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‘Classes of Labour’ at the Margins of Global Commodity Chains in India and China
Author(s) -
Mezzadri Alessandra,
Fan Lulu
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
development and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-7660
pISSN - 0012-155X
DOI - 10.1111/dech.12412
Subject(s) - commodity , china , work (physics) , commodity chain , vulnerability (computing) , factory (object oriented programming) , flexibility (engineering) , metropolitan area , capital (architecture) , labour economics , production (economics) , economics , informal sector , economic growth , market economy , political science , geography , mechanical engineering , computer security , management , archaeology , computer science , law , macroeconomics , programming language , engineering
This article deploys the concept of ‘classes of labour’ to map and compare non‐factory labour relations in the garment chain across Delhi and Shanghai metropolitan areas. It contributes to commodity studies by unpacking the great complexity of mechanisms of ‘adverse incorporation’ of informal work in global commodity chains and production circuits. Field findings reveal the great social differentiation at work in informalized settings in the two countries, and suggest that while the margins of garment work are characterized by high levels of vulnerability, they may also open up new possibilities for workers to resist or re‐appropriate some degree of control over their labour and reproductive time. While these possibilities depend on regional trajectories, informal labour arrangements do not only result from capital's quest for flexibility. Workers actively participate in shaping their own labour geography, even when exposed to high employment insecurity. The conclusions more broadly discuss the merits of comparative analysis to study labour in global production circuits.