Situating Labour in the Global Production Network Debate: As if the ‘South’ Mattered

Abstract

Through a critical review of literature, this paper provides a ‘Southern’ perspective on the positioning of informal labour within global production networks (GPNs). The imperatives to understand the labour processes and possible strategies of labour agencies in the South under the GPNs ensue from rapid advances in the globalisation of production and the concomitant job creation and decent work promises. The reluctance to address or non-recognition of the question of persistent exploitative work arrangements especially at the lower tiers of the commodity chain has been underscored as a serious lapse in the discourse on labour in international subcontracting arrangements. Unsubstantiated optimistim about the outcome of participation of southern producers in these GPNs have, thus, obscured the challenges and intensity of the crisis of informal labour.