Bringing the social context back in: governance and wealth distribution in global commodity chains

Pathways to empowerment?: dynamics of women's participation in Global Value Chains

“…The economics of Kenyan floriculture and indeed traditional export crops such as tea are founded on an abundance of cheap labour, and employment (and indeed empowerment) opportunities are constrained by this. Moreover, the empowerment of women workers depends on trends (good employment quality; secure employment; the ability to organise and form groups; and a supportive management structure) that are counter to those prevalent in global value chains which have been characterised by flexibilisation and buyer pressures on suppliers which constrain abilities to support site-level empowerment processes (Oxfam, 2004, Palpacuer, 2008. Moreover, an important caveat needs to be made regarding the empowerment pathways that have emerged from our analysis: they are framed entirely at the local level.…”

“…Several studies have highlighted the problems facing workers employed at the base of global value chains; some related to weak labour regulation or global processes of de-regulation associated with neo-liberalism , Barrientos, et al, 2011, Barrientos and Kritzinger, 2004, Palpacuer, 2008 and others indirectly related to purchasing practices of global retailers and brands (Hale and Opondo, 2005, Hughes, et al, 2010, Oxfam, 2004, Raworth and Kidder, 2009). More recently researchers have asked about whether workers and communities benefit from efforts by producers at the bottom of the chain to integrate into GVCs, i.e.…”

Towards a Gendered Agro-Commodity Approach

“…Downstream consumers and laborers at core nodes may thus be seen as exploiting upstream households and women (Dunaway 2001 ). Palpacuer (2008) also observed that upstream workers are typically the most deprived social groups, and millions of young women execute manual work under oppressive and precarious conditions. Hence, women tend to be more disadvantaged than men in labor markets of both low and high quality wine chains from South Africa (Greenberg et al 2012).…”

“…Global chain dynamics have far-reaching social consequences which influence gender relationships (Palpacuer 2008;Bair 2010). Theoretical reasoning on how these relationships and the status of women and households affect and are affected by global production and trade processes can be found in Dunaway (2001;201 l;2013).…”

“…This global assembly line is often accompanied by the feminization of manufacturing (Bair 2010). This is done mostly under conditions of long working-hours, low wages, health risks, sexual harassment and union under-representation (Pyle 2001;Pyle and Ward 2003;Palpacuer 2008). Lack of gender desegregation makes it difficult to examine how men and women are affected differently so that gendered inequalities can be addressed.…”