ILPC 2027

Global value chains (GVC) literature and labour process theory (LPT) are useful complementary resources to illuminate the process of value creation and value appropriation in global value chains (Newsome et al, 2015; Thompson & Vincent, 2010; Rainnie et al, 2011). GVC (re)configuration is a contingent process open to challenge by strategic actors (Levy, 2008; Neilson & Pritchard, 2009, Coe, 2012). An important strategic actor in value chain (re)configuration struggles is labour (Cumbers et al, 2008; Rainnie et al, 2011; 2013; Anner, 2015). To theorize the role of labour in GVCs, LPT could contribute in examining workplace struggles at various nodes of value chains.   

Historically, labour received little attention in GVC literature and it remained only a factor of production that contributed to profits of the firm and hence labour cost and labour productivity were the only considerations (Coe & Jordhus-Lier, 2011). Recently, concept of social upgrading was introduced to integrate the role of labour in global value chains (Barrientos, Gereffi, & Rossi, 2011; Milberg & Winkler, 2011). This was meant to understand the impact of economic upgrading (firm level improvement) on workers and working conditions. Studies have shown that economic upgrading could lead to direct positive impact on social upgrading (Rossi, 2013) or could also lead to social downgrading (Anner, 2015). However, it has been argued that an adequate theorization of the process of social upgrading/downgrading should acknowledge the structured conflict of interest inherent in capital-labour relations across the entire global value chain (Selwyn, 2013; Rainnie et al, 2011). This would help understand better the impact of work restructuring on workers and working conditions in global value chains.

In this paper, we focus on understanding the linkage between process upgrading and social upgrading by bringing in insights from Labour Process Theory. The study is based on a qualitative case study (Yin, 1989) of garment manufacturing organizations in Pakistan. In response to the removal of quotas and the resultant intensification of competition, there has been a change in factory regime to maintain and improve the position in global apparel value chain: from ‘piece rate regime’ employing a self-employed groups of male stitchers working autonomously to ‘salaried regime’ employing salaried female stitchers working on a line-based (Fordist) system of manufacturing. This has been achieved by replacing skilled male stitchers by inexperienced female workers who are trained to operate in an environment regulated by managers. Of particular interest is the process of change in factory regime that made possible the replacement of comparatively skilled men by unskilled (but readily trained) women and the bureaucratization of production relations. The analysis compares both the factory regimes and explain how embeddedness in particular global and local context shaped the outcomes for workers in different ways.   

By integrating the insights from labour process theory and GVC analysis, this paper explains that social upgrading/downgrading trajectory depends on institutional context in which workplace struggles are played out in GVCs. The interplay of global and local context shapes the factory regimes in certain ways at local node that have implications for workers and working conditions. It is suggested that a closer examination of factory regime or politics of production at local nodes could better illuminate the process of value creation and appropriation in GVCs.