Global Sweatshops
A Feminist Theory of Exploitation and Resistance
Published on 4. August 2024
Book
Hardback
160 pages
978-0-19-776719-1 (ISBN)
Description
Sweatshop labour is characterized by low wages, long hours, and systematic health and safety hazards. Most of the workers in the sweatshops of the garment industry are women, many of them migrant women. Philosopher Mirjam Mueller asks: Why are sweatshops so resistant to emancipatory transformation? How should we think about the relationship between class, gender, and race on the factory floor of sweatshops? What insights can be drawn from this for understanding the systematic relation between capitalism, gender oppression, and racial oppression? Does sweatshop labour raise distinct normative concerns compared to other forms of wage labour?
Mueller answers these questions by developing a feminist critique of working conditions in the global textile industry that draws on work in feminist, Marxist, post-/decolonial, and critical race theory. She shows how sweatshop labour is embedded in historically specific structures of global capitalism that raise unique normative concerns. The book provides a normative and practical account that highlights spaces of resistance, as well as the responsibility of actors implicated in sweatshop labour relations to work towards structural change.
Based on this analysis, Mueller argues that sweatshop workers are structurally vulnerable to exploitation in virtue of their position as gendered, racialized, and migrant workers within global supply chains. While this exploitation benefits powerful actors along global supply chains, it also creates spaces of resistance and structural transformation.
Mueller answers these questions by developing a feminist critique of working conditions in the global textile industry that draws on work in feminist, Marxist, post-/decolonial, and critical race theory. She shows how sweatshop labour is embedded in historically specific structures of global capitalism that raise unique normative concerns. The book provides a normative and practical account that highlights spaces of resistance, as well as the responsibility of actors implicated in sweatshop labour relations to work towards structural change.
Based on this analysis, Mueller argues that sweatshop workers are structurally vulnerable to exploitation in virtue of their position as gendered, racialized, and migrant workers within global supply chains. While this exploitation benefits powerful actors along global supply chains, it also creates spaces of resistance and structural transformation.
Reviews / Votes
Global Sweatshops is a theoretically robust and politically engaged academic work. Its analysis of structural injustice, transnational responsibility, and modes of resistance reflects a deep normative commitment and strong philosophical insight. The book will be especially valuable for scholars and researchers in feminist sociology, feminist economics, global justice theory, labor ethics, development studies, anthropology, Marxist theory, and postcolonial studies. * Tingting Hu, Affilia * Global Sweatshops: A Feminist Theory of Exploitation and Resistance is a rich, stimulating, and insightful analysis of the ethics of sweatshop labor. * Michael Kates, Ethics *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
Weight
800 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-776719-1 (9780197767191)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
09/2024
Oxford University Press Inc
€31.00
Shipment within 15-20 days
E-Book
07/2024
OUP eBook
€21.99
Available for download
E-Book
07/2024
OUP eBook
€21.99
Available for download
Person
Mirjam Mueller is Assistant Professor in Feminist Philosophy at Humboldt University Berlin. Before coming to Humboldt University Berlin, she was a teaching fellow in political philosophy at King's College London, a postdoctoral fellow at the Hoover Chair at UC Leuven and a postdoctoral fellow at Justitia Amplificata at Free University Berlin.
Content
Introduction: <"Shut Down the Mills> "
0.1. A Feminist Critique of Sweatshop Labour
0.2. Why Sweatshop Labour?
0.3. Plan of The Book
Chapter One. 'Cheap Clothes and Nasty' - Modern Sweatshop Labour
1.1. Sweatshop Labour as A Frame of Analysis
1.2. Modern Sweatshops
1.3. Global Capitalism, Imperialism and Sweatshop Labour
1.4. Differences In (Global) Production
1.5 Conclusion
Chapter Two. Towards A Structural Approach to Sweatshop Labour
2.1. Micro-Level Perspectives on Sweatshop Labour
2.2. Social Structures
2.3. Challenges to Micro-Level Perspectives
2.4. Challenges for A Structural Analysis of Sweatshop Labour
2.5 Conclusion
Chapter Three. A Marxist Feminist Approach to Sweatshop Labour
3.1. Marx on Exploitation and Capitalism
3.2. Towards A Normative Reconstruction of Exploitation
3.3. Key Characteristics of Marxist/Socialist Feminist Perspectives
3.4 Conclusion
Chapter Four. Exploitation, Marginalisation and Disposability
4.1. Sweatshop Labour Relations from A Structural Perspective
4.2. Structural Vulnerability
4.3. Structural Vulnerability and Relative Power in Sweatshop Labour
4.4. Structural Exploitation
4.5. Reproducing Exploitation
4.6. The Normative Critique of Sweatshop Labour
4.7 Conclusion
Chapter Five. Responsibility For Sweatshop Labour
5.1. Moral Responsibility for Sweatshop Labour?
5.2. The Grounds of Political Responsibility: Social Connections
5.3. Taking Up Political Responsibility
5.4. The Moral Status of Political Responsibility
5.5. Responsibility in Practice
Conclusion. Transnational Resistance and Solidarity
6.1. Responsibility and Practices of Solidarity
6.2. Resistance, Responsibility and Solidarity
6.3. Transnational Solidarity: Practices and Institutions Bibliography
Index
0.1. A Feminist Critique of Sweatshop Labour
0.2. Why Sweatshop Labour?
0.3. Plan of The Book
Chapter One. 'Cheap Clothes and Nasty' - Modern Sweatshop Labour
1.1. Sweatshop Labour as A Frame of Analysis
1.2. Modern Sweatshops
1.3. Global Capitalism, Imperialism and Sweatshop Labour
1.4. Differences In (Global) Production
1.5 Conclusion
Chapter Two. Towards A Structural Approach to Sweatshop Labour
2.1. Micro-Level Perspectives on Sweatshop Labour
2.2. Social Structures
2.3. Challenges to Micro-Level Perspectives
2.4. Challenges for A Structural Analysis of Sweatshop Labour
2.5 Conclusion
Chapter Three. A Marxist Feminist Approach to Sweatshop Labour
3.1. Marx on Exploitation and Capitalism
3.2. Towards A Normative Reconstruction of Exploitation
3.3. Key Characteristics of Marxist/Socialist Feminist Perspectives
3.4 Conclusion
Chapter Four. Exploitation, Marginalisation and Disposability
4.1. Sweatshop Labour Relations from A Structural Perspective
4.2. Structural Vulnerability
4.3. Structural Vulnerability and Relative Power in Sweatshop Labour
4.4. Structural Exploitation
4.5. Reproducing Exploitation
4.6. The Normative Critique of Sweatshop Labour
4.7 Conclusion
Chapter Five. Responsibility For Sweatshop Labour
5.1. Moral Responsibility for Sweatshop Labour?
5.2. The Grounds of Political Responsibility: Social Connections
5.3. Taking Up Political Responsibility
5.4. The Moral Status of Political Responsibility
5.5. Responsibility in Practice
Conclusion. Transnational Resistance and Solidarity
6.1. Responsibility and Practices of Solidarity
6.2. Resistance, Responsibility and Solidarity
6.3. Transnational Solidarity: Practices and Institutions Bibliography
Index