Paper short abstract:

I will examine the encounter between global capital and informal labour regimes at the bottom of the hazelnut supply chain in Turkey. I argue that firms' preference of a “selective and partial regulation” approach to chain governance yields complex outcomes for the informal labour force.

Paper long abstract:

Informal wage labour in agriculture is an area where domestic migrants and refugees are integrated into globalised circuits of production. Based on 11-months of on-site fieldwork on the hazelnut supply chain in Turkey, this paper will explore how accumulation and extraction in agricultural value chains are crystallised in an era of informality and flexibility. Over the last few years, international organisations, nation states, and consumer demand campaigns have called for better chain regulation and chain visibility due to the prevalence of precarious seasonal migrants and child labour in hazelnut picking. However, global capital has penetrated hazelnut production and markets in Turkey through appropriating existing customs and institutions. This legitimised the variegation and informality at the bottom of this supply chain. Subsequently, a handful of NGOs and company-led social responsibility programmes emerged as the sole sphere through which global and domestic capital engages with the manual labour force in hazelnut production. Rather than tackling the structural aspects of the working conditions, these programmes remain project-based and limited in their scope and reach. I argue that this “pick and choose” approach to chain governance results in a “selective and partial regulation” of the hazelnut supply chain. This regulatory regime emerges at the intersection of inputs by different formal and informal institutions and actors. Rather than serving as a “benign escalator” for workers’ upwards mobility as is suggested by some literature on supply chain governance, they can adversely end up legitimising informal hierarchies and forms of organisations within migrant workers to complex outcomes.