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Neoliberal fashion: The return of the sweatshop

Neoliberal fashion: The return of the sweatshop. Dr. Jerónimo Montero Bressán University of Manchester 27/3/2012. What is a sweatshop?. National sweatshops / international sweatshops. Why is the sweatshop back? 1. Changes in the organisation of the fashion industry

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Neoliberal fashion: The return of the sweatshop

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  1. Neoliberal fashion:The return of the sweatshop OP VK Inovace výuky geografických studijních oborů (Geoinovace) Dr. Jerónimo Montero Bressán University of Manchester 27/3/2012

  2. What is a sweatshop? National sweatshops / international sweatshops Why is the sweatshop back? 1. Changes in the organisation of the fashion industry 2. Rise of neoliberalism OP VK Inovace výuky geografických studijních oborů (Geoinovace)

  3. 1. Contracting out. Why? • Strong labour organisations • Crisis and increasing economic instability: financialisation of the economy • Retailers and branded manufacturers OP VK Inovace výuky geografických studijních oborů (Geoinovace)

  4. The chart shows not only a falling industrial output in OECD countries, but also the high instability to which industrial production is subjected. Source: UNCTAD, 2010 OP VK Inovace výuky geografických studijních oborů (Geoinovace)

  5. 2. What is neoliberalism? “a class project that coalesced in the crisis of the 1970s (…) Masked by a lot of rhetoric about individual freedom, liberty, personal responsibility and the virtues of privatisation, the free market and free trade, it legitimised draconian policies designed to restore and consolidate capitalist class power” (Harvey, 2010: 10). Debates: post-structuralists and Marxists OP VK Inovace výuky geografických studijních oborů (Geoinovace)

  6. Changes: from Fordism to Neoliberalism • State and labour, blamed for the crisis of Fordism • Changes in the balance between capital and labour • Changes in the role of the state: end of Welfare state • Deregulation, financialisation and the permanent economic instability • Labour casualisation: flexibility in the North, informality in the South, Inequality everywhere OP VK Inovace výuky geografických studijních oborů (Geoinovace)

  7. How did the role of the state change? • Rescaling of statehood • Economic domination (Jessop, 2002) OP VK Inovace výuky geografických studijních oborů (Geoinovace)

  8. Sweatshops in Buenos Aires: The tango of the garment workers Source: CIA World Factbook, 20011 Argentina in South America Buenos Aires in Argentina OP VK Inovace výuky geografických studijních oborů (Geoinovace)

  9. Imposition of neoliberalism by means of a dictatorship • Repression of workers’ organisation and political opposition • Deindustrialisation Origins of the sweatshop system The present situation The role of the state The anti-sweatshop struggle OP VK Inovace výuky geografických studijních oborů (Geoinovace)

  10. Sweatshops in Tuscany Prato in Tuscany Tuscany in Italy Source: European Union, 2011 OP VK Inovace výuky geografických studijních oborů (Geoinovace)

  11. Italy’s broker heart: industrial districts and the European Union End of welfare state & labour flexibilisation Origins of the sweatshop system OP VK Inovace výuky geografických studijních oborů (Geoinovace)

  12. High-end fashion houses Fast fashion The role of the state Workers’ unions OP VK Inovace výuky geografických studijních oborů (Geoinovace)

  13. Learning from the evidence: main results of the fieldwork • Deindustrialisation • Justification • Myth 1:Exploitation in national sweatshops is an intrinsic cultural feature of the immigrant communities within which the sweatshop economy develops • Myth 2:Controlling working conditions in sweatshops is impossible OP VK Inovace výuky geografických studijních oborů (Geoinovace)

  14. Myth 2:If entrepreneurs are said to pay legal wages, they will have to close down the factories and subcontract Codes of conduct • Role of the state • The state as the nanny of capital • Law enforcement Workers organisation and trade unions OP VK Inovace výuky geografických studijních oborů (Geoinovace)

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