Rising Power Clusters and the Challenges of Local and Global Standards

__Abstract__ This paper explores the intersection between three processes associated with globalisation. First, the rise of emerging economies like China, Brazil and India, the so-called ‘Rising Powers’, and their potential to define the contours of globalisation, global production arrangements and global governance in the twenty-first century. Second, the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals in the shaping of global trade rules and industrial practices. Third, the significance of small firm clusters as critical sites of industrial competitiveness. Some of the most significant examples of successful, innovative and internationally competitive small firm clusters from the developing world are located in the ‘Rising Powers’ and cluster promotion is a core element of national industrial policy in some of these countries. There is also evidence of engagement by clustered actors with corporate social responsibility goals around labour and environmental impacts. While these three processes have been separately studied there has been no attempt to explore their intersections. This paper addresses this gap through a comparative analysis of secondary data, and a detailed reading of the literature, on CSR and clusters in Brazil, China and India. It assesses the evidence on small firm clusters in the Rising Power economies and considers how these Rising Power clusters engage with CSR goals pertaining to labour, social and environmental standards. It argues for a greater focus on the formal and informal institutional context, termed the ‘social contract’, in explaining divergent experiences and practices observed across these countries. This raises important questions for future academic and policy research on clusters, CSR and the Rising Powers. The paper concludes by outlining a research agenda to explore the local and global consequences of the relationship between Rising Power clusters and international labour and environmental standards

Understanding regional value chains through the interaction of public and private governance: Insights from Southern Africa’s apparel sector

From Springer Nature via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2019-08-31, rev-recd 2020-08-06, accepted 2020-08-21, registration 2020-08-25, pub-electronic 2020-09-23, online 2020-09-23, pub-print 2021-09Publication status: PublishedAbstract: Regional value chains (RVCs) and South–South trade are increasingly considered key features of 21st-century globalisation. This article investigates how RVCs are shaped by the interaction of private and public governance. It evaluates how this interaction unfolded in Southern Africa’s apparel RVCs, exploring trade, investment and labour regimes across three levels of analysis: national, regional, and global. The paper draws on trade data, secondary literature, and interviews with suppliers and institutions in Eswatini and Lesotho (the largest exporters to the region), and lead firms in South Africa (the largest regional importer). The findings underline the critical role of public governance in shaping retailers’ and suppliers’ participation in RVCs through: (i) regional ‘trade regimes’ protecting regional exporters from global competitors, and recent shifts in global trade regimes; (ii) national and regional ‘investment regimes’ facilitating investment flows from South Africa to Lesotho and Eswatini, and the more recent shift of US-oriented suppliers towards regional markets; and (iii) ‘labour regimes’, including lower wages, less comprehensive labour legislation and weaker trade unions in Lesotho and Eswatini compared to South Africa. The article concludes by considering the policy implications of the interaction of private and public governance for existing and future RVCs in Sub-Saharan Africa

A Comparative Study of Workers Conditions in Football Manufacturing in China, India and Pakistan

A critical challenge facing developing country producers is to meet international labour standards and codes of conduct in order to engage in global production networks. Evidence of gains for workers from compliance with such standards and codes remains limited and patchy. This paper focuses on the global football industry, a sector dominated by leading global brands who manage dispersed global production networks. It assesses the work conditions for football stitchers engaged in different forms of work organisation, factories, stitching centres, and home-based settings, in Pakistan, India, and China. It draws on detailed qualitative primary field research with football stitching workers and producers in these three countries. The paper explains how, and why, work conditions of football stitchers differ across these locations through an analytical framework that interweaves both global and local production contexts that influence work condition. In doing so, it argues that current debates on the role of labour in global production networks have to go beyond a narrow focus on labour standards and CSR compliance and engage with economic, technological and social upgrading as factors that could generate sustained improvements in real wages and workers conditions