Researching and Organising Global Value Chains
The Next Node Approach
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32387/prokla.v55i220.2190Keywords:
Global Value Chains, Global Re/Production Networks, Labour Agency, Next-Node Approach, Trade UnionsAbstract
One of the biggest challenges for trade unions in the 21st century is to connect and organise labour in constantly changing global value chains. In this paper, I introduce the next-node approach as a methodological tool to systematically (1) explore value chains together with workers, and based on that (2) identify networking and organisational potentials with and among workers along the chains. A participatory research project with garment workers in Cambodia documents the challenges as well as the potentials of this approach. It can be applied not only in the garment industry but in any other value chain.
Downloads
References
Alimahomed-Wilson, Jake / Ness, Immanuel (Hg.) (2018): Choke Points: Logistics Workers Disrupting the Global Supply Chain. London. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt21kk1v2. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt21kk1v2
Arnold, Denis G. / Hartman, Laura P. (2005): Beyond sweatshops: Positive deviancy and global labour practices. In: Business Ethics: A European Review 14(3): 206-222. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8608.2005.00404.x. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8608.2005.00404.x
Arnold, Dennis / Han Shih, Toh (2010): A Fair Model of Globalisation? Labour and Global Production in Cambodia. In: Journal of Contemporary Asia 40(3): 401-424. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00472331003798376. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00472331003798376
Atzeni, Maurizio (2021): Workers’ organizations and the fetishism of the trade union form: toward new pathways for research on the labour movement? In: Globalizations 18(8): 1349-1362. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2021.1877970. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2021.1877970
Bieler, Andreas (2014): Transnational Labour Solidarity in (the) Crisis. In: Global Labour Journal 5(2): 114-133. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15173/glj.v5i2.1154. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15173/glj.v5i2.1154
– / Nowak, Jörg (2021): Labour conflicts in the Global South: an introduction. In: Globalizations 18(8): 1323-1334. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2021.1884331. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2021.1884331
Burckhardt, Gisela / Merk, Jeroen (2013): Sozialaudits – was bringen sie den Näherinnen in den Sweatshops? In: Burckhardt, Gisela (Hg.): Corporate Social Responsibility – Mythen und Maßnahmen. Unternehmen verantwortungsvoll führen, Regierungslücken schließen. 2. Auflage. Wiesbaden: 113-118. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-02842-8_24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-02842-8_24
Brookes, Marissa / McCallum, Jamie K. (2017): The New Global Labour Studies: A Critical Review. In: Global Labour Journal 8(3): 201-218. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15173/glj.v8i3.3000. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15173/glj.v8i3.3000
Coe, Neil M. u.a. (2008): Global production networks: realizing the potential. In: Journal of Economic Geography 8(3): 271-295. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbn002. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbn002
Cumbers, Andy u.a. (2008): Labour agency and union positionalities in global production networks. In: Journal of Economic Geography 8(3): 369-387. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbn008. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbn008
Doutch, Michaela (2021): A gendered labour geography perspective on the Cambodian garment workers’ general strike of 2013/2014. In: Globalizations 18(8): 1406-1419. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2021.1877007. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2021.1877007
– (2022): Women workers in the garment factories of Cambodia. A feminist labour geography of global (re)production networks. Berlin.
– (2024): Globale (Re-)Produktionsnetzwerke aus feministischer Labour-Geography-Perspektive. Leben und Alltagskämpfe von kambodschanischen Bekleidungsarbeiter*innen. In: PROKLA 214 54(1): 77-97. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32387/prokla.v54i214.2101. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32387/prokla.v54i214.2101
– u.a. (2025): Arbeitswelten. Neue Perspektiven aus Räumen der Re/Produktion. Berlin.
Dutta, Madhumita (2020): Workplace, emotional bonds and agency: Everyday gendered experiences of work in an export processing zone in Tamil Nadu, India. In: Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 52(7): 1357-1374. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X20904076. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X20904076
Engelhardt, Anne (2024): Turbulenzen in der Flugindustrie. Arbeitskämpfe gegen den metabolischen Riss der sozialen Reproduktion. In: PROKLA 54(214): 53-74. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32387/prokla.v54i214.2102. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32387/prokla.v54i214.2102
– (2025): Logistical Chokepoints, Precarious Work and Social Reproduction. Labour Conflicts and the Metabolic Rift in Ports and Airports in Brazil and Portugal. Leverkusen: Budrich Academic Press.
Fütterer, Michael / López, Tatiana (2018): Challenges for organizing along the garment value chain. Experiences from the union network TIE ExChains. Berlin.
Herod, Andrew (1997): From a Geography of Labor to a Labor Geography: Labor's Spatial Fix and the Geography of Capitalism. In: Antipode 29(1): 1-31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8330.00033. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8330.00033
– (1998): Organizing the Landscape: Geographical Perspectives on Labour Unionism. Minneapolis.
Lawreniuk, Sabina / Parsons, Laurie (2018): For a few dollars more: Towards a translocal mobilities of labour activism in Cambodia. In: Geoforum 92(2): 26-35. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.03.020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.03.020
– (2024): Access to decent work and social protection among women garment workers in subcontracting factories in Cambodia. Cambodia.
Lohmeyer, Nora u.a. (2018): Can solidarity be organized »from below« in global supply chains? The case of ExChains. In: Industrielle Beziehungen: Zeitschrift für Arbeit, Organisation und Management 25(4): 400-424. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3224/indbez.v25i4.02. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3224/indbez.v25i4.02
McAllister, Clark (2022): Karl Marx’s Workers’ Inquiry. International History, Reception, and Responses. London.
MEW – Marx, Karl / Engels, Friedrich: Marx-Engels-Werke. Berlin 1956ff.
Moody, Kim (1997): Workers in a Lean World. Unions in the International Economy. London.
Munck, Ronaldo (2002): Globalisation and Labour. The New ›Great Transformation‹. New York. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350251069. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350251069
Newell, Peter / Frynas, Jedrzej G. (2007): Beyond csr? Business, poverty and social justice: an introduction. In: Third World Quarterly 28(4): 669-681. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436590701336507. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436590701336507
Nowak, Jörg (2020): Logistik, Machtressourcen und politische Ökonomie des Rohstoffexports. Der Streik der brasilianischen Trucker im Jahr 2018. Berlin.
Ovetz, Robert (Hg) (2021): Workers’ Inquiry and Global Class Struggle Strategies, Tactics, Objectives. London. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv17ppcfh. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv17ppcfh
Pye, Oliver (2017): A Plantation Precariat. Fragmentation and Organizing Potential in the Palm Oil Global Production Network. In: Development and Change 48(5): 942-964. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12334. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12334
Waterman, Peter (1998): The Second Coming of Proletarian Internationalism? A Review of Recent Resources. In: European Journal of Industrial Relations 4(3): 349-377. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/095968019843005. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/095968019843005
– (2001): Globalisation, Social Movements and the New Internationalisms. New York.
Weiss, Hilde (1936): Die »Enquite Ouvriere« von Karl Marx. In: Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung 5: 76-99. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5840/zfs193651132
Wills, Jane (2002): Bargaining for the space to organize in the global economy: a review of the Accor–IUF trade union rights agreement. In: Review of International Political Economy 9(4): 675-700. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0969229022000021853. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0969229022000021853
Wills, Jane / Hurley, Jennifer (2005): Action Research: Tracing the Threads of Labour in the Global Garment Industry. In: Hale, Angela / Wills, Jane (Hg.): Threads of labour. Garment industry supply chains from the workers’ perspective. Malden: 69-94. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470761434. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470761434.ch4
