Situating the Bangalore Export-garment Cluster Within the Garment GPN

Abstract

This chapter introduces the Bangalore export-garment cluster as the main case of this study and situates it with the broader structural context of the garment GPN. To this end, the chapter first outlines the historical and geographical development of the garment GPN as well as the power relations structuring it. In this context, the chapter identifies three subsequent trends that have characterised the garment GPN since the early 2000s: (1) the geographical consolidation of garment retailers’ sourcing networks with a particularly strong growth of the industry in China and India during the 2000s; (2) thereafter, the emergence of new low-wage sourcing destinations in South and South-East Asia, and in Africa; and, most recently, (3) a selective shift towards ‘near sourcing’ by fast fashion retailers for higher value-added, time critical fashion garments. Thereafter, the chapter lays out the historical and geographical development of the export-garment industry in India and in Bangalore and gives an overview of the industrial relations in the cluster.