Global Value Chains, Market-Making, and the Rise of Precarious Work with Jennifer Bair
| Dates: | 4 May 2016 |
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| Times: | 17:00 - 18:15 |
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| What is it: | Lecture |
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| Organiser: | Global Development Institute |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, Adults, Alumni, General public, Post 16 |
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Jennifer Bair, University of Colorado at Boulder, will discuss Global Value Chains, Market-Making, and the Rise of Precarious Work
In recent years, high-profile scandals involving worker deaths in overseas factories have shone a spotlight on the global value chains through which companies such as Apple and Walmart procure their products. Yet when it comes to evaluating the connection between global value chains and the quality of employment, where production takes place may be less important than how it is organized. In this talk, I argue that the formation of global value chains can be understood as a form of market-making – one which simultaneously drives the geography of offshore production and the rise of precarious work in developed and developing economies alike. Drawing from historical comparative methods as well as data gathered via recent fieldwork in Bangladesh, I show how this process of market-making has played out to the detriment of workers. I also examine the degree to which the Rana Plaza factory collapse in 2013, which killed 1,129 workers, is driving change with regard to the regulation of work in global value chains, and consider what the post-Rana Plaza reforms in Bangladesh suggest for emergent attempts to re-regulate the new markets created by outsourcing.
The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception.
This lecture is presented by: Brown International Advanced Research Institute Alumni Research Initiative, Brown University and Global Production Networks, Labour and Trade Research Group, Global Development Institute, University of Manchester
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Cordingley Lecture Theatre
Humanities Bridgeford Street
Manchester
