‘Grapes of wrath’?: Power spatialities and aspects of labour in the wild berry global commodity chain
2013 (English)In: Competition & change, ISSN 1024-5294, E-ISSN 1477-2221, Vol. 17, no 1, p. 57-74Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Despite their central position, workers’ relationships have often been aneglected issue in commodity chain approaches. This article analyses howthe social relations of workers are affected by economic upgrading in thewild berry global commodity chain (GCC). It is argued that the social effectsin a GCC are the result of multiple power spatialities, which must beanalysed both according to workers’ rights and from a household perspective.In the Swedish wild berry GCC, foreign workers are contracted on aseasonal basis to collect the raw material. The regulated workers, who areprincipally from Thailand, are subject to social upgrading as well as socialdowngrading, involving the potential for both exploitation in the Swedishlabour market and social empowerment in their homeland. It is concludedthat a complex mix of hierarchical, networked and topological powerspatialities explain the construction of the wild berry GCC and its effects onworker relations.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Maney Publishing, 2013. Vol. 17, no 1, p. 57-74
Keywords [en]
berry industry, global commodity chain, power spatialities, social upgrading, Sweden, Thailand
National Category
Economic Geography
Research subject
Human Geography
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-85807DOI: 10.1179/1024529412Z.00000000025OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-85807DiVA, id: diva2:584943
Conference
International Labour Processes Conference, Stockholm 2013
Projects
"Grapes of wrath"? Mobilities, global value chains and social effects on rural labour markets within the berry industry
Note
Special issue Global Value Chains and Labour Process Analysis. Edited by Phil Taylor, Kirsty Newsome and Al Rainnie
2013-01-092013-01-092022-02-24Bibliographically approved