Doctoral Dissertation Research: Managing Global Guilt and Local Norms: Regulation in the Sri Lankan Clothing Industry

地理学和空间科学计划北卡罗来纳州教堂山大学GogerDDRI：管理全球内疚和地方规范：斯里兰卡服装业的监管自20世纪80年代以来，贸易自由化和随后的生产网络全球化产生了对服装业缺乏监管的广泛关注，特别是对不安全的工作条件，童工，低工资和不稳定的就业等做法。为解决这些问题而制定的普遍遵守守则和监测制度-在此称为道德倡议-没有达到标准化的中心目标，没有解决根本原因，也没有考虑到道德意义上的文化特点。这个博士论文项目将调查全球服装供应链中的道德治理政治，重点是全球权力动态，地方规范和性别关系如何塑造斯里兰卡的道德观念。除了询问道德的含义如何在多个尺度上受到质疑外，该项目还将比较斯里兰卡出口加工区和村庄的道德举措，因为它们的劳动力地理位置非常不同。借鉴全球价值链、服装行业人种学和女性主义地理学的理论基础，该研究提出了以下问题：（1）关键的全球和国家利益攸关方如何（买家、消费者团体、工会、国家）应对全球经济的最新变化，为伦理举措制定新的优先事项（2）出口加工区和村庄的不同背景动态如何塑造道德倡议的形式和实践（3）斯里兰卡关于性别角色的辩论如何影响服装业的劳资关系，以及它们如何融入道德倡议所采取的形式和做法。为了加强治理，这项研究需要与欧洲和美国的主要道德倡议行动者进行多地点实地考察，并在斯里兰卡进行广泛的实地考察。研究方法包括半结构式访谈、工厂实地考察和调查、工厂经理生活史、工人焦点小组、话语分析、档案研究和多方利益相关者论坛的参与观察。调查结果将展示当地规范和劳动地理在塑造如何实施道德倡议，道德倡议在全球供应链中的政治内部运作，以及在斯里兰卡的道德倡议中体现性别辩论的方式的重要性。在斯里兰卡之外，本研究涉及有关全球治理和道德贸易的更广泛辩论，这就是为什么有必要与全球行为者进行多地点的讨论。从理论和方法上讲，它将涉及很少被纳入对话的子领域：全球价值链和服装行业民族志。此外，它将借鉴斯里兰卡道德倡议最佳做法的未充分研究的案例，为关于如何解决工人、供应商和地方组织在设计和评价道德倡议时缺乏参与的问题的辩论提供信息。该研究还调查了本地嵌入式方法的潜在危险，例如在程序设计中持续缺乏与工人的接触。这个项目在国家一级很重要，因为道德倡议现在是斯里兰卡全球竞争力战略的一个核心方面。通过这些方式，研究可以为道德贸易的全球政策举措做出重要贡献，其目标是产生更具反思性和针对具体情况的方法。

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATIONGEOGRAPHY AND SPATIAL SCIENCES PROGRAMABSTRACT1002624John PicklesAnnelies M. GogerUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel HillDDRI: Managing Global Guilt and Local Norms: Regulation in the Sri Lankan Clothing IndustrySince the 1980s, trade liberalization and the subsequent globalization of production networks have generated widespread concerns about a lack of regulation in the clothing industry, specifically about practices such as unsafe working conditions, child labor, low wages, and unstable employment. The universal compliance codes and monitoring systems devised to address these problems -- herein called ethical initiatives -- have not met the central objective of standardization, addressed root causes, or accounted for cultural specificities in the meaning of ethical. This doctoral dissertation project will investigate the politics of ethical governance in global clothing supply chains with a focus on how global power dynamics, local norms, and gender relations shape notions of ethical in Sri Lanka. In addition to interrogating how the meaning of ethical is contested at multiple scales, the project will compare ethical initiatives in export processing zones and villages in Sri Lanka because they have very different geographies of labor. Drawing from theoretical foundations in global value chains, apparel industry ethnographies, and feminist geography, the study asks: (1) How have key global and national stakeholders (buyers, consumer groups, unions, the state) responded to recent changes in the global economy to formulate new priorities for ethical initiatives (2) How do different contextual dynamics in EPZs and villages shape the forms and practices of ethical initiatives (3) How do Sri Lankan debates over gender roles influence labor relations in the garment industry and how are they incorporated into the forms and practices that ethical initiatives take on. Due to its emphasis on multiple scales of governance, this study requires multi-sited fieldwork with key ethical initiative actors in Europe and the United States and extended fieldwork in Sri Lanka. Multiple methods are used including semi-structured interviews, factory site visits and surveys, factory manager life histories, worker focus groups, discourse analysis, archival research, and participant observation of multi-stakeholder forums. The findings will demonstrate the significance of local norms and labor geographies in shaping how ethical initiatives are implemented, the political inner-workings of ethical initiatives in global supply chains, and the ways in which debates about gender manifest in ethical initiatives in Sri Lanka. Beyond Sri Lanka, this study engages with broader debates about global governance and ethical trade, which is why the multi-sited component with global actors is necessary. Theoretically and methodologically, it will engage sub-fields that are rarely brought into conversation: global value chains and apparel industry ethnographies. Moreover, it will draw from the understudied case of Sri Lanka's best practice ethical initiatives to inform debates about how to address the lack of engagement of workers, suppliers, and local organizations in the design and evaluation of ethical initiatives. The study also investigates the potential dangers of locally embedded approaches such as a continued lack of engagement with workers in program design. This project is important at a national level because ethical initiatives are now a core aspect of Sri Lanka's global competitiveness strategy. In these ways, the research can make important contributions to global policy initiatives on ethical trade with the goal of generating more reflexive and context-specific approaches.