Politics and Social Responsibility in the Bangladesh Ready-Made Garment Supply Chains

Abstract

Despite the debate on the political activity and social responsibility of transnational corporations, there is little evidence in the PCSR literature on the politics of powerful global and local economic actors and how they can influence the deliberative efforts of MSIs in raising labor standards in production countries. In this article, we take a Gramscian perspective and present a large qualitative study in the Bangladesh RMG supply chain based on the experience of suppliers in the years following the Rana Plaza collapse. While detailing the political activity of the international brands and local industry association as global and local ‘hegemonies’, we show how they use their social responsibility for workers' health and safety to advance market-driven choices and silencing opposition. Hence, we conceptualize ‘glocal contestation’ as the discursive political activity of global and local hegemonies in protecting their capacity to meet their social responsibility while contesting MSI stakeholder groups and each other. This article extends the PCSR literature on MSIs in global supply chains, finally delivering important insights on the future of MSIs and labor standards in global RMG supply chains.