Rethinking Social Upgrading in Global Value Chains: Worker Power, State‒Labour Relations and Intersectionality

Abstract

This article builds on critiques of the concept of social upgrading in global value chain (GVC) research, which problematize its coupling to lead firm strategies and economic upgrading by supplier firms, by reconceptualizing social upgrading through the lens of worker power. It argues that a better understanding of the causal processes of social upgrading can be obtained by integrating insights from labour geography, which situates worker agency at the intersection of a 'vertical' dimension of transnational relations and a 'horizontal' dimension of local relations, with conceptualizations of worker power from (global) labour studies, particularly the modes of structural and associational power. The authors call for a deeper theorization of the places in which GVCs 'touch down', arguing that worker power is decisively shaped by state-labour relations as well as the intersectionality of worker identities and interlinkages between spheres of production and reproduction. Case study analyses of the apparel sectors in Cambodia and Vietnam employ this reconceptualization, drawing on the authors' own fieldwork. In both cases, worker power expressed in strike action was a key causal driver of social upgrading; and in both, the outcomes were conditioned by GVC dynamics as well as shifting state-labour relations and intersections of worker identities linked to gender, household and community relations.

Global Value Chain Participation and the Labour Share: Industry‐level Evidence from Emerging Economies

“…2016, Marslev et al, 2022), neither concept has been integrated with the economics literature on the labour share. We provide a first attempt at such a synthesis by discussing the effect of GVCs on bargaining power within a political economy framework.…”

“…However, many emerging economies face structural changes that imply a declining labour demand in the agricultural sector and subsequently excess labour supply as displaced agricultural workers pour into manufacturing and service jobs. In such a situation, the negative effect of GVCs on the bargaining power of workers will outweigh the negligible positive effect of GVCs from a tightening of the labour market (Marslev et al, 2022). Several authors suggest that GVC integration has led to increased competitive pressure among suppliers, which subsequently become less accommodating in wage negotiation and attempt to squeeze wages (Anner, 2020;Milberg, 2004;Onaran, 2009).…”

“…Similar to the literature on industrial upgrading, the economics literature on the labour share has focused on how GVCs affect productivity and the production process in emerging economies, whereas power relations between capital and labour are notably absent from the discussion (Dao et al., 2019; Lian, 2019; Reshef and Santoni, 2019). Whilst social upgrading has been linked to industrial upgrading (Barrientos et al., 2011; Gereffi and Lee, 2016, Marslev et al., 2022), neither concept has been integrated with the economics literature on the labour share. We provide a first attempt at such a synthesis by discussing the effect of GVCs on bargaining power within a political economy framework.…”

“…While productivity increases are often seen as a precondition for increases in the real wage, whether higher real wages are actually achieved depends on workers’ bargaining power (Marslev et al., 2022). Participation in GVCs can open up new employment opportunities and increase the demand for labour.…”

An intersectional approach to understanding the inequality and subordination of Sri Lankan women apparel workers

“…The extant literature on Global South labour has used intersectional perspectives in understanding the exploitation and inequalities of Global South workers placed within global value chains (Carswell & De Neve, 2013;Marslev et al, 2022;Mezzadri, 2017;Mezzadri & Fan, 2018;Seneviratne, 2018Seneviratne, , 2019. These studies show the interrelations of gender, class, place, ethnicity and other social categories in determining the subjugation of Global South female labour.…”