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Indian Garment Clusters and CSR Norms: Incompatible Agendas at the Bottom of the Garment Commodity Chain

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  • Alessandra Mezzadri

Abstract

Today, India is an important player in garment export. Production is highly "localised" and scattered across the subcontinent. It is organised in industrial clusters, with distinct production and labour practices and product specialisations. Product cycles involve numerous ancillary activities, and are often decentralised from main urban tailoring hubs. They connect different realms and spaces of production and labour, and different clusters. This paper explores how this organisational layout severely limits the impact of old and new corporate social responsibility (CSR) labour projects and regulations. It does so by looking at the case of the National Capital Region and one of its satellite embroidery centres, Bareilly, in Uttar Pradesh. In particular, it reveals the contradictory nature of new CSR projects focusing on homeworkers. The arguments developed here are not only a criticism of global buyers' approaches to labour standards. They also more broadly question the ability to elaborate meaningful standards within decentralised production regimes, deconstructing over-optimistic images of India as a "rising power".

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  • Alessandra Mezzadri, 2014. "Indian Garment Clusters and CSR Norms: Incompatible Agendas at the Bottom of the Garment Commodity Chain," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 238-258, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:42:y:2014:i:2:p:238-258
    DOI: 10.1080/13600818.2014.885939
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    5. Delera, Michele, 2022. "Is production in global value chains (GVCs) sustainable? A review of the empirical evidence on social and environmental sustainability in GVCs," Sustainable Global Supply Chains Discussion Papers 1, Research Network Sustainable Global Supply Chains.
    6. Marcelo Royo-Vela & Jonathan Cuevas Lizama, 2022. "Creating Shared Value: Exploration in an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-23, July.
    7. Delera, Michele, 2021. "Is production in global value chains (GVCs) sustainable? A review of the empirical evidence on social and environmental sustainabilitiy in GVCs," PEGNet Policy Studies 04/2020, PEGNet - Poverty Reduction, Equity and Growth Network, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    8. Elisa Giuliani, 2016. "Human Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility in Developing Countries’ Industrial Clusters," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 39-54, January.
    9. Clément Longondjo Etambakonga & Julia Roloff, 2020. "Protecting Environment or People? Pitfalls and Merits of Informal Labour in the Congolese Recycling Industry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 161(4), pages 815-834, February.
    10. Thorey S Thorisdottir & Lara Johannsdottir, 2020. "Corporate Social Responsibility Influencing Sustainability within the Fashion Industry. A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-64, November.
    11. Mathias Koenig‐Archibugi, 2017. "Does transnational private governance reduce or displace labor abuses? Addressing sorting dynamics across global supply chains," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(4), pages 343-352, December.
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    13. Lixin Shen & Kannan Govindan & Madan Shankar, 2015. "Evaluation of Barriers of Corporate Social Responsibility Using an Analytical Hierarchy Process under a Fuzzy Environment—A Textile Case," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-22, March.
    14. 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.
    15. Enrico Fontana & Niklas Egels-Zandén, 2019. "Non Sibi, Sed Omnibus: Influence of Supplier Collective Behaviour on Corporate Social Responsibility in the Bangladeshi Apparel Supply Chain," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(4), pages 1047-1064, November.
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