LeBaron, G. orcid.org/0000-0003-0083-6126, Howard, N., Thibos, C. et al. (1 more author) (2018) Confronting root causes: forced labour in global supply chains. Report. openDemocracy
Abstract
Excerpt It is by now widely recognised that effectively tackling forced labour in the global economy means addressing its ‘root causes’. Policymakers, business leaders and civil society organisations all routinely call for interventions that do so. Yet what exactly are these root causes? And how do they operate?
The two most commonly given answers are ‘poverty’ and ‘globalisation’. Although each may be foundational to forced labour, both terms are typically used in nebulous, catch-all ways that serve more as excuses than explanations. Both encompass and obscure a web of decisions and processes that maintain an unjust status quo, while being used as euphemisms for deeper socio-economic structures that lie at the core of the capitalist global economy.
The question thus becomes: exactly which aspects of poverty and globalisation are responsible for the endemic labour exploitation frequently described with the terms forced labour, human trafficking or modern slavery? Which global economic processes ensure a constant and low-cost supply of highly exploitable and coerced workers? And which dynamics trigger a demand among businesses for their exploitation, making it possible for them to profit from it?
This 12-part report is an attempt to answer these questions in a rigorous yet accessible way. With it, we hope to provide policymakers, journalists, scholars and activists with a road map for understanding the political economy of forced labour in today’s “global value chain world”.
Metadata
Item Type: | Monograph |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This collection was published in 2018 by openDemocracy and the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI), University of Sheffield under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 licence. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Politics and International Relations (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number ECONOMIC & SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL ES/N001192/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 11 Jan 2018 16:22 |
Last Modified: | 11 Jan 2018 16:22 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | openDemocracy |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:126167 |
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