Plan of action for the Garment industry project
Long-term outcome: to produce a jointly-written monograph.
Short-term outcomes: a series of individual and joint articles that involve individual country studies, as well as themes that cover the whole region.
First suggested article is on the theme of labour standards.
In addition, a joint article based on our proposal and the Shanghai paper, giving a critique of Gereffi’s work, should be completed as soon as we can do so.
Framework of the research:
To view the clothing industry as a mode of production, and to study it within a regional framework.
This will be done by:
1. Looking at the nature of development of national economies to account for why processes and structures differ between countries and areas
2. Mapping commodity chains, including
a. Export markets
b. Local markets
3. Looking at production networks across the region, in terms of
a. Company/business networks
b. Labour migration and mobility
4. Examining the elements of labour regimes within the industry
a. Role of unions
b. Role of NGOs
5. Looking at regulatory processes (including quotas) pre/post-MFA
6. Looking at consumption networks and patterns
The links will be traced in terms of both regional and historical developments and networks.