COVID-19 in the Global Production Network

2021 ◽  
pp. 147-149
Author(s):  
Ben Charoenwong
Keyword(s):  
Production Network ◽  
Global Production Network

The Invisible Networks of Global Production: Re-Imagining the Global Value Chain in Legal Research

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-117
Author(s):  
Anna Beckers
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Global Value Chain ◽  
Commodity Chain ◽  
Production Network ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Global Production Networks ◽  
Legal Research ◽  
Legal Rules ◽  
Global Production Network

AbstractReviewing the burgeoning legal scholarship on global value chains to delineate the legal image of the global value chain and then comparing this legal image with images on global production in neighbouring social sciences research, in particular the Global Commodity Chain/Global Value Chain and the Global Production Network approach, this article reveals that legal research strongly aligns with the value chain image, but takes less account of the production-centric network image. The article then outlines a research agenda for legal research that departs from a network perspective on global production. To that end, it proposes that re-imagining the law in a world of global production networks requires a focus in legal research on the legal construction of global production and its infrastructure and a stronger contextualization of governance obligations and liability rules in the light of the issue-specific legal rules that apply to said infrastructure.

Live or be left to die? Deregulated bodies and the global production network: Expendable workers of the Bangladeshi apparel industry in the time of Covid

Organization ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 135050842110285
Author(s):  
Fahreen Alamgir ◽  
Fariba Alamgir ◽  
Faria Irina Alamgir
Keyword(s):  
Women Workers ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Apparel Industry ◽  
Work Conditions ◽  
Production Network ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Development Regime ◽  
Exchange Condition ◽  
Neoliberal Development ◽  
Global Production Network

This paper draws upon the experience of mainly women workers in the Bangladeshi apparel industry to explore whether deregulated bodies are the fundamental condition of work in the global production network (GPN). We organised the study during the first waves of Covid-19. To conceptualise how ‘deregulated bodies’ have been structured into the industry as the exchange condition of work, we draw on the work of transnational feminist and Marxist scholars. The study provides insights about how a gendered GPN emerged under the neoliberal development regime; the pattern of work and work conditions are innately linked to volatile market conditions. By documenting workers’ lived experiences, the paper enhances our empirical understanding of how workers depend upon work, and how a form of expendable but regulated life linked with work has been embedded in GPN. Our findings reveal that unlike those of other human beings, workers’ bodies do not need to be regulated by norms that enable protection from Covid-19. As for the workers, work implies earning for living and survival, so ‘live or be left to die’ becomes the fundamental employment condition, and the possibility of their death an overlooked consideration. This reality has not changed or been challenged, despite the existence of compliance regimes. We further argue that as scholars, we bear a responsibility to consider how we engage in research on the implications of such organisation practices in a global environment, when all of us are experiencing the pandemic.

Global Production Networks and (Distributional) Regional Development: The Cinnamon Industry in Karandeniya and Matale, Sri Lanka

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-237
Author(s):  
Eunyeong Song ◽  
Douglas R. Gress ◽  
Edo Andriesse
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Regional Development ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Production Network ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Global Production Networks ◽  
Exporting Firms ◽  
Global Production Network ◽  
Developmental Dynamics

The purpose of this article is to examine the multi-spatial and developmental dynamics of the cinnamon industry in Sri Lanka, the largest exporter in the world by value added. This contribution compares Karandeniya, a major traditional cultivating hub, and Matale, a region new to cinnamon cultivation, deploying a Global Production Network (GPN) framework inclusive of regional development considerations. Analyses, based on input from 23 semi-structured, in-depth interviews, examine the potential for all stakeholders to acquire equity or ‘how’ captured value influences the region ‘and’ individual actors over the course of development. Fieldwork reveals four upstream actors in the cinnamon industry, namely—farmers, peelers, collectors and exporting firms. Results indicate that the cinnamon boom led to strategic decoupling with the exporting firms in Colombo and subsequent strategic recoupling with other actors. The primary contribution of the research rests in the interpretation of resulting structural changes in each region from a bifurcated view of regional development. Based on regional economic growth, Karandeniya appears to be more successful. However, considering the extent of value distribution within the region, Matale is on a more inclusive trajectory vis-à-vis cinnamon exports. Based on these results, three implications for GPN theory and related development policy are suggested.

scholarly journals The powers of a social auditor in a global production network: the case of Verité and the exposure of forced labour in the electronics industry

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 653-678
Author(s):  
Gale Raj-Reichert
Keyword(s):  
Electronics Industry ◽  
Production Network ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Global Production Networks ◽  
Power Resources ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Governance Practices ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
Credible Information ◽  
Global Production Network

Abstract Research on labour governance actors in global production networks (GPNs) has been limited to civil society organisations, firms and governments. Understanding the influence of actors in GPNs has been dealt with singular and overt modes of relational power. This paper contributes to both debates by examining an intermediary actor—the social auditing organisation Verité—and its exercise of multiple modes of overt and covert powers to illustrate the complex terrain of change in GPNs. Verité, whose exposure of forced labour in Malaysian electronics subsequently changed labour governance practices in the electronics industry, mobilised power resources of credible information to exercise powers of expert authority and acts of dissimulation across various networked relationships in the GPN. This paper puts forth a multi-power framework of analysis to understand the micro-politics of GPNs.

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