Value Chain Restructuring, Work Organization and Labour Outcomes in Football Manufacturing in India

Abstract

This article seeks to understand why developing country suppliers internalize or outsource labour-intensive aspects of production as well as how these internalization/externalization processes affect working conditions in export-orientated industries in the global South. In order to achieve this aim, the article develops a new analytical framework based upon the global value chain approach. Applying this framework to the football manufacturing industry of Jalandhar, India, the article concludes that value chain restructuring produces both new forms of work organization and highly gendered outcomes for labour in this industry.