DEVS 311 Labour and Global Development

Transcription

1 DEVS 311 Labour and Global Development Winter Term, 2012 Instructor: Dr. Marcus Taylor Office: Mac-Corry A404 Class Times: Wednesdays, 8:30 10:25 Class Room: MC-E229 Office Hours: Wednesdays (or by appointment). Tutorials: A Wednesdays 12:30 13:30 in MC-E202 B Wednesdays 11: in MC-E202 Teaching Assistant: Adrian Murray 9atm@queensu.ca Course Description: It is widely acknowledged that global capitalism is an incredibly dynamic social system, creating an unparalleled quantity and diversity of commodities that are produced, distributed and consumed globally. Less frequently acknowledged is that global capitalism also produces a growing global workforce that is unevenly integrated into the circuits of production, distribution and consumption on a global level. The present course examines this key issue of uneven development. It explores the relationships between the production of goods, the lives and livelihoods of workers and their communities, and socio-economic development at regional, national and international levels. The course is divided into three sections. The first examines how, from colonial times onwards, global economic integration occurred alongside the production of an increasingly divided global workforce, segmented along the lines of nation, race, gender, income and rights. The second section looks at some of the key trends in the contemporary global labour force, such as the impacts of outsourcing, global commodity chains, flexible labour regimes, informal versus formal sectors, and international migration. The final section critically examines some of the ways by which actors have tried to promote basic labour rights across the global economy: in particular, corporate social responsibility and labour internationalism. Class Location and Time: The main lecture class takes place on Wednesdays at 8:30 10:25 in Mac-Corry E229. Warning: while I provide the Powerpoint slides from these lectures on Moodle, students that rely on downloading the class notes rather than attending the lectures tend to do badly. This is because the Powerpoint slides I provide are NOT intended as stand alone material but are to be used in conjunction with the lecture.

2 In addition to the lectures, a weekly tutorial allows you to discuss the key debates around the topic and to examine various sides and perspectives. Part of the tutorial will be dedicated to over-viewing the readings and clarifying the main points of contention between them. Then you will be expected to elaborate on what the strengths of the readings are and how they help us understand the issue at hand. Doing the readings prior to the tutorial is a prerequisite for getting a good tutorial grade! Readings: There is a course pack that contains the required readings for this course. It is available at the Student Union copy centre. In addition, a number of supplementary readings are on Moodle for each week. Additionally, there are other books and sources that can supplement the set readings and you are encouraged to research more widely! In terms of books, I would suggest the following as good starting points (each of these books is on reserve in the library): Edward Webster, Rob Lambert and Andries Bezuidenhout, Grounding Globalization: Labour in the Age of Insecurity, Oxford: Blackwell, Ronaldo Munck, Globalization and Labour: The New Great Transformation, London: Zed Books, Angela Hale and Jane Willis (eds.), Threads of Labour: Global Supply Chains from the Workers Perspective, Oxford: Blackwell Press, Marcus Taylor (ed.), Global Economy Contested: Power and Contestation Across the International Division of Labour, London: Routledge, Kate Bronfenbrenner (ed.), Global Unions: Challenging Transnational Captial Through Cross-Border Campaigns. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, Andreas Bieler, Ingemar Lindberg, and Devan Pillay (eds.), Labour and the Challenges of Globalisation: What Prospects for Transnational Solidarity? London: Pluto Press, Matt Davies and Magnus Ryner (eds.), Poverty and the Production of World Politics: Unprotected Workers in the Global Political Economy. New York: Palgrave, Secondly, the following journals (available both in hard copy and electronic form through the library) would also make a good starting place for further research: Third World Quarterly Labour, Capital, Society New Political Economy Economy and Society

3 Evaluation: Midterm Exam: 20% (held Wednesday February 6 th ) Tutorial Participation: 20% Term Paper: 30% (due Wednesday April 3 rd ) Final Exam: 30% 1. The midterm exam comprises twenty percent of your final grade and will be held during the class on Wednesday February 6 th. Do not miss this test. Unless you contact me before the test and then provide official documentation explaining your absence you will forfeit the marks: Use this form for illness 2. Tutorial Participation: You will be graded for your contribution to tutorials, comprising twenty percent of your final grade. Please note that you are being graded for the quality of your contribution, not the quantity. We are looking for strong arguments that are grounded in the readings and show good understanding of the material we cover. Talking a lot does not guarantee a strong grade it s the clarity, relevance and strength of what you say. We realize that not everyone is equally comfortable with speaking so short but precise contributions that aid the discussion are extremely welcome! You must have done the readings (and preferably made notes on them) prior to coming to the tutorial. Quite simply, students that are better prepared for tutorials will gain better grades. 3. A Term Paper accounts for thirty percent of your final grade. The paper should be no longer than ten pages in length (normal fonts and margins, including references, etc). You can choose the topic of your paper, but it must conduct an examination of one feature of the contemporary restructuring of work or labour forces and the responses of the individuals/communities affected. For example, the role of migrant labour forces in China s industrialization; the reasons behind the flexibilisation of labour in South Africa; the effects of labour market reforms in Malaysia upon women workers; the impact of global labour standards upon maquiladora workers in Mexico; the possibilities and limits to corporate social responsibility standards in Indian textile factories, etc. You need to run your chosen topic past either your TA or myself before you proceed to write. Papers are due prior to the beginning of class on Wednesday April 3 rd. Late papers will be deducted one mark out of thirty per 24 hours after that. Papers not handed in by midday Friday April 7 th will simply be failed. No submissions are accepted. The end of term is a very busy time with many papers to hand in, so start work on your papers early! Do not leave this to the last minute. No accommodations will be allowed for late entry other than illness or another serious and documented situation talk to me prior to the deadline. 4. The final exam will be worth thirty percent of your final grade. It requires students to answer three essay-style questions on the topics covered since the midterm.

4 Course Outline Class 1: Wednesday January 9 th Introduction: Labour, Production and Development in a Global Economy This first week begins to examine at some of the conceptual issues that are developed throughout the course. What is the relationship between the production of goods and socio-economic development? What are the social relationships that underscore the functioning of the global economy? How are labour forces created, reproduced and utilised in a global economy and what are the differentiated impacts of such processes? To address these kinds of questions we talk over some of the key concepts that have been used to conceptualise labour, production and development: including the division of labour, the socialisation of labour, and the politics of production. Fields, Gary How the Poor are Working, pp of Working Hard, Working Poor, Oxford: Oxford University Press, Peter Dicken Global Shift The Changing Global Economic Map, pp in Global Shift: Mapping the Changing Contours of the World Economy, London: Guildford Press, Class 2: Wednesday January 16 th Making Global Labour 1: The Colonial Division of Labour Although trading activities had linked productive activities on a global level from ancient times, the colonial period was instrumental in forging a more integrated international division of labour. While the colonies were a potentially important source of raw materials and agricultural goods for the colonisers, extracting such products required the creation of new types of workforces. We look at some examples of how such workforces were created and the rationales used by colonial powers to justify breaking up existing forms of labour use to incorporate people into the colonial economy. Amarjit Kaur pp of Wage Labour in Southeast Asia since 1840, Palgrave Press. Frederick Cooper The Labour Question Unposed, pp in Decolonization and African society: the labor question in French and English Colonial Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Class 3: Wednesday January 23 rd Making Global Labour 2: The New International Division of Labour This week we overview the evolution of the international division of labour from colonial times to the present. In particular, we ask what have been the changes witnessed in the recent period, often termed the era of globalization? While the trends for outsourcing production have been ongoing since the post-war period, we focus on the current proliferation of these trends, and ask what are the factors that cause different productive activities to be located in different parts of the globe.

5 James Mittelman, Rethinking the International Division of Labour in the Context of Globalisation, pp , Third World Quarterly, Vol. 16(2), Jennifer Hurley The Changing Face of the Global Garment Industry, pp in A. Hale and J. Willis (eds), Threads of Labour, Oxford: Blackwell Press, Class 4: Wednesday January 30 th Making Global Labour 3: Labour Regimes The term labour regime is used to broadly refer to the ways that labour forces are created, reproduced and utilised for the production of commodities. We examine the linkages between forms of power in the labour market (i.e. the ways in which workers are selected, hired and fired) and forms of power within the labour process (i.e. how workers are put to work). Notably, gendered divisions of labour have been a central feature of global capitalism and recently this has taken a new expression with many of the labour intensive export-orientated industries in East Asia and Latin America resting on a largely female workforce. It is therefore essential to investigate how the creation of local labour regimes are inherently embedded in gendered processes of production and social reproduction. Deyo s article looks specifically at the labour regimes that underscored the East Asian miracle ; Salzinger discusses the production of gender in Mexico s Maquila sector. Fred Deyo The Social Construction of Developmental Labour Systems: South- East Asian Industrial Restructuring pp in: G. Rodan, K. Hewison and R. Robinson, The Political Economy of South-East Asia: Conflicts, Crises and Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Leslie Salzinger Producing Women Femininity on the Line, pp in Genders in Production: Making Workers in Mexico s Global Factories. Berkeley: U. California Press, Class 5: Wednesday February 6 th MIDTERM EXAM The midterm exam is held during the Wednesday class. Do not miss this class! (No tutorials this week). Class 6: Wednesday February 13 th Features of Global Labour 1: China The New Industrial Workshop of the World? We contextualise the previous discussions of creating labour forces and labour regimes by focusing specifically on the case study of contemporary China. We assess different interpretations of why China has become a major global industrial hub over the last two and a half decades. Attention is placed on the policies pursued by the Chinese state, the actions of workers, employers and local authorities, and the consequences of this transition both within China and globally. Etienne Cantin and Marcus Taylor Making the Workshop of the World: China and the Transformation of the International Division of Labour, in Global

6 Economy Contested: Power and Conflict Across the International Division of Labour. London: Routledge, Pun Ngai (2007) Gendering the Dormitory Labor System: Production, Reproduction, and Migrant Labor in South China, Feminist Economics, 13(3-4), pp Class 7: Wednesday February 20 nd Reading Week no classes Class 8: Wednesday February 27 th Features of Global Labour 2: The Informal Sector The growing size and importance of the informal sector as a source of employment has been noted as a major structural feature of post-colonial societies within global capitalism. While the informal sector can be defined in different ways, it is generally used to refer to the forms of self-employment and small firms that fall outside the regulation of the state. Here we exam current debates over the nature, function and consequences of the informal sector. For some, the informal sector is a temporary phenomenon that will disappear as countries reach later stages of development. For others it is a structural feature of global capitalism expressing capitalism s inability to provide decent work. For others still, it is an arena of micro-entrepreneurship that presents a motor for development and poverty eradication. The first article by Potts highlights these debates with a sub- Saharan Africa focus. Drawing on case studies in Nigeria, the chapter by Meagher focuses on how workers in the informal economy attempt to protect their interests through various forms of political action. Breman s short essay and photos capture the dynamics of oppression and the search for dignity for those at the Indian informal economy. Deborah Potts The urban informal sector in sub-saharan Africa: from bad to good (and back again?), Development Southern Africa, 25:2, pp , Meagher, Kate The Politics of Vulnerability: Exit, Voice and Capture in Three Nigerian Informal Manufacturing Clusters, pp in Ilda Lindell (ed), Africa s Informal Workers, Zed Books, Jan Breman The Assertion of Dignity, pp in Down and Out: Labouring Under Global Capitalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Class 9: Wednesday March 6 th Features of Global Labour 3: Migration The large-scale movement of workers both within national borders and internationally has been a central feature in the building of the modern world economy. Some of this migration has been forced (slaves from Africa) or coerced (indentured labour from India), other forms of migration have been more voluntary in nature (skilled labourers within the West). In the contemporary global economy, the majority of migrants often (though not always) face difficult employment at low wages and an absence of social protection in their new surroundings. Indeed, those who are designated as illegal face substantial

7 insecurity in all facets of their lives. We examine some of the trends with a focus on case studies of migrants from the South working in Canada and the US. Robin Cohen Migration and the new International/Transnational Division of Labour, pp in Migration and Its Enemies: Global Capital, Migrant Labour and the Nation State. Aldershot: Ashgate Press, Miriam Ching Yoon Louie Holding Up Half the Sky, pp in Sweatshop Warriors, Cambridge: South End Press, Leigh Binford From Fields of Power to Fields of Sweat: the dual process of constructing temporary migrant labour in Mexico and Canada, Third World Quarterly, 30(3), pp , Class 10: Wednesday March 13 th Features of Global Labour 4: Forced Labour Through the lecture and the readings we examine a series of questions: What are the characteristics of forced labour in the global economy? Quite where do we draw the lines between free labour and unfree labour? Is the existence of forced labour of various sorts a leftover of the past, a residue of non-development; or is forced labour integral to some aspects of the global economy in its modern form? Bales, Kevin. (2004) When is a Slave Not a Slave? pp in Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. Berkeley: University of California Press. Breman, Jan The Political Economy of Unfree Labour in South Asia, pp in Outcast Labour in Asia: Circulation and Informalization of the Workforce at the Bottom of the Economy, Oxford University Press, Class 11: Wednesday March 20 th Contesting Global Labour 1: Corporate Social Responsibility Attempting to promote ethical consumption practices among Western consumers has been promoted as a way of ensuring the enforcement of labour rights for workers in globalized production sectors. We examine these claims, paying attention to both the potential opportunities but also the limitations of such strategies. Suk-Jun Lim and Joe Phillips - Embedding CSR Values: The Global Footwear Industry s Evolving Governance Structure, Journal of Business Ethics (2008) 81: Don Wells Too Weak for the Job: Corporate Codes of Conduct, Non- Governmental Organizations and the Regulation of International Labour Standards, pp , Global Social Policy, Peter Lund-Thomsen The Global Sourcing and Codes of Conduct Debate: Five Myths and Five Recommendations, pp , Development and Change 39(6), 2008.

8 Class 12: Wednesday March 27 th Contesting Global Labour 2: The New Labour Internationalism It is often suggested that, while capital has gone global in the contemporary era, labour unions are stuck on a national basis, thereby compounding their weaknesses. Yet there have been many attempts, both old and recent, at forming international or global union movements. Are global labour unions possible and what would be their organising principles? Is solidarity between workers North and workers South even feasible given the serious divisions that exist between and across societies? Edward Webster, Rob Lambert and Andries Bezuidenhout Grounding Labour Internationalism, pp in Grounding Globalization: Labour in the Age of Insecurity: Labour in the Age of Insecurity. Oxford: Blackwell Press, Samanthi Gunawardana Struggle, Perseverance and Organization in Sri Lanka s Export Processing Zones, pp in K. Bronfenbrenner (ed), Global Unions: Challenging Transnational Capital Through Cross-Border Campaigns, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, Class 13: Wednesday April 3 rd Review of Course We review the material covered in the second part of the course that will feature on the final exam. Final papers are also to be handed in during this class.