The Governance of Forced Labour in the Global Economy

Abstract

The problem of forced labour in the contemporary global economy is attracting increasing attention in global governance debates and policy circles. The effectiveness of governance initiatives depends on underlying understandings of the root causes of the problem. We explore how the root causes of forced labour in global production networks (GPNs) are framed in global governance debates. Focusing on the dominant frameworks mobilized by international institutions, with some attention to cognate national-level and corporate governance strategies, we identify certain limitations to dominant interpretations, which derive from their ‘residual’ character and their associated neglect of the manner in which the roots of forced labour reach deeply into the organization of GPNs, the forms of exploitation which are integral to them, and the connections between exploitation and poverty. We set out an alternative, ‘relational’ perspective on the roots of forced labour in GPNs, based on the concept of ‘adverse incorporation’, and consider the implications of the insights generated by this perspective for contemporary governance frameworks.

EXTRACTO - El problema del trabajo forzado en la economía global contemporánea está atrayendo una creciente atención en los debates de gobernanza global y círculo políticos. La efectividad de las iniciativas de gobernanza depende de los entendimientos subyacentes de las causas raíz del problema. Se explora cómo las causas raíz del trabajo forzado en las redes globales de producción (GNPs por sus siglas en inglés) son enmarcadas en los debates de gobernanza global. Enfocándose en los marcos dominantes movilizados por las instituciones internacionales, con alguna atención a estrategias asociadas de nivel nacional y gobernanza corporativa, se identifican ciertas limitaciones a las interpretaciones dominantes, que se derivan de su carácter “residual” y del abandono asociado de la forma en que las raíces del trabajo forzado alcanzan profundidad en la organización de las GNPs, las formas de explotación que les son integrales y las conexiones entre explotación y pobreza. Se plantea una perspectiva “relacional” alternativa sobre las raíces del trabajo forzado en las GNPs, basada en el concepto de “incorporación adversa” y se consideran las implicaciones de las percepciones generadas por esta perspectiva de los marcos de gobernanza contemporánea.

Keywords:

• governance
• forced labour
• poverty
• adverse incorporation
• global production networks

Acknowledgements

The initial research for this article was conducted as part of a project on ‘Vulnerable Workers in Global Production Networks: Case Studies of Trafficked and Forced Labour in Brazil and India’, led by Nicola Phillips and generously funded by the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC) in 2009–2010. Nicola Phillips is also grateful for a Major Research Fellowship from The Leverhulme Trust (2010–2013), which permitted the development of the ideas and the completion of the final version of the article. We acknowledge gratefully early comments from Stephanie Barrientos, Sam Hickey, and Andrew Shepherd, and later the very constructive and useful reactions of three anonymous referees for this journal. We are also grateful for all the people who generously gave us their time and insight in interviews and conversations for this research. We alone are responsible for all of the arguments and interpretations presented here.

Notes

1 http://www.pastoraldomigrante.org.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=44%3Ahistorico-dos-cortadores-de-cana-mortos-no-setor-canavieiro-&catid=47%3Amemoria&Itemid=38 (cited in Phillips & Sakamoto, 2012).

2 http://corporate.ford.com/microsites/sustainability-report-2011-12/supply-raw-materials-trafficking.

3 We are grateful to Stephanie Barrientos for prompting us to underline this point.

Additional information

Nicola Phillips is a professor of political economy in the Department of Politics at the University of Sheffield. Her research and teaching interests focus on global economic governance, the political economy of development, labour in global production networks, and migration and development. Between 2010 and 2013, she held a Major Research Fellowship from The Leverhulme Trust, for research on forced labour and human trafficking for labour exploitation in the global economy. Her recent publications include Development (with Anthony Payne, Polity, 2010) and, as editor, The Handbook of the International Political Economy of Governance (with Anthony Payne, Edward Elgar, 2014), Migration in the Global Political Economy (Lynne Rienner, 2011) and International Political Economy: Debating the Past, Present and Future (with Catherine Weaver, Routledge, 2010). Her work has also recently been published in such journals as the Review of International Political Economy, Economy and Society, Global Networks, Studies in Comparative International Development, and Third World Quarterly. She is currently the vice-chair and chair-elect of the British International Studies Association.

Fabiola Mieres completed her PhD in politics/international political economy at the University of Manchester in 2014. Her thesis explored the political economy of migrant labour contracting through the role of farm labour contractors in the context of California and Mexico. Her primary research interests involve the international political economy of labour migration, migration governance, and debates over precarity of labour from interdisciplinary perspectives. Her previous research included regionalism in South America, and she published on alternatives for finance on development in Latin America, and the role of regional banks.