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A Global Alliance against Forced Labour? Unfree Labour, Neo‐Liberal Globalization and the International Labour Organization
Author(s) -
LERCHE JENS
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of agrarian change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.63
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1471-0366
pISSN - 1471-0358
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-0366.2007.00152.x
Subject(s) - alliance , globalization , context (archaeology) , labour law , work (physics) , industrial relations , political economy , economics , political science , labour economics , market economy , law , geography , engineering , mechanical engineering , archaeology
The ILO is presently attempting to spearhead a ‘global alliance against forced labour’. This article surveys the ILO approach to forced labour, recent theoretical debates regarding forced labour and recent empirical work on bonded labour in India. It argues that the ILO ‘ghettoizes’ forced labour, and that existing theories do not provide an alternative to this, as they focus on high‐level ahistorical models. There is a need to develop specific analyses of the processes underlying both free and unfree labour relations in the present context, and their relation to neo‐liberal globalization as well as country‐specific conditions. The review of Indian case studies and of aspects of neo‐liberal globalization points towards such an analytical approach.