fall outside official supply chains, but are still essential to the commodity chain.
To fall outside official supply chains: activities, people or processes are not formally
contracted by lead firms, not monitored or covered by company responsibility claims;
making them unofficial, informal and invisible to governance and accountability.
Stakeholders in this context: all actors, human and non-human actors, who 1) are involved in
a commodity chain, or 2) benefit from it, or 3) are affected by it (positively or negatively).
You do not have to have power or decision-making authority to be a stakeholder
Even the ‘high-tech’ products are grounded in extractive commodity chains. This image
also shows the distinction between supply chain and commodity chain:
- Supply chain (visible, controlled)
o NVIDIA
o TSMC
o Data centers
- Commodity chain (broader, messy)
o Mining in Colombia, Brazil, China
o E-waste dumping in Ghana and Kenya
o Environmental and social damage
The map also makes clear that profits are concentrated in the Global North, and
extraction and low-paid labor are concentrated elsewhere. So, why can exploitation persist?
Because it is geographically distant, fragmented across borders and hidden behind
outsourcing and subcontracting
Salvage accumulation: nature is ‘salvaged’ (minerals, energy), human capacities are
‘salvaged’ (cheap labor) and waste is ‘salvaged’ by dumping it elsewhere. These are not
produced by capitalism, but used by it > the costs (harm) remain local. All of this happens
,outside direct capitalist control, but is essential for profit-making. So, value is created by
taking advantage of human and non-human resources that capitalism itself does not
produce or maintain.
Notice the pattern:
- Extraction (vervuiling) in Global South
- Refining & manufacturing in specific industrial hubs
- Consumption & branding in Global North
Outsourcing and responsibility gap: fragmentation allows firms to say ‘that part is not our
responsibility’, which leads to persistent of exploitation, because responsibility is spread out
Key message: capitalism does not become non-extractive just because its products are
labelled sustainable. The green transition still depends on salvage accumulation and relies
on non-capitalist nature and labor
This is a Greenpeace protest banner
Financial institutions are often invisible stakeholders, they shape commodity chains
without appearing in supply-chain maps. Their decisions determine which projects survive
and which don’t > power in commodity chains is often indirect and hidden
Central question of the course
Why can these forms of exploitation persist?
Multinational firms are powerful, because they control information about commodity chains
which is not easily accessible to outsiders TED Talk > minimize the distance between you
and the supply chain to maximize global welfare. For most products we have no visibility
whatsoever into the supply chains that produce them; a maze of subcontractors unfolds that
hides the social and environmental cost of our demand signal. This information asymmetry
(some know more than others) is how companies gained an advantage over other
,companies, competitors but also their suppliers companies became powerful because
they know things others don’t. Because consumers only valued speed and cost, it led to a
situation where most global companies have modern slavery in their supply chains
Commodity chains and capitalism
Following Tsing’s argument (p.62) that capitalism is a system that:
1. concentrates wealth,
2. makes new investments possible,
3. which further concentrates wealth
(Capitalism = a profit-driven system that organize production through private ownership,
outsourcing and cost reduction, often relying on the exploitation of labor and nature)
Tsing
- Large multinational firms capitalize (control) valuable assets (critical materials, labor,
land, crop plantations/gewasplantages) through competitive, aggressive techniques
o Also benefit from information asymmetry, they know much more about the
chain than outsiders
- Also known as: the race to the bottom > where social and ecological standards are
lowered to maximize profit
o Cheaper labor and less labor rights
o Less environmental regulation
o Opportunistic shareholder mentality (quick profits and future consequences
are less important)
- Large multinationals often get away with it, because the procedures are not
transparent or are unknown
The ‘race to the bottom’ refers to competitive pressure within capitalism that drives
companies, suppliers and states to lower labor and environmental standards in order to
reduce costs and remain competitive
Tsing capitalism is a system for concentrating wealth (= it tends to collect wealth in fewer
hands), which makes possible new investments (= having wealth gives power to invest
more), which further concentrate wealth
- One way to maximize profit is to reduce costs
- Through outsourcing to low-income countries for instance or less environmental
regulations
- This outsourcing results in more scattered commodity chains and less control
(outsourcing makes commodity chains more global, more fragmented and harder to
oversee)
- This results in more alienation (vervreemding) about the origin of labor and material.
We don’t know where our products come from
- Potential result: large risk of social and ecological exploitation (because harmful
practices are hidden or geographically distant)
, But how evolves and what is needed for accumulating wealth?
Tsing argues that capitalism grows by two key things:
- Through taking advantage of human and non-human capacities that are beyond
capitalist control
o Capitalism depends on things it does not create or fully control (nature or
humans > capitalism cannot produce these things, and does not pay for their
reproduction, but uses them to make profit)
- Through connecting non-capitalist and capitalist worlds
o Non-capitalist: households, nature, informal labor, and capitalist: factories,
markets, global supply chains. Capitalism doesn’t replace the non-capitalist
world, but it feeds on it a person learns skills at home (non-capitalist), a
company uses those skills in a factory (capitalist), the cost of learning is never
paid by the company
Salvage accumulation (EXAM!)
Salvage accumulation is a concept coined by Anna Tsing: on how capitalist commodity chains
are organized through the intersection of non-capitalist and capitalist worlds which lead
firms make use of
An example of salvage accumulation: companies depend on cotton growing and human
labor, but they do not produce nature (photosynthesis, water and good soil) or human life
itself. Instead, they take advantage of value that already exist, produced without capitalist
control, and translate it into profit
Salvage means redeeming or securing something before someone else does claiming
something as valuable, taking control over it and turning it into profit.
What is being salvaged? Within capitalist commodity chains we see that all sorts of goods
and service, human and non-human are salvaged for capitalist accumulation. For instance:
wood for furniture of just firewood. Often from small scale workers or companies in the
Global South with little environmental legislation
Pericapitalist spaces
In Mexican sweat shops many women have learnt the ability to sew at home. Capitalist
formations like factory owners make use of that ability = salvage accumulation
This is what Tsing calls a pericapitalist spaces = space where capitalist and non-capitalist
forms a value coexist. An example: women learning to sew at home (non-capitalist space),
whose skills are later used in sweat shops (a capitalist space). Capitalism relies on these
spaces to function, even though they lie outside formal market organization
Anna Tsing: savage and salvage are often twins
- Salvage translates violence and pollution (vervuiling) into profit (but it often escapes
our sight). So, capitalism doesn’t stop these processes, it absorbs their results and
makes money from them > violence it turned into economic value and profit
o These destruction processes (savage): violence, pollution, theft (land-
grabbing), human exploitation, deforestation
- The ‘savage’ destruction (vernietiging) of people and nature is what makes salvage
possible
