Contested understandings in the global garment industry after Rana Plaza

Ashwin, Sarah, Kabeer, Naila ORCID: 0000-0001-7769-9540 and Schüßler, Elke (2020) Contested understandings in the global garment industry after Rana Plaza. Development and Change, 51 (5). 1296 - 1305. ISSN 0012-155X

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Abstract

This Introduction synthesizes the key themes of this special cluster of articles and explores the implications of the three contributions on garment supply chains after the Rana Plaza disaster. The three articles examine the perspectives of key stakeholders in garment value chains — global buyers, managers of garment factories in Bangladesh, and workers at these factories — and analyses their responses to the new governance initiatives that emerged in the aftermath of Rana Plaza. Placing the contrasting perspectives of these stakeholders alongside each other starkly reveals how their different positions within hierarchically organized global value chains form the particular lens through which they view post-Rana Plaza initiatives. This special cluster scrutinizes the particular understandings of these stakeholders and reveals the very different capacity for voice and influence that they bring to bear in shaping outcomes. It reflects on the contradictory imperatives faced by actors in the garment industry caught between a logic of competition on the one hand and global labour standards norms on the other. The Introduction concludes by examining the prospects for a re-embedding of the market in global value chains via the activation of civil society.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14677660
Additional Information:	© 2020 The Authors
Divisions:	Management International Development
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
Date Deposited:	02 Nov 2019 16:24
Last Modified:	16 Apr 2024 19:00
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/102350

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