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Global Production Networks and Activism: Can Activists Change Mining Practices by Targeting Brands?

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  • Michael John Bloomfield

Abstract

In this article, I mobilise a global production networks (GPN) approach to study a campaign seeking to impact mining practices by targeting a key consumer market: gold jewellery. In doing so, I make two contributions. The first is empirical: documenting this exploratory campaign and mapping activist strategies and outcomes against the gold production network. The second is theoretical: evaluating whether the GPN toolkit can help explain how the nature of a commodity and its markets impact activist strategies and outcomes. Recasting industries as sites of social struggle, a GPN approach offers a more nuanced understanding of the power permeating markets than more conventional supply chain analyses. The results clarify the challenges activists face when politicising industries by targeting brands, particularly in the extractives sector. But the findings also illuminate opportunities, including the more subtle pathways of activist influence as they: (1) gather and disseminate information, (2) place social and environmental issues on the industry agenda, (3) spur industry to create institutions around these issues, (4) insert themselves and their agenda into the production network, and (5) form alliances with industry actors pushing for change.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael John Bloomfield, 2017. "Global Production Networks and Activism: Can Activists Change Mining Practices by Targeting Brands?," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(6), pages 727-742, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:cnpexx:v:22:y:2017:i:6:p:727-742
    DOI: 10.1080/13563467.2017.1321624
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Dauvergne, Peter, 2013. "Eco-Business: A Big-Brand Takeover of Sustainability," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262018760, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Bloomfield, Michael J., 2020. "South-South trade and sustainable development: The case of Ceylon tea," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    2. Goldstein, Benjamin & Newell, Joshua P., 2020. "How to track corporations across space and time," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).

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