Covid19 pandemic and the resilience of European-South Asian apparel production networks: Implications for firms and workers in moments of crisis

世界经济越来越依赖于全球供应链的组织，服装等行业处于领先地位。然而，2019冠状病毒病大流行暴露了这些全球一体化生产系统核心的全球领先企业、当地供应商和工人的许多关键脆弱性。供应链中断，订单减少或取消，工厂关闭，工人失业。该项目将研究后covid - 19背景下欧洲关键供应链（欧洲-南亚服装生产网络）的复原力，以阐明大流行对工作组织和工人（其中大多数是妇女）的影响。在此过程中，本文以孟加拉国和斯里兰卡的服装业为比较案例。所谓“后covid - 19”，我指的是大流行及其后果，基本上是2019年后的时代。供应链弹性在这里被理解为：a)欧洲领先公司和南亚制造商在大流行期间和之后谈判波动的合同制造关系（涉及订单数量、价格、交货时间和道德规范等方面的灵活性）以维持生产的方式，以及b)工人如何应对和应对这些变化对工作组织和就业条件的影响。为此，该项目开发了一个新的“劳动制度”框架，不仅对本研究有价值，而且对了解供应链中的就业结果也有价值。这种方法的本质是，在调查就业结果时，它将全球生产动态（包括订单价格、交货时间和道德规范在内的合同制造关系）和地域特征（生产实践、国家政策、劳工政治和社会文化关系）联系起来。在此过程中，它提供了一个综合框架，用于评估影响就业结果的关键驱动因素，而不仅仅是关注工作场所。这种联系具有直接价值，因为跨越“全球”和“本地”边界的全球生产网络结构正在不可逆转地破碎和改变，因此，对大流行后时代全球服装行业的研究要求采用整体方法，从全球领先公司及其采购实践的角度了解该行业正在经历的变化的规模；地方性的、有地域限制的生产和劳动制度。该项目具有跨学科的相关性，涉及许多学科的学者，包括发展研究、经济和人文地理、社会学、商业和管理研究、全球劳工研究、劳资关系和就业。该研究的重点是服装行业及其对孟加拉国和斯里兰卡的经济、就业和福利标准的重要性，也增强了其与非学术受众的相关性，包括国家和国际监管机构、服装行业当局、领先公司和制造商、国家和国际人权机构、国家和国际民间社会组织以及智库。因此，除了推进关于劳工制度和后covid - 19背景下全球服装业复原力的辩论外，该项目还考虑通过一系列外展活动制定公共和私人政策，以减轻供应链脆弱性。

The world economy has become increasingly reliant on the organisation of global supply chains, with industries such as apparel leading the way. However, the Covid-19 pandemic made visible many of the key vulnerabilities of global lead firms, local suppliers and workers at the heart of these globally integrated systems of production. Supply chains have been disrupted, orders were reduced and cancelled, factories were closed, and workers have lost jobs. This project will examine the resilience of a key European supply chain (the European - South Asian apparel production network) in a post-Covid19 context to shed light on the implications of the pandemic for the organisation of work and workers, the majority of whom are women. In so doing, it takes the Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan apparel industries as comparative case examples. By 'post-Covd19', I refer to the pandemic and its aftermath, essentially, the post-2019 era. Supply chain resilience is understood here as: a) the way European lead firms and South Asian manufacturers have negotiated fluctuating contract manufacturing relations (involving flexibility in relation to order volumes, prices, delivery times and ethical codes, etc.) during and after the pandemic in the attempt to sustain production, and b) how workers have coped with and responded to the implications of these changes to the organisation of work and employment conditions. To do so, the project develops a novel 'labour regimes' framework that will be of value not only to this research, but also to understand employment outcomes in supply chains in general. The essence of this approach is that it connects both global production dynamics (contract manufacturing relations including order prices, delivery times, and ethical codes) and territorialised characteristics (production practices, state policies, labour politics, and socio-cultural relations) in investigating employment outcomes. In so doing, it offers an integrated framework for assessing the key drivers that shape employment outcomes beyond a single focus on the workplace. This connection is of direct value, given the way structures of global production networks straddling both 'global' and 'local' boundaries are irrevocably shattered and altered, and thus, the research on the global apparel industry in post-pandemic era calls for a holistic approach to understand the magnitude of the changes that the industry is undergoing, both from the perspective of global lead firms and their purchasing practices; and local, territorially bounded production and labour regimes. The project has an inter-disciplinary relevance and speaks to scholars working across many disciplines including development studies, economic and human geography, sociology, business and management studies, global labour studies, and industrial relations and employment. The study's focus on the apparel industry and its significance for the economy, employment, and welfare standards in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka also enhances its relevance to a spectrum of non-academic audiences, including national and international regulatory bodies, apparel industry authorities, lead firms and manufacturers, national and international human rights agencies, national and international civil society organisations, and think tanks. Therefore, in addition to advancing debates on labour regimes and the resilience of the global apparel industry in the post-Covid19 context, the project also considers public and private policy formulations to alleviate supply chain vulnerabilities through a range of outreach engagements.