Towards a feminist political economy of time: labour circulation, social reproduction & the ‘afterlife’ of cheap labour

Abstract

This article explores ‘time’ as a crucial category of analysis shaping and shaped by the dynamics of exploitation and social reproduction across the global assembly line. Focusing on the Indian garment industry, the article develops a feminist political economy of time stressing the productive and reproductive temporalities of exploitation, which give rise to multiple forms of labour circulation, including early exit from industrial work. Then, the study places this early exit under the microscope, and analyses the ‘afterlife’ available to women workers outside the factory, which often involves a transition back to informal occupations. The narrative draws both on extensive knowledge of India’s garment sweatshops, and on the detailed analysis of twenty life histories of women former factory workers in Bengaluru. The investigation of the feminist political economy of time of the global assembly line developed here suggests the presence of a revolving door between industrial and informal work in the lives of the working classes. It disproves linear global industrial development narratives constructing industrial work as ‘better work’ and contributes to feminist IPE debates by illustrating how social reproduction – its rhythms, temporalities, and everyday necessities – concretely co-constitutes the world of work across the global economy.

Keywords:

• Feminist political economy
• global sweatshop
• time
• labour circulation
• women workers
• social reproduction
• post-industrial work

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank CIVIDEP and GLU Bangalore for their support in accessing women workers for the scope of this research, and to all the women who shared their story with us. We also thank SOAS former Faculty of Law and Social Sciences for funding fieldwork in and around Bangalore. Thanks to RIPE anonymous reviewers for constructive comments and suggestions. Alessandra Mezzadri also extends heartfelt thanks to Italia D’Acierno, Nina Leone, and Silvia Curcio, car factory workers and FIOM activists in Italy, for sharing their insightful experience of time management on the shopfloor.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Muslim workers are over-represented in northern India and in embroidery, which now is also performed by Dalit workers in some locations (Mezzadri & Fan, 2018).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by SOAS Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, fieldwork grant.

Notes on contributors

Alessandra Mezzadri

Alessandra Mezzadri is Senior Lecturer in Development Studies at SOAS, London. She is the author of ‘The Sweatshop Regime’ (CUP, 2017, 2020).

Sanjita Majumder

Sanjita Majumder is a doctoral researcher in Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths College, London. She has worked as a Research Consultant for CIVIDEP, Bangalore, India.