Sweatshop Subjectivity and The Politics of Definition and Exhibition

Abstract

When factory inspectors first used the word "sweatshop" at the turn-of-the-last century, they sought to describe much more than the cramped garment workplaces where immigrants labored. They also tried to explain the social dangers posed by these workplaces. Inspectors relied on their sensory responses. Citing odors as evidence, inspectors united fears of poverty, pestilence, and promiscuity in their definition of the sweatshop. Clothing produced in filthy shops by diseased workers could infect consumers and male and female immigrants working in close quarters were becoming an enfeebled, immoral race. Workers eschewed the language of racial decline, but pointed to their weak bodies as evidence of the exploitative nature of the sweatshop.The subjectivity of definitions of the sweatshop presents a challenge, especially to public historians. How, in the process of exhibition and reconstruction, can public historians represent the competing moral judgments and racial, class, and gendered fears that shaped initial definitions of the sweatshop?

Just-in-space: Certified rural products, labor of quality, and regulatory spaces

“…Although the idea of social-action-through-consumption is not a new phenomena-boycotts have been a tactic of organized labor since the 1930s, and used quite successfully by Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers to gain contracts in the 1970s-the increased number and affluence of social choice consumers in the 1980s, particularly in the EU, has opened the possibility for significant niche markets in 'ethical' products (Barrett et al, 2002). This group is also, however, quite variable with respect to specific commodity classes, with food consumers forming a diverse and powerful coalition (Freidberg, 2004), while forest product (Jensen et al, 2003;Taylor, 2005;Klooster, 2005) and apparel consumers (Bender, 2002;Cowie, 2002) have been less active. A part of the heightened concern of food product consumers may be traced to what Freidberg (2004) terms the 'anxious age' ignited by the potential (and fact) of pathogens hitching a ride on foodstuffs that has become expressed as a generalized consumer anxiety about the origins of products (see also Hollander, 2003 on food purity).…”

Expanding social justice knowledge with sweatshop history

“…Sweatshops are found in almost all industries, but are most often associated with the garment trade Pope, 1905Pope, /1970). The term "sweatshop" became part of the general English language around the late 1880s to early 1890s (Bender, 2002;. It described the abusive labor practices carried out by ready-to-wear manufacturers.…”

“…New York was a pioneer in the apparel industry, as the fastest growing garment industry in the North Atlantic (Bender, 2002;Pope, 1905Pope, /1970. The city was an international transportation hub with a developed infrastructure to support the apparel industry (Breward, 2003).…”

“…By 1855, 35% of manufacturing employees worked in the city"s clothing industry (Griggs, 2001). New York, specifically the Lower East Side, proved to be a prime location for sweatshops because the manufacturing was located in small production clusters, not in mass produced factories, and there were no male driven industrial unions to fight against unsafe conditions (Bender, 2002;.…”

“…Sweatshops were thought representative of the worst moral and public health conditions in the United States. New York factory inspectors described sweatshops as operating in near slave-like conditions (Bender, 2002).…”