IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ijlaec/v60y2017i2d10.1007_s41027-017-0094-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Relational Contracting at the Bottom of Global Garment Value Chains: Lessons from Mewat

Author

Listed:
  • Meenu Tewari

    (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

Abstract

How can labour standards be diffused beyond formal factories to those involved in informal work in the lowest tiers of global subcontracting? This question has vexed analysts and policy-makers in the face of broad agreement that private voluntary regulation is not enough to reach the most vulnerable workers in global value chains. This paper documents an alternative arrangement of relational ties at the base of the global garment chain in Mewat, India. The arrangement involved a novel place-based partnership between a leading global buyer, Gap Inc., the government, exporters, local home-based embroidery workers and an embedded nonprofit that connected them all. This networked contracting system helped secure, for a period of time, good working conditions, decent wages and improved livelihoods for previously unprotected workers. The experiment’s success however bred its own challenges and the network continues to transform. The case highlights two points: first, that focusing beyond the factory-floor, on workers in place based territorial labour markets might be an important complement to sectoral strategies of workforce protection. Second, the case also suggests that diffusing good labour standards down and beyond firms within value chains will require an active and mediating role of the decentralized state. Such a state both regulates, learns and collaborates, and holds open a space for relational mediation among firms, labour, and civic actors to jointly reach workers in the lowest tiers of global subcontracting systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Meenu Tewari, 2017. "Relational Contracting at the Bottom of Global Garment Value Chains: Lessons from Mewat," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 60(2), pages 137-154, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:60:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s41027-017-0094-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s41027-017-0094-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41027-017-0094-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41027-017-0094-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Locke, Richard M. & Qin, Fei & Brause, Alberto, 2007. "Does monitoring improve labor standards? Lessons from Nike," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 59405, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Richard M. Locke & Fei Qin & Alberto Brause, 2007. "Does Monitoring Improve Labor Standards? Lessons from Nike," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 61(1), pages 3-31, October.
    3. Stephanie BARRIENTOS & Gary GEREFFI & Arianna ROSSI, 2011. "Economic and social upgrading in global production networks: A new paradigm for a changing world," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 150(3-4), pages 319-340, December.
    4. Paul Osterman & Rosemary Batt, 1993. "Employer-centered training for international competitiveness: Lessons from state programs," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(3), pages 456-477.
    5. Peter Lund‐Thomsen & Khalid Nadvi, 2010. "Global value chains, local collective action and corporate social responsibility: a review of empirical evidence," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(1), pages 1-13, January.
    6. Jeemol Unni & Suma Scaria, 2010. "Government Structure and Labour Market Outcomes in Garment Embellishment Chains," Working Papers id:3061, eSocialSciences.
    7. Giorgio Brunello & Maria De Paola, 2004. "Market Failures and the Under-Provision of Training," CESifo Working Paper Series 1286, CESifo.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Valentina De Marchi & Matthew Alford, 2022. "State policies and upgrading in global value chains: A systematic literature review," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 88-111, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vivek Soundararajan & Jill A. Brown, 2016. "Voluntary Governance Mechanisms in Global Supply Chains: Beyond CSR to a Stakeholder Utility Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(1), pages 83-102, March.
    2. Tashlin Lakhani & Sarosh Kuruvilla & Ariel Avgar, 2013. "Across Boundaries: The Global Challenges Facing Workers and Employment Research 50th Anniversary Special Issue," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 51(3), pages 440-472, September.
    3. Anthony Goerzen & Simon Peter Iskander & Joerg Hofstetter, 2021. "The effect of institutional pressures on business-led interventions to improve social compliance among emerging market suppliers in global value chains," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(3), pages 347-367, September.
    4. Koenig-Archibugi, Mathias, 2017. "Does transnational private governance reduce or displace labor abuses? Addressing sorting dynamics across global supply chains," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 83517, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Golini, Ruggero & De Marchi, Valentina & Boffelli, Albachiara & Kalchschmidt, Matteo, 2018. "Which governance structures drive economic, environmental, and social upgrading? A quantitative analysis in the assembly industries," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 13-23.
    6. Andreas Georg Scherer & Andreas Rasche & Guido Palazzo & André Spicer, 2016. "Managing for Political Corporate Social Responsibility: New Challenges and Directions for PCSR 2.0," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 273-298, May.
    7. Stephanie BARRIENTOS & Frederick MAYER & John PICKLES & Anne POSTHUMA, 2011. "Decent work in global production networks: Framing the policy debate," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 150(3-4), pages 297-317, December.
    8. Peter Lund-Thomsen & Khalid Nadvi & Anita Chan & Navjote Khara & Hong Xue, 2012. "Labour in Global Value Chains: Work Conditions in Football Manufacturing in China, India and Pakistan," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 43(6), pages 1211-1237, November.
    9. Ronconi, Lucas & Zarazaga S.J., Rodrigo, 2015. "Labor Exclusion and the Erosion of Citizenship Responsibilities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 453-461.
    10. Jodi L. Short & Michael W. Toffel & Andrea R. Hugill, 2016. "Code Contingencies: Designing Monitoring Regimes to Promote Improvement in Supply Chain Working Conditions," Harvard Business School Working Papers 17-001, Harvard Business School, revised Mar 2019.
    11. Büthe Tim, 2010. "Private Regulation in the Global Economy: A (P)Review," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(3), pages 1-40, October.
    12. Bernhardt, Annette & Batt, Rosemary & Houseman, Susan & Appelbaum, Eileen, 2016. "Domestic Outsourcing in the U.S.: A Research Agenda to Assess Trends and Effects on Job Quality," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt2fm4m444, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    13. Valeria Pulignano & Nikolaus Hammer & Nadja Doerflinger, 2021. "Explaining Employment Effects in Multipolar Value Chains: A Cross‐National Study on Soft Drinks and Dairy Manufacturing in Europe," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 59(1), pages 25-51, March.
    14. Annette Bernhardt & Rosemary L. Batt & Susan Houseman & Eileen Appelbaum, 2016. "Domestic Outsourcing in the United States: A Research Agenda to Assess Trends and Effects on Job Quality," Upjohn Working Papers 16-253, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    15. Niklas Egels-Zandén & Niklas Hansson, 2016. "Supply Chain Transparency as a Consumer or Corporate Tool: The Case of Nudie Jeans Co," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 39(4), pages 377-395, December.
    16. Nick Lin-Hi & Igor Blumberg, 2017. "The Power(lessness) of Industry Self-regulation to Promote Responsible Labor Standards: Insights from the Chinese Toy Industry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 143(4), pages 789-805, July.
    17. Amira Khattak & Christina Stringer, 2017. "Environmental Upgrading in Pakistan's Sporting Goods Industry in Global Value Chains: A Question of Progress?," Business & Economic Review, Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar, Pakistan, vol. 9(1), pages 43-64, March.
    18. Christina Niforou, 2015. "Labour Leverage in Global Value Chains: The Role of Interdependencies and Multi-level Dynamics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(2), pages 301-311, August.
    19. Corinne Vercher-Chaptal, 2018. "Limitations and perspectives of responsible management of Global Value Chains: From codes of conduct to the French law on the duty of vigilance," Post-Print halshs-02141407, HAL.
    20. Jodi L. Short & Michael W. Toffel & Andrea R. Hugill, 2016. "Monitoring global supply chains," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(9), pages 1878-1897, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:60:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s41027-017-0094-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.