Unequal Exchange: Past, Present, and Future is Torkil Lauesen’s definitive synthesis of sixty years of debate on the political economy of imperialism. Returning to Arghiri Emmanuel’s groundbreaking theory of unequal exchange—the systematic transfer of value from low-wage regions of the Global South to high-wage countries in the Global North—Lauesen reconstructs the historical, theoretical, and political stakes of the concept with unmatched clarity. Moving from the early structures of colonial extraction to contemporary global value chains, he shows how wage differentials, outsourcing, and the international division of labor continue to polarize the world-system, shaping everything from living standards to global political alignments.

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Drawing on archival material, as well as contributions from dependency theorists, world-systems analysis, ecological economists, and contemporary empirical research, Lauesen demonstrates how unequal exchange underpins the prosperity of the imperial core while undermining development in the periphery. Across chapters on measurement, solidarity, crisis, technological transfer, ecological degradation, multipolarity, and socialist transition, he lays out a comprehensive account of how unequal exchange evolved—and why it remains central to understanding the 21st-century global order.

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This book offers a rigorous, accessible, and politically urgent guide for scholars, organizers, and readers seeking to comprehend the structural foundations of imperialism today and the possibilities for building a more equal and sustainable world-system.