Monopsony Capitalism

Power and Production in the Twilight of the Sweatshop Age

AvAshok Kumar

Häftad, Engelska, 2020

Del i serien Development Trajectories in Global Value Chains

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Beskrivning

This book explores the combination of capital's changing composition and labour's subjective agency to examine whether the waning days of the 'sweatshop' have indeed begun. Focused on the garment and footwear sectors, it introduces a universal logic that governs competition and reshapes the chain. By analysing workers' collective action at various sites of production, it observes how this internal logic plays out for labour who are testing the limits of the social order, stretching it until the seams show. By examining the most valorised parts of underdeveloped sectors, one can see where capital is going and how it is getting there. These findings contribute to ongoing efforts to establish workers' rights in sectors plagued by poverty and powerlessness, building fires and collapses. With this change and a capable labour movement, there's hope yet that workers may close the gap.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2020-10-29
Mått:150 x 222 x 17 mm
Vikt:360 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Development Trajectories in Global Value Chains
Antal sidor:290
Förlag:Cambridge University Press
ISBN:9781108731973

Utforska kategorier

Nationalekonomi inom Ekonomi och Ledarskap

Mer om författaren

Ashok Kumar teaches International Political Economy at Birkbeck, University of London. He has authored and edited a number of publications and is on the editorial collective of Historical Materialism. He completed his doctorate from the University of Oxford in 2015.

Recensioner i media

'Just as the dynamics of capitalism shuts down opportunities for labour organizing, it can also open up new possibilities. In this important book Ashok Kumar traces the history and geographical spread of the garment industry, how retailers have secured ever more power that has led to the restructuring of the global production chain and increased the structural power of the most exploited workers. Exemplary engaged research that challenges the fatalism accompanying neoliberalism.' Michael Burawoy, University of California, Berkeley

Innehållsförteckning

Acknowledgements; Introduction. The return of the sweatshop; Part I. Past: 1. The bottleneck; 2. The global sweatshop; Part II. Present: 3. China: a strike at a giant footwear producer; 4. India: a warehouse workers struggle at a 'full package' supplier; 5. Honduras: A transnational campaign at a cotton commodity producer; Part III. Future: 6. Cartels of capital; 7. Labour's power in the chain; 8. Conclusion. The end of the sweatshop? Bibliography; Index.