Reverse subsidies in global monopsony capitalism: gender, labour, and environmental injustice in garment value chains
- New York Cambridge University Press 2022
- xv, 295 p.
Table of Contents 1. Introduction Part I. Framework: 2. Gender, labour and environmental justice in GVCs 3. Knowledge, global monopsony capitalism and labour Part II. Factory: 4. Living wages and labour subsidies 5. Extractive labour subsidies: The overuse and discard of women's labour in garment production 6. Gender based violence as supervision Part III. Household: 7. Rural subsidies 8. The household as production site: Homeworkers and child labour Part IV. Environment: 9. Tiruppur: The environmental costs of success 10. Externalized costs of cotton production Part V. Value Capture: 11. Value capture in global monopsony capitalism 12. Conclusion.
This book provides a firm analytical base to discussions about injustice and the unequal distribution of gains from global production in the form of global monopsony capitalism. It utilizes the concept of reverse subsidies as the purchase of gendered labour and environmental services below their costs of production in garment value chains in India and other garment producing countries, such as Bangladesh and Cambodia. Environmental services, such as freshwater for garment manufacture and land for cotton production, are degraded by overuse and untreated waste disposal. The resulting higher profits from the low prices of garments are captured by global brands, using their monopsony position, with few buyers and myriad sellers, in the market. This book links the concept of reverse subsidies with those of injustice, inequality and sustainability in global production.