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- Convenors:
-
Giovanni Pasquali
(University of Manchester)
Stephanie Barrientos (GDI, University of Manchester)
Khalid Nadvi (University of Manchester)
Matt Alford (University of Manchester)
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- Formats:
- Papers
- Stream:
- Business, finance and digital technologies
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 29 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
South-south regional value chains (RVCs) are increasingly led by Southern lead firms governing through private standards. This panel examines the role of firms, states, and civil society in the governance RVCs in the global South generally and in relation to the recent Covid-19 pandemic.
Long Abstract:
The recent rise of South-South trade has spurred an expansion of domestic and regional value chains (RVCs) in Africa, Asia and Latin America (Horner&Nadvi,2018). Southern firms now play a leadership role in the governance of RVCs, setting private standards for supplier compliance (covering decent work and fair trade) (Pickles et al,2016). However, we know little about whether Southern lead firms, who face limited civil society pressure and increasing South-South competition, pursue private governance of social standards? Alternatively, could the expansion of RVCs open up new channels for more effective state regulation of trade and social standards? Furthermore, while increasing attention is being paid to the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic for firms in the global South supplying retailers in Europe, we know less about its impact on RVCs in the global South.
Submissions are invited on questions that include but are not limited to:
• How does participation in RVCs led by Southern firms affect suppliers and workers in Africa, Asia and Latin America?
• Has the expansion of South-South RVCs enhanced or undermined social standards?
• What has been the impact of Covid-19 on suppliers and workers in RVCs? And how does this compare to what we know about global value chains?
• What is the role of states and multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) in regulating RVCs both generally and in relation to the recent Covid-19 pandemic?
• Can civil society actors and MSIs in the global South shape public-private governance of social standards in RVCs that overlap with GVCs?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 29 June, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
This paper theorizes and empirically investigates why and how women do (not) become entrepreneurs in the national, state, and local bamboo value chains of India.
Paper long abstract:
In this paper, we seek to answer the following research questions: a) why do women (not) become entrepreneurs in the bamboo value chains of India, and b) how do regulatory, normative and cognitive factors in India affect their entrepreneurial behavior? In theoretical terms, the paper theorizes how the interaction between value chain dynamics and regulatory, normative, and cognitive institutions affect women’s entrepreneurial behavior in diverse contexts throughout India. Our theoretical framework distinguishes between how national, state-level, and local-level value chains affect the entrepreneurial behavior of women bamboo entrepreneurs, and how different regulatory, normative, and cognitive institutions facilitate and/or constrain their behavior within these value chains. We use a stylized case study to illustrate how these value chain and institutional dynamics play out in both similar and different ways in producer states in four key producing areas of India: Meghalaya, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha.
Paper short abstract:
We examine the politics of labour agency and resulting drivers of conflict as manufacturing companies from the Global South incorporate new locations into existing global production networks, using the example of the Ethiopian apparel industry.
Paper long abstract:
We examine the emerging politics of labour agency as manufacturing companies from the Global South incorporate new locations into existing global production networks, using the example of the Ethiopian apparel industry. The Ethiopian state has attracted leading apparel manufacturers into a series of new industrial parks in the country. Both investors and the Ethiopian government expected to find a pliant labour force willing to work for low wages. However, the new sector has already seen a wave of resistance from workers. We ask which factors drive and constrain labour agency and shape the specific forms it takes in firms tied into leading global production networks. Drawing on a quantitative large-N survey of factory workers and in-depth qualitative interviews with managers, workers, trade union representatives and government officials, we show how the quality of industrial relations depends not just on state action and the business strategies of lead firms in production networks, but also on variegated forms of labour agency used both by organised and unorganised by Ethiopian workers. We find that many industrial conflicts result from the collision of the productivity imperatives of manufacturing firms tied into demanding segments of global production networks with the expectations of workers, but are compounded by the contradictory actions of different state agencies, a lack of formal unionisation, and the interactions of factory-based grievances with local political conflicts. Industrial parks emerge as spaces of particular contestation. Our findings highlight the need to adopt an understanding of labour regimes grounded in local political realities.
Paper short abstract:
This paper presents a framework to analyse the gendered impact of Covid-19 on workers in global value chains, illustrating the channels of transmission using the business process outsourcing, garments and electronics industries.
Paper long abstract:
This paper presents a framework to analyse the gendered impact of Covid-19 on workers in global value chains, illustrating the channels of transmission using the business process outsourcing, garments and electronics industries. Keeping the well-being of workers as a central focus, we analyse the impacts of the pandemic through health effects and lockdown measures. Our gendered analysis of these pathways focuses on multi-dimensional aspects of well-being, understands the economy as encompassing both production and social reproduction spheres, and examines the social norms and structures of power that produce gender inequalities. As the pandemic accelerates automation in GVCs, we also examine the likely consequences for women workers who are expected to lose out as a result. The paper argues that the pandemic exposes and amplifies the existing vulnerabilities of women workers in GVCs. The distinctive nature of the pandemic is likely to alter the course of the GVC model with its effects on labour varying by industry, geography, and the structural position of workers.
Paper short abstract:
Kenyan smallholders increasingly supply domestic supermarkets in regional value chains, but face rising national standards. This paper examines whether smallholders (independent and organised) experience ‘adverse inclusion’, or potential for economic and social upgrading; and policy implications.
Paper long abstract:
African smallholders face significant challenges accessing global value chains (GVCs), due to supermarket requirements and quality standards. The expansion of domestic and international supermarkets within Africa provides smallholders with new opportunities of participating in domestic and regional value chains (RVCs), although standards also increasingly apply. This raises the questions: Do smallholders engaged in RVCs experience ‘adverse incorporation’ which perpetuates poverty and exploitation for disadvantaged groups, including smallholder farmers and women workers? Or are smallholders supplying RVCs able to experience ‘economic and social upgrading’? This paper draws on qualitative empirical research with Kenyan smallholder avocado and green bean farmers in 2019.
The paper finds differences between two groups selling into RVCs. First, independent smallholders whose produce is sold through arms-length intermediaries who are not required to apply standards, even where their produce is ultimately sold to leading supermarkets based in Kenya. These farmers face significant challenges including market and price volatility and poor returns. Second, smallholder farmers organized into cooperatives and self-help groups (SHGs) increasingly supply domestic and regional retailers through modular value chains. Coops and SHGs, long been encouraged by the Kenyan government, negotiate price and could support farmers in implementing the national standard KS1758 (similar to GlobalGAP) being rolled out by the Kenyan government. Hence the integration of smallholders within RVCs is mixed. Many independent smallholders face adverse incorporation, but more organised smallholders (including women) experience better bargaining power and potential for economic and social upgrading. This has implications for public policy and further government support for smallholder organisation.