Tourism global production networks and uneven social upgrading in Kenya and Uganda

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses how the growth of tourism global production networks (GPNs) based in Kenya and Uganda created uneven social upgrading outcomes for workers and communities. A tourism GPN and social upgrading framework follows a global political economy approach to analyzing tourism development and labor in diverse tourism geographies. Two tourism GPNs are investigated: Mombasa, Kenya, and Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda. Four main findings emerge: (1) governance relationships between tour operator and accommodation firms directly impacted social upgrading outcomes for hotel workers and indirectly for excursion workers; (2) excursion workers and community members had precarious connections to tourism GPNs; (3) public governance and collective power were key components to social upgrading while supporting its unevenness; and (4) societal embeddedness constructions around gender and regional space influenced worker and community social upgrading potential. Social upgrading is shaped by a confluence of firm, institution, geography, and labor conditions that differentially materializes in specific tourism GPN arrangements.

摘要

本文研究了基于肯尼亚和乌干达的旅游业全球生产网络的增长是如何给工人和社区创造了不平衡的社会升级后果的。构建了一个遵循全球政治经济学方法的旅游业全球生产网络和社会升级框架以分析多样旅游地理环境下旅游发展与劳工。本研究调查了两个旅游全球生产网络即肯尼亚的蒙巴萨岛和乌干达的默奇森瀑布国家公园༌有四点主要研究发现: (1) 旅行商和住宿企业的管制关系直接影响宾馆工人的社会升级后果༌间接影响短程旅行工人的社会升级后果。(2) 短程旅行工人和社区成员与旅游业全球生产网络有不稳定的联系。(3) 公共管制和集体权力在支持社会升级不平衡的同时也是社会升级的主要因素。(4) 围绕性别和区域空间的社会镶嵌结构影响了工人和社区的社会升级潜力。社会升级是由企业、制度、地理环境和劳工条件综合形成的༌它们差别化地在具体的旅游全球生产网络安排中得以实现。

KEYWORDS:

• Tourism global production networks
• social upgrading
• labor
• Mombasa, Kenya
• Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda, governance

关键词:

• 旅游全球生产网络; 社会升级; 劳工; 肯尼亚蒙巴萨岛; 乌干达默奇森瀑布国家公园; 管制

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Stephanie Barrientos, John Pickles, and Gary Gereffi who provided comments on earlier versions of the paper. Barbara Evers contributed research assistance in Nairobi, Kenya and Francis Mwaura from the Economic Policy Research Centre in Kampala and Viola Mugisha supported research in Uganda and Murchison Falls National Park. The Kenya research was initially part of a project on gender and economic upgrading in global value chains.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

The Kenya research was funded by the World Bank and the Uganda research was funded by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) as part of Capturing the Gains an international research programme that explored the connection between economic and social upgrading in global production networks. The findings and errors are the author's alone and do not reflect the views of the funders.

Notes on contributors

Michelle Christian

Michelle Christian is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Her research explores the intersection of gender, race, and labor in the global economy, most notably in service industries. Between 2010 and 2013, she was a tourism sector coordinator for the international research network, Capturing the Gains, a UK DFID funded research program that explored economic and social upgrading in GPNs.