IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ijlaec/v59y2016i3d10.1007_s41027-017-0066-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Situating Labour in the Global Production Network Debate: As if the ‘South’ Mattered

Author

Listed:
  • Keshab Das

    (Gujarat Institute of Development Research (GIDR))

Abstract

Through a critical review of literature, this paper provides a ‘Southern’ perspective on the positioning of informal labour within global production networks (GPNs). The imperatives to understand the labour processes and possible strategies of labour agencies in the South under the GPNs ensue from rapid advances in the globalisation of production and the concomitant job creation and decent work promises. The reluctance to address or non-recognition of the question of persistent exploitative work arrangements especially at the lower tiers of the commodity chain has been underscored as a serious lapse in the discourse on labour in international subcontracting arrangements. Unsubstantiated optimistim about the outcome of participation of southern producers in these GPNs have, thus, obscured the challenges and intensity of the crisis of informal labour.

Suggested Citation

  • Keshab Das, 2016. "Situating Labour in the Global Production Network Debate: As if the ‘South’ Mattered," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 59(3), pages 343-362, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:59:y:2016:i:3:d:10.1007_s41027-017-0066-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s41027-017-0066-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41027-017-0066-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41027-017-0066-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephanie Barrientos, 2011. "‘Labour chains’: analysing the role of labour contractors in global production networks," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 15311, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    2. Stephanie Barrientos & Gary Gereffi & Arianna Rossi, 2012. "Economic and Social Upgrading in Global Production Networks: Developing a Framework for Analysis," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series ctg-2010-03, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    3. Danny MacKinnon, 2012. "Beyond strategic coupling: reassessing the firm-region nexus in global production networks," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 227-245, January.
    4. Humphrey, John & Schmitz, Hubert, 1996. "The Triple C approach to local industrial policy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(12), pages 1859-1877, December.
    5. Stephanie Barrientos & Uma Kothari & Nicola Phillips, 2013. "Dynamics of Unfree Labour in the Contemporary Global Economy," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(8), pages 1037-1041, August.
    6. Ann Markusen, 2003. "Fuzzy Concepts, Scanty Evidence, Policy Distance: The Case for Rigour and Policy Relevance in Critical Regional Studies," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(6-7), pages 701-717.
    7. Andy Cumbers & Corinne Nativel & Paul Routledge, 2008. "Labour agency and union positionalities in global production networks," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 369-387, May.
    8. Tim Bartley, 2003. "Certifying Forests and Factories: States, Social Movements, and the Rise of Private Regulation in the Apparel and Forest Products Fields," Politics & Society, , vol. 31(3), pages 433-464, September.
    9. Pegler, L.J., 2009. "Development through global value chains and the achievement of decent work : challenges to work and representational processes," ISS Working Papers - General Series 18708, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    10. Tu Lan & John Pickles, 2012. "China’s New Labour Contract Law: State Regulation and Worker Rights in Global Production Networks," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series ctg-2011-05, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    11. Amrita Chhachhi & Jan Breman & Marcel Linden, 2014. "Informalizing the Economy: The Return of the Social Question at a Global Level," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(5), pages 920-940, September.
    12. Noel Castree, 2000. "Geographic Scale and Grass-Roots Internationalism: The Liverpool Dock Dispute, 1995–1998," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 76(3), pages 272-292, July.
    13. Giacomo Becattini & Marco Bellandi & Lisa De Propis (ed.), 2009. "A Handbook of Industrial Districts," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12736.
    14. Gereffi, Gary, 1999. "International trade and industrial upgrading in the apparel commodity chain," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 37-70, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rohit, Kumar, 2023. "Global value chains and structural transformation: Evidence from the developing world," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 285-299.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Keshab Das, 2015. "Situating Labour in the Global Production Network Debate: As if the ‘South’ Mattered," Working Papers id:6665, eSocialSciences.
    2. Stephanie BARRIENTOS & Gary GEREFFI & Arianna ROSSI, 2011. "Economic and social upgrading in global production networks: A new paradigm for a changing world," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 150(3-4), pages 319-340, December.
    3. Hamilton-Hart, Natasha & Stringer, Christina, 2016. "Upgrading and exploitation in the fishing industry: Contributions of value chain analysis," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 166-171.
    4. McWilliam, Sarah E. & Kim, Jung Kwan & Mudambi, Ram & Nielsen, Bo Bernhard, 2020. "Global value chain governance: Intersections with international business," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(4).
    5. Phil Almond & Maria C. Gonzalez & Jonathan Lavelle & Gregor Murray, 2017. "The local in the global: regions, employment systems and multinationals," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(2), pages 115-132, March.
    6. Grzegorz Micek & Robert Guzik & Krzysztof Gwosdz & Bolesław Domański, 2021. "Newcomers from the Periphery: The International Expansion of Polish Automotive Companies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-18, May.
    7. Colozza, Federico & Boschma, Ron & Morrison, Andrea & Pietrobelli, Carlo, 2021. "The importance of global value chains and regional capabilities for the economic complexity of EU-regions," MERIT Working Papers 2021-051, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    8. Shinyekwa, Isaac, 2013. "Economic and Social Upgrading in the Mobile Telecommunications Industry: The Case MTN Uganda," Research Series 159671, Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC).
    9. Henry Wai‐Chung Yeung, 2009. "Transnational Corporations, Global Production Networks, and Urban and Regional Development: A Geographer's Perspective on Multinational Enterprises and the Global Economy," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 197-226, June.
    10. Sanz-Ibáñez, Cinta & Anton Clavé, Salvador, 2016. "Strategic coupling evolution and destination upgrading," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1-15.
    11. Trippl , Michaela & Grillitsch , Markus & Isaksen , Arne, 2015. "External “energy” for regional industrial change: attraction and absorption of non-local knowledge for new path development," Papers in Innovation Studies 2015/47, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    12. Fuenfschilling, Lea & Binz, Christian, 2017. "Global socio-technical regimes," Papers in Innovation Studies 2017/1, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    13. Elisa Giuliani, 2004. "Laggard Clusters as Slow Learners, Emerging Clusters as Locus of Knowledge Cohesion (and Exclusion): A Comparative Study in the Wine Industry," LEM Papers Series 2004/09, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    14. Jean Jenkins & Paul Blyton, 2017. "In debt to the time-bank: the manipulation of working time in Indian garment factories and ‘working dead horse’," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 31(1), pages 90-105, February.
    15. Dong Hoang, 2019. "Labour Standards in the Global Supply Chain: Workers’ Agency and Reciprocal Exchange Perspective," Societies, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-25, May.
    16. Linqing Liu & Shiye Mei, 2016. "Visualizing the GVC research: a co-occurrence network based bibliometric analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(2), pages 953-977, November.
    17. Nicholas A. Phelps & Andrew Wood, 2018. "Promoting the global economy: The uneven development of the location consulting industry," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(6), pages 1336-1354, September.
    18. Shengjun Zhu & Canfei He, 2016. "Global and local governance, industrial and geographical dynamics: A tale of two clusters," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(8), pages 1453-1473, December.
    19. Paulina Ramirez & Helen Rainbird, 2010. "Making the connections: bringing skill formation into global value chain analysis," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 24(4), pages 699-710, December.
    20. Stephanie Barrientos & Gary Gereffi & Arianna Rossi, 2012. "Economic and Social Upgrading in Global Production Networks: Developing a Framework for Analysis," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series ctg-2010-03, GDI, The University of Manchester.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:59:y:2016:i:3:d:10.1007_s41027-017-0066-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.