Labour control and the labour question in global production networks: exploitation and disciplining in Senegalese export horticulture

This article advocates the centrality of labour control to understand the constitutive role of labour and production within global production networks (GPNs). It draws from the global value chain/GPN literature, labour process theory and agrarian political economy to examine the architecture of labour control in the Senegalese–European horticultural GPN through an analysis of local labour control regimes that are constituted at different scales (global, national and local). It frames labour control through the interplay of labour exploitation and disciplining, identifying the different actors, institutions and dynamics shaping labour control and links places of production to broader spaces of labour control. The strong role of the Senegalese state indicates that labour control is closely connected to a broader ‘labour question’ that revolves around the productive/reproductive activities of households and gender subordination. The historical analysis shows the path-dependent, dialectical nature of labour control and labour resistance, and importantly, their dependency on broader production and reproduction relations.