Governmentalizing Gramsci: Topologies of power and passive revolution in Cambodia’s garment production network

Dennis Arnold,Martin Hess

doi:10.1177/0308518x17725074

Abstract

This article takes a fresh look at the multiple power relations between state, capital and labor in global production networks. Moving beyond debates about public vs. private governance, it brings together Antonio Gramsci’s concepts of hegemony and the integral state with Michel Foucault’s concepts of governmentality and the “dipositive” in order to analyze the power topologies that permeate global production networks. Using the Cambodian garment production network as example, we scrutinize the discourse of “decent work” and “ethical manufacturing,” exemplified by the Better Factories Cambodia program, and discuss the implications for labor agency, power and political contestation. The article concludes with reflections on “governmentalizing Gramsci,” thinking power topologically and the value of a cultural political economy in the analysis of global production networks.

Highlights

Wages, working conditions and enabling rights in global production networks (GPNs) continue to be areas of serious concern across the global garment industry
As Bair (2017: 182) points out, while select reputation-conscious brands may make commitments to participating in the Better Work programme at a global level, ‘‘they are continuously reconfiguring their sourcing networks, and are highly unlikely to make any concrete commitments to continue purchasing from particular factories, or even from a particular Better Work country.’’ Within this wider configuration of GPN-sourcing practices, Hughes (2007) asserts that the potential for Cambodian trade unions to organize around a redistributive agenda has been limited, and radical action has been subordinated to a cautious, atomizing, problem-solving neoliberal order that constitutes a moment in the passive revolution in broader reform agendas in post-conflict Cambodia
Particular groups are increasingly marginalized, the violent-coercive hand of the state is ever-present, while the Cambodian government has been maneuvering to restrict independent union activity through a controversial new trade union law, which may hinder the process of forming a union, allows for whole unions to be dissolved if individual officials act illegally—which technically is the case for most the unions involved in recent wildcat strikes and imposes onerous restrictions on the right to strike (ITUC, 2015)

Summary

Introduction

Wages, working conditions and enabling rights in global production networks (GPNs) continue to be areas of serious concern across the global garment industry.

Results

Conclusion