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List of contents
List of tables; List of figures; List of abbreviations; Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. Retail shift and global sourcing; 3. Gender patterns of work in global retail value chains; 4. Global (re)production network analysis; 5. Smallholder (dis)articulations: the cocoa-chocolate value chain; 6. Mixed outcomes: downgrading and upgrading in African horticulture; 7. Contested terrain: the limits of social compliance in Asian apparel; 8. Upgrading strategies: innovation, skills and rights; 9. Governance challenges: promoting gender-equitable value chains; 10. Concluding reflections: future of work; References; Index.
About the author
Stephanie Barrientos teaches in the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. She has researched and published widely on gender, global production, employment, decent work, trade and labour standards, corporate social responsibility, fair trade, and ethical trade. She coordinated the Capturing the Gains Research Programme (with Professor Gary Gereffi) from 2008 to 2013 examining economic and social upgrading in global production networks. Stephanie has advised and provided training for a number of companies, NGOs and international organisations on issues concerning gender, agribusiness, ethical trade, decent work, and impact assessment.
Summary
This book focuses on the changing gender patterns of work in a global retail environment associated with the rise of contemporary retail and global sourcing. It examines how gendered patterns of work have changed and explores the extent to which global retail opens up new channels to leverage more gender-equitable gains in sourcing countries.
Additional text
'This empirically rich, multi-layered and insightful book breaks down the barriers around global value chain analysis to demonstrate how these chains have been shaped by and are reshaping gender relations across the wage production and social reproduction divide. Importantly, it allows for women's agency and for gender relations to open to change by exploring not only the very considerable evidence of exploitation and undervaluation of women's work but also evidence of the contestation of these conditions and associated gendered norms.' Jill Rubery, University of Manchester
