Title:
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The architecture of production and labour control in the Indian garment industry : informalisation and upgrading in the global economy
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This thesis explores how production and labour structures in developing regions are
deployed within globalised production systems. Its broad aim is to show that, in the age
of neoliberal globalisation, labour is not the 'natural' comparative advantage of
developing economies. On the contrary, this study shows that its subjugation to the global
capitalist logic takes place within a complex architecture of production, which is
characterised by no less complex patterns of labour control. It further shows that these
patterns of control increasingly rely on informal structures and mechanisms, and on what
is now known as the process of 'informalisation' of labour. Crucial to realise labour
subjugation, this process is a fundamental component of upgrading into the global
economy for local exporters in developing regions. Inspired by insights coming from the
international political economy, this thesis argues that this process of informalisation can
be conceptualised as the ultimate manifestation of the convergence of different 'labourunfriendly
regimes' (see Silver and Arrighi, 2000) working at multiple levels and scales.
These regimes aim at 'disengaging' with labour, preventing the formation of an
'industrial citizenship' (see Standing, 2007). This argument is applied to the case of the
Indian export-oriented garment sector, which is indeed characterised by a very complex
architecture of production, where different industrial trajectories are today subsumed into
the global economy, and where, according to sectoral aggregate data (see Rani and Unni,
2004), a process of informalisation seems to be de-facto at work. In this case, this study
shows, the process of convergence between different labour-unfriendly regimes acquires
distinct sectoral, national and local features, linked to the logics of 'global' garment
production, to the progressive rise of the anti-labour stance of the Indian state, and to the functioning principles of the vast world ofIndia's infonnal economy. The distinct ways
in which the process of infonnalisation unfolds on the ground in India in the sector under
scrutiny, and their implications for industrial upgrading, is the main empirical question of
this thesis, and constitutes the empirical backbone of this narrative. This narrative is
infonned by fieldwork carried out in India between October 2004 and July 2005. During
this period, eight gannent producing centres were identified and studied. These centres
are Delhi, Ludhiana, Jaipur, Calcutta, Chennai, Bangalore, Tiruppur and Mumbai. The
analysis of production and labour structures in the eight centres studied, which focuses
with particular emphasis on gannent exporters' strategies of cost minimisation and labour
control, reveals complex local architectures of production in the industry in question. As
part of this, local processes of infonnalisation of labour unfold through context-specific
modalities. These are linked to the evolution of local product specialisation, which, on its
part, is shaped by the interplay between regional political economy trajectories and their
insertion into specific final segments of the global market. These modalities may entail
the sUbsumption of the infonnal economy into the so-called global gannent commodity
chain, the incorporation of infonnal workers into some segments of the chain, or even the
creation of new practices challenging the distinction between fonnal and infonnal
production realms. The same modalities entail the strategic use of combinations of
different infonnal social structures and structural differences, such as gender, age,
mobility, and/or geographical provenience. By exploiting different combinations of these
structures and differences, Indian gannent exporters attempt to 'resolve' and 'dissolve'
their struggle with labour and realise industrial upgrading, reproducing their
incorporation into the global economy. Although very distinct and locally-specific, these different local modalities of informalisation all lead to a same outcome; they splinter,
segment and fragment labour, and prevent the formation of a homogenous working class.
In their great empirical variability, they all illustrate how interplays between different
'labour-unfriendly regimes' effectively unfold on the ground.
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