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Class, gender and the sweatshop: on the nexus between labour commodification and exploitation

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  • Alessandra Mezzadri

Abstract

Drawing on approaches to class emphasising the multiplicity of labour relations at work under capitalism, and from feminist insights on oppression and social reproduction, this paper illustrates the interconnection between processes of class formation and patriarchal norms in globalised production circuits. The analysis emphasises the nexus between the commodification and exploitation of women’s labour, and how it structures gendered wage differentials, labour control and the high ‘disposability’ of women’s work. The analysis develops these arguments by exploring the case of the Indian garment industry and its gendered sweatshop regime. It illustrates how commodification and exploitation interplay in factory and home-based realms, and discusses how an approach on class premised on social reproduction changes the social perimeters of what we understand as labour ‘unfreedom’ and labour struggles.

Suggested Citation

  • Alessandra Mezzadri, 2016. "Class, gender and the sweatshop: on the nexus between labour commodification and exploitation," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(10), pages 1877-1900, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ctwqxx:v:37:y:2016:i:10:p:1877-1900
    DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2016.1180239
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    Cited by:

    1. Katharina Grüneisl, 2024. "Becoming ‘farazat’: Re-examining feminisation from a Tunis used clothes sorting factory," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(3), pages 736-750, May.
    2. Alessandra Mezzadri & Kaustav Banerjee, 2021. "The afterlife of industrial work: Urban-to-rural labour transitions from the factory to the informal economy," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-158, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Gayatri Nair, 2023. "The Political Economy of Gig Work in the Pandemic: Social Hierarchies and Labour Control of Indian Platform Workers," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 18(3), pages 409-430, December.
    4. Shalini Grover & Thomas Chambers & Patricia Jeffery, 2018. "Portraits of Women’s Paid Domestic-Care Labour," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 13(2), pages 123-140, August.
    5. Ronaldo Munck, 2020. "Work and Capitalist Globalization: Beyond Dualist Reason," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 52(3), pages 371-386, September.
    6. Tatiana López, 2021. "A practice ontology approach to labor control regimes in GPNs: Connecting ‘sites of labor control’ in the Bangalore export garment cluster," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(5), pages 1012-1030, August.
    7. Heslop, Luke & Jeffery, Laura, 2020. "Roadwork: expertise at work building roads in the Maldives," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103969, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Thomas Chambers & Ayesha Ansari, 2018. "Ghar Mein KÄ m Hai (There is Work in the House)," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 13(2), pages 141-163, August.
    9. Rajneesh Narula, 2019. "Enforcing higher labor standards within developing country value chains: Consequences for MNEs and informal actors in a dual economy," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(9), pages 1622-1635, December.
    10. Jihye Kim & Wendy Olsen & Arkadiusz Wiśniowski, 2023. "Predicting Child-Labour Risks by Norms in India," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(6), pages 1605-1626, December.
    11. Muhammad Ayaz & Muhammad Junaid Ashraf & Trevor Hopper, 2019. "Precariousness, Gender, Resistance and Consent in the Face of Global Production Network’s ‘Reforms’ of Pakistan’s Garment Manufacturing Industry," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 33(6), pages 895-912, December.
    12. Madhumita Dutta, 2020. "Workplace, emotional bonds and agency: Everyday gendered experiences of work in an export processing zone in Tamil Nadu, India," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(7), pages 1357-1374, October.
    13. Krzywdzinski, Martin & Lechowski, Grzegorz & Mählmeyer, Valentina, 2019. "Lean Work and Gender Inequalities: Manufacturing Consent at a Multinational Car Plant in Provincial Russia," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 10(2), pages 123-141.

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