From a ‘Decent Work’ Approach to a Marxist Analysis of Labour Control and Labour Agency in Global Production: Reviewing Research on Labour in GPNs

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter reviews literature on labour in GVCs and GPNs. It argues that within the interdisciplinary literature on labour issues in GVCs/GPNs, two parallel research strands have emerged that are characterised by very different conceptual approaches: (1) a ‘Decent Work’ approach underpinned by the institutionalist perspective of the ILO Decent Work Agenda and (2) a ‘Marxist Political Economy’ approach, which is based on the assumption that the exploitation of labour is an inherent structural feature of capitalist production systems. Situating this study within the second research strand, this chapter then reviews the contributions and shortcomings of existing literature on labour control and labour agency in GVCs/GPNs. In doing so, the chapter highlights the limitations of existing scalar approaches for studying labour control and labour agency in GVCs/GPNs, which have not paid enough attention to how dynamics of labour control and labour agency at different levels influence each other. Against this background, this chapter argues that to gain a more nuanced understanding of the ‘architectures of labour control’ underpinning specific GPNs as well as of workers’ and unions’ networked agency strategies, a relational analytical approach can be beneficial.