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The Sweatshop Regime

The Sweatshop Regime

The Sweatshop Regime

Labouring Bodies, Exploitation, and Garments <I>Made in India</I>
Alessandra Mezzadri, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
April 2020
Paperback
9781108799249

    This book explores the processes producing and reproducing the garment sweatshop in India. Drawing from Marxian and feminist insights, the book theorises the garment sweatshop in India as a complex 'regime' of exploitation and oppression, jointly crafted by global, regional and local actors, composed of factory and non-factory settings, and working across productive and reproductive realms. The analysis shows the tight correspondence between the physical and social materiality of garment production in India; illustrates the great social differentiation and complex patterns of labour unfreedom at work in the industry; and depicts the sweatshop as a composite 'joint enterprise' against the labouring body, which is inexorably depleted and consumed by garment work, even in the absence of major industrial disasters. By placing labour at the centre of the analysis of processes of development and globalisation, the book critically engages with key debates on industrial modernity, modern slavery, and ethical consumerism.

    • Analyses the different circuits of exploitation consumers 'wear' on a daily basis
    • Engages critically with contemporary debates on industrial modernity, modern slavery, and ethical consumerism

    Product details

    April 2020
    Paperback
    9781108799249
    258 pages
    230 × 153 × 20 mm
    0.5kg
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • List of tables, figures and pictures
    • Acknowledgements
    • List of abbreviations
    • Introduction
    • 1. The chain and the sweatshop
    • 2. The commodity and the sweatshop
    • 3. Difference and the sweatshop
    • 4. The regional lord and the sweatshop
    • 5. The broker and the sweatshop
    • 6. The body and the sweatshop
    • 7. Conclusions
    • References
    • Index.
      Author
    • Alessandra Mezzadri , School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

      Alessandra Mezzadri teaches in the department of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Her research interests focus on globalisation and processes of labour informalisation; materialist approaches to global commodity chain analysis and global industrial systems, labour standards and CSR; gender and feminist theory; and the political economy of India. She has investigated in depth the Indian garment industry over a span of ten years, and illustrated the different ways in which distinct regional sweatshops are formed and reproduced across the Subcontinent.