Premium
A Review of Private Regulation: Codes and Monitoring in the Apparel Industry
Author(s) -
Esbenshade Jill
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
sociology compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 31
ISSN - 1751-9020
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-9020.2012.00473.x
Subject(s) - sweatshop , enforcement , meaning (existential) , scholarship , state (computer science) , law and economics , clothing , field (mathematics) , sociology , compliance (psychology) , corporate social responsibility , public relations , business , law , political science , psychology , social psychology , mathematics , algorithm , computer science , pure mathematics , psychotherapist
This article reviews the last decade of scholarship on a leading corporate social responsibility initiative: the use of codes of conduct and monitoring in the global garment industry. The review focuses on three debates in the field: the evaluation of code and monitoring effectiveness, the problematic of various relationships in transnational anti‐sweatshop campaigns, and the meaning of private regulation vis‐a‐vis state enforcement. The article concludes that codes and monitoring do not constitute a solution to the sweatshop problem and certainly cannot substitute for state enforcement or worker organizing. If private regulation is to contribute to a solution in a meaningful way, it must move from a model that presumes compliance and, therefore, focuses on ferreting out violators, to one that assumes non‐compliance, and so concentrates on altering the structure of the industry.