OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY IN THE GLOBAL GARMENT INDUSTRY

Authors: Neveling, P.

Pages: 177-189

DOI: 10.4324/9781003017110-16

Abstract:

This chapter presents a historical-realist analysis of (the lack of) occupational health and safety in the global textile and garment industry through revisiting key academic publications on historical developments in the sector since the early Nineteenth Century. In doing so, it uncovers that this sector has a long history of deliberately opting for the ‘sick role’, as corporations and regulators persistently ignore threats to workers’ occupational health and safety, while seeking to evade critical scrutiny of working conditions. Through shifting the analysis of health and safety from the scale of individual workers and factories to the scale of the industrial sector and the dynamics of capitalism more broadly, the chapter reveals four spatio-temporal features undergirding the accumulation of capital in global textile and garment manufacturing. These include (i) lack of investment in technological innovation, (ii) undervalued and unsafe labor, (iii) intransparent subcontracting networks, and (iv) racialized exploitation.

https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/39350/

Source: Scopus

Occupational health and safety in the global garment industry

Authors: Neveling, P.

Editors: Primrose, D., Loeppky, R. and Chang, R.

Pages: 177-189

Publisher: Routledge

Place of Publication: London

ISBN: 9780367861360

Abstract:

This handbook provides a comprehensive and critical overview of the gamut of contemporary issues around health and healthcare from a political economy perspective.

Patrick Neveling‘s chapter is an analysis of (the lack of) occupational health and safety in the textile and garment industry revisits key academic publications on the global historical developments in the sectors since around 1800 and outlines future research options on four spatio-temporal features for securing capital accumulation and worker exploitation in the sector.

A historical-realist analysis of past and present developments in occupational health and safety in the global textile and garment sector uncovers that this industrial sector has a long history of deliberately opting for the “sick role” as corporations and regulators persistently ignore threats to workers’ occupational health and safety, while seeking to evade critical scrutiny of working conditions. In shifting the analysis of health and safety from the scale of individual workers and factories to the scale of the industrial sector and employing a historical-realist perspective, the chapter reveals four spatio-temporal features undergirding the accumulation of capital in global textile and garment manufacturing; lack of investment in technological innovation, undervalued and unsafe labor, intransparent subcontracting networks, and racialized exploitation.

https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/39350/

https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-the-Political-Economy-of-Health-and-Healthcare/Primrose-Loeppky-Chang/p/book/9780367861360

Source: Manual

Occupational health and safety in the global garment industry

Authors: Neveling, P.

Editors: Primrose, D., Loeppky, R.D. and Chang, R.

Pages: 177-189

Publisher: Routledge

Place of Publication: London

ISBN: 9780367861360

Abstract:

This chapter presents a historical-realist analysis of (the lack of) occupational health and safety in the global textile and garment industry through revisiting key academic publications on historical developments in the sector since the early Nineteenth Century. In doing so, it uncovers that this sector has a long history of deliberately opting for the ‘sick role’, as corporations and regulators persistently ignore threats to workers’ occupational health and safety, while seeking to evade critical scrutiny of working conditions. Through shifting the analysis of health and safety from the scale of individual workers and factories to the scale of the industrial sector and the dynamics of capitalism more broadly, the chapter reveals four spatio-temporal features undergirding the accumulation of capital in global textile and garment manufacturing. These include (i) lack of investment in technological innovation, (ii) undervalued and unsafe labor, (iii) intransparent subcontracting networks, and (iv) racialized exploitation.

https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/39350/

https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-the-Political-Economy-of-Health-and-Healthcare/Primrose-Loeppky-Chang/p/book/9780367861360

Source: BURO EPrints