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How effective are multinational companies at improving working conditions in their supply chains? This book focuses on a crucial dynamic in private efforts at regulating labor standards in international production chains. It addresses questions regarding the quality of rules (Are existing efforts to privately regulate labor standards credible?) as well as business demand for private regulation (To what extent are different types of regulation adopted by companies?). This volume seeks to understand the underlying issue of whether private regulation can be both stringent and popular with firms.
The study analyzes the nature and origins of, the business demand for and the competition between all relevant private regulatory organizations focusing on clothing production. The argument of the book focuses on the interaction between activists and firms, in consensual (developing and governing private regulatory organizations) and in contentious forms (activists exerting pressure on firms). The book describes and explains an emerging divide in the effort to regulate working conditions in clothing production between a larger cluster of less stringent and a smaller cluster of more stringent private regulatory organizations and their supporters.
The analysis is based on original data, adopting both comparative case study and inferential statistical methods to explain developments in apparel, retail and sportswear sectors.
List of contents
Part I: Understanding Private Labor Regulation 1. Private Labor Regulation: Why and What Is It Good For? 2. Understanding Developments in Private Labor Regulation: A Research Framework Part II: Organizing Private Labor Regulation 3. Labor Standards, Implementation and Degrees of Control: A Power Based Analysis of Private Regulatory Approaches 4. How to Dress Up a Code: The Politics of Developing Private Regulatory Organizations Part III: Business Demand and Competition 5. Choosing a Code: Understanding Business Support for Private Labor Regulation 6. Competing Codes: Understanding the Dynamics of Private Regulatory Competition Part IV: The Future of Private Labor Regulation 7. Conclusions and Prospects Glossary of Organizations Appendix I: The Eight Private Regulatory Organizations Appendix II: Methodology Notes Bibliography
About the author
Luc Fransen is Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute. His main research interests concern the global governance of social and environmental standards. His research has been published in
Governance, Review of International Political Economy, Business & Society, European Journal of Industrial Relations and
Organization.
Summary
How effective are businesses at improving working conditions in their supply chains through private regulation? Can private regulation be both stringent and popular with firms? This book analyzes the nature and origins of, the business demand for and the competition between all relevant private regulatory organizations focusing on clothing production.
