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Global Capitalist Assemblages : A Historiographical Appraisal of Multinational Enterprise in the Global South

Edelgaard Christensen, Kristoffer LU and Ivarsson, Søren (2025) In Enterprise & Society
Abstract
Following the recent resurgence of capitalism as a key subject in historical analysis, historians have highlighted the globally interconnected making and remaking of capitalism. Commodity-centred histories in global history have shown how to write locally grounded histories of global capitalism emphasising the complex and contingent relationship between the local and the global. In these accounts, however, businesses and global firms rarely appear as the analytical centrepiece. We argue that the globally active firm provides an ideal prism for writing locally grounded histories of global capitalism. Furthermore, drawing on recent usages of assemblage theory in economic history, we propose viewing “the global firm” as a “capitalist... (More)
Following the recent resurgence of capitalism as a key subject in historical analysis, historians have highlighted the globally interconnected making and remaking of capitalism. Commodity-centred histories in global history have shown how to write locally grounded histories of global capitalism emphasising the complex and contingent relationship between the local and the global. In these accounts, however, businesses and global firms rarely appear as the analytical centrepiece. We argue that the globally active firm provides an ideal prism for writing locally grounded histories of global capitalism. Furthermore, drawing on recent usages of assemblage theory in economic history, we propose viewing “the global firm” as a “capitalist assemblage” in order to capture the spatiotemporally contingent processes through which capitalism and distinct ways of organizing business, labour, and life under capitalism emerged and evolved at specific sites and times. This approach will contribute to global studies and address limitations in business history’s treatment of the global firm. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
epub
subject
keywords
Assemblage theory, business history, Global Capitalism, microhistory, new histories of capitalism
in
Enterprise & Society
publisher
Oxford University Press
ISSN
1467-2227
DOI
10.1017/eso.2025.10094
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
6592590e-3720-4f89-bf2a-556b1f4a7473
date added to LUP
2025-08-25 12:35:24
date last changed
2025-09-25 10:55:29
@article{6592590e-3720-4f89-bf2a-556b1f4a7473,
  abstract     = {{Following the recent resurgence of capitalism as a key subject in historical analysis, historians have highlighted the globally interconnected making and remaking of capitalism. Commodity-centred histories in global history have shown how to write locally grounded histories of global capitalism emphasising the complex and contingent relationship between the local and the global. In these accounts, however, businesses and global firms rarely appear as the analytical centrepiece. We argue that the globally active firm provides an ideal prism for writing locally grounded histories of global capitalism. Furthermore, drawing on recent usages of assemblage theory in economic history, we propose viewing “the global firm” as a “capitalist assemblage” in order to capture the spatiotemporally contingent processes through which capitalism and distinct ways of organizing business, labour, and life under capitalism emerged and evolved at specific sites and times. This approach will contribute to global studies and address limitations in business history’s treatment of the global firm.}},
  author       = {{Edelgaard Christensen, Kristoffer and Ivarsson, Søren}},
  issn         = {{1467-2227}},
  keywords     = {{Assemblage theory; business history; Global Capitalism; microhistory; new histories of capitalism}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{Enterprise & Society}},
  title        = {{Global Capitalist Assemblages : A Historiographical Appraisal of Multinational Enterprise in the Global South}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/eso.2025.10094}},
  doi          = {{10.1017/eso.2025.10094}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}