Home / Lectures / Tim Bartley, Ohio State University
Beneath Compliance: Implementing and Undermining Rules for the Global Factory

Tim Bartley, Ohio State University
Description
Semester:
- Fall 2013
Speakers:
Lecture Time:
Fri, November 15, 2013 @ 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm
Lecture Location:
Room K1310, Ross School of Business
Speaker Webpage(s):
https://sociology.osu.edu/people/bartley
Introduced By:
No introduction available.
Abstract
Beneath Compliance: Explaining the Uneven Failure of Rule-Making Projects for the Global Factory
As firms in developing countries have become integrated into a “global factory” for consumer products, they have also been subjected to new rules from their buyers, focused not just on quality but on labor and environmental conditions. Understanding the contexts and consequences of such transnational rule-making requires one to combine typically distinct analyses of global value chains (GVCs) and national institutions. Based on a cross-field, cross-national study of the implementation of fair labor and sustainable forestry standards in Indonesia and China, this paper seeks to explain one key set of findings: Though national differences have shaped the implementation of rules, there are robust differences across fields. Simply put, projects to promote fair labor conditions in apparel and footwear manufacturing have failed more fully than have projects for sustainable forestry. Furthermore, the forestry field has evolved further toward imposing hard penalties on lead firms for violations in their supply chains. To explain this pattern, I develop a new account of the organizational and political terrain of rule-making, which improves upon the simplified images of corporate greening and consumer tastes that are often invoked. Specifically, I argue that the pattern of differences reflects (1) the distribution of power during the founding of voluntary initiatives (and the resulting capacities for watchdogs to discipline them), (2) the characteristics of products (which differentially bind GVCs to particular locations over time), and (3) the ways in which labor and the environment have been framed relative to the global common good. While rule-making projects as currently configured have largely failed, this account suggests possibilities for making them more effective over time.
Recording & Additional Notes
No additional notes available.