Hybrid Production Regimes and Labor Agency in Transnational Private Governance

Abstract

Little consensus exists about the effectiveness of transnational private governance in domains such as labor, the environment, or human rights. The paper builds on recent scholarship on labor standards to emphasize the role of labor agency in transnational private governance. It argues that the relationship between transnational private regulatory initiatives and labor agency depends on three competences: first, the ability of workers' organizations to gain access to processes of employment regulation, implementation, and monitoring; second, their ability to insist on the inclusion of employers and state agencies within such processes; and third, the ability of workers to effectively exercise leverage in pursuit of particular goals. The paper develops a framework, called hybrid production regime, for examining how workers' capacity to act at the local level depends on how these three collective competences are addressed in the institutionalization of capital-labor relations between the transnational and national levels.

Grounding the Politics of Transnational Private Governance: Introduction to the Special Section

“…While questions of legitimacy and accountability in transnational private regulation have been discussed for some time (see for instance : Black 2008; and for a recent reformulation: Zürn 2018), the focus here is rather on the many ways in which concrete practices shape power configurations between public and private actors. This brings to the fore a renewed interest in power and agency in transnational private governance and its close relation with global production networks (Merk 2015, Bartley and Egels-Zandén 2016, Schulze-Cleven 2017, Zajak et al 2017, Coe and Yeung 2019, Ponte 2019, Graz et al 2020.…”

“…From a more critical institutional and sociological perspective, authors have stressed the political construction of such markets and pointed out the broader framework of capitalism and its constraining environment. Recent studies have laid particular emphasis on power inequalities between stakeholders, exclusion of actors, the preponderance of managerialism over empowerment, and potential tensions between public and private standards (Fransen 2012, Fransen and Burgoon 2017, Bartley 2018, Ponte 2019, Graz et al 2020.…”

Emerging Paradigms of Corporate Social Responsibility, Regulation, and Governance: Introduction to the Thematic Symposium

“…Given only limited exchange and collaboration among academic disciplines and sub-disciplines, and the multidisciplinary nature and the use of CSR as forms of regulation and governance (Wouters et al 2013), forging cross-and multidisciplinary research collaborations can advance the conceptual and theoretical understanding of business ethics and CSR, and contribute to effective conduct, regulation, and governance of corporate and organizational behavior. Graz et al (2019) and Jackson et al (2019) offer useful starting points in understanding how outcomes are linked to institutionally embedded actors and their interactions. Research and theorization on outcomes may require moving beyond CSR as a mode of governance and/or regulation and gaining expertise and inspiration from other fields such as international relations, law, political science, and sociology (Ciepley 2013;Kourula et al 2019).…”

“…The authors examine the rationale behind such collaborative governance initiatives and discuss opportunities and challenges. Graz et al (2019) review the effectiveness of transnational private governance on labor standards and emphasize the role of labor agency. They argue that the relationship between transnational private regulatory initiatives and labor agency depends on three particular competences.…”

Exercising associational and networked power through the use of digital technology by workers in global value chains

“…Hence, our point of departure within this literature on GVCs and worker power is to examine collective worker power in a transnational manner to improve working conditions in specific production or factory locations in GVCs. This is in recognition of the increasing importance networks of labour activism --a network of labour activists as opposed to trade unions --have become for transnational labour activism in GVCs (Graz et al, 2019;Merk and Zajak, 2019;Piper et al, 2017;Zajak et al, 2017). Specifically, we focus on two forms of collective worker power, associational power and networked power, and connect them with how digital tools are used in their exercise including transnationally.…”