Review and Positions: Global Production Networks and Labour

Abstract

Commodity chains that are global in extent have increasingly come to be seen as the defining element of the contemporary globalized world economy. Since the 1990s a body of theory — evolving from global commodity chain analysis to global value chain analysis to global production network analysis — has focused upon understanding how such commodity chains function. However, despite providing many important insights, these bodies of literature have generally suffered from a major deficiency in that they have failed to consider labour as an active agent capable of shaping such chains' structure and geographical organization. Here, then, we present a case for locating more centrally labour, in production network analysis.

Competition for control over the labour process as a driver of relocation of activities to a shared services centre

“…At best this issue has been touched upon only indirectly in studies focusing on the role of trade unions or international and national quality standards. Cumbers et al (2008) and Rainnie et al (2011) call for the much greater integration of labour into theories of the global commodity chain, global value chain and global production network; but, in the end they themselves conceptualize labour mainly in the organized form of trade unions and thus to large extent repeat the conceptual flaws identified in the previous section.…”

Soziologie in Österreich – Internationale Verflechtungen

“…Als drittes Beispiel lassen sich die Ansätze der GVCs und GPNs heranziehen, die als mittlere Ebene zwischen dem unmittelbaren Arbeitsprozess und der globalen kapitalistischen Ökonomie verstanden werden können (vgl. Taylor 2010, Rainnie et al 2011. Die in der Konzeption des Kapitalismus als Weltsystem entwickelte Perspektive auf Güterketten (vgl.…”

New Zealand's turbulent waters: the use of forced labour in the fishing industry

“…Because each sphere of a production network embodies it, labour is critical for understanding the structure and functions of GPNs (Cumbers et al 2008;Rainnie et al 2011). However, GVC/GPN labour chain analysis seldom acknowledges labour, particularly 'invisiblized' workers, except during periods of overt labour action (Cumbers et al 2008;.…”