Abstract. The article examines how to adapt the global production network (GPN) approach to situations of natural resource extraction. Based on an
integration of a political ecology perspective into GPN research, we
exemplarily apply the GPN framework to the primary sector. Based on
extensive qualitative fieldwork regarding Argentine lithium mining and
Brazilian soy agribusiness we illustrate that particularly a political
ecological environmental perspective allows for a more nuanced and critical
analysis of ambiguous local development outcomes. While from a purely
economic development perspective in both cases the economic activity
(integrated into GPNs) is celebrated as an imperative economic growth
driver, our framework helps identify the emergence of unilateral
dependencies, a decline of social autonomy and an unequal distribution of
environmental risks.