The politics of sweatshop labour
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21814/eps.5.1.172Keywords:
sweatshop, textile industry, sweatshop labour, structural injustice, extractive institutions, hukou, BangladeshAbstract
This paper provides a political account of sweatshop labour by highlighting the role of political actors
in establishing and sustaining exploitative working conditions in global sweatshops. In academic
debates on sweatshop labour, the focus has been mostly on the responsibility of business or consumers
(cf. Arnold & Bowie, 2007; Meyers, 2007; Zoller, 2015), although there are some authors who deal
with the role of trade unions and civil society (cf. Kabeer, 2000). To provide a broader picture, I draw
on the differentiation between extractive and inclusive institutions made by development economists
Acemoglu and Robinson (2013) and apply this account to the sweatshop issue. I argue that sweatshops
are a political rather than an economic problem, and substantiate my claim by drawing on the Chinese
household registration system hukou, and the political background conditions in Bangladesh.
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