Gary Gereffi, Duke University
As evident in sharp protests at recent World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle and Cancun , there has been a sharp escalation in the demand for a wide array of ethical issues, such as corporate social responsibility, Fair Trade initiatives, and living wages, in the global economy. One reason is that individual companies have made themselves, and in some cases entire industries, targets by engaging in abusive or exploitation behavior. Transnational activism by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), like Greenpeace, Oxfam, and the Clean Clothes Campaign, has flourished, especially in the advanced industrial economies of Europe and North America . In addition, there is a growing imbalance in global rule-making: the rules favoring global market expansion and intellectual property rights have become stronger and more enforceable, while rules that favor other valid social objectives, such as human rights, labor standards, environmental sustainability, or global poverty reduction, are lagging behind. These perceived problems, and others, have provided the fuel for anti-corporate and anti-globalization campaigns in various regions of the world.
This course will explore the issues and actors behind a variety of these ethical campaigns. Are they sustainable over time? Are they too reliant on leadership and goals from developed countries? Is there a new development agenda that is emerging in the global South? If so, how could it be institutionalized?
Course requirements
There is a great deal of material relevant to the subject matter of this course. A number of potential readings are listed at the end of this syllabus, and I will designate the required readings on a weekly basis according to the themes listed in the course outline. I will also encourage students to find additional materials for their papers through searching the Internet and accessing several of the many websites listed in the syllabus. If possible, I will try to arrange a field trip for members of the class to visit one or more of the companies in the region surrounding Venice in order to learn how they are addressing ethical concerns related to corporate accountability.
Exams
There will be a mid-term and a final exam in the course. Each will count for 25% of the course grade.
Papers
There will be two papers required for the course and they will count for 40% of the course grade.
Class participation
Students will be expected to do the required readings, and to attend class on a regular basis. Class participation is 10% of the course grade.
Course outline - Spring 2005
Week 1 - February 22 & 24
The ethical dimensions of globalization
Week 2 - March 1 & 3
Understanding the global economy: international production and trade networks
Week 3 - March 8 & 10
High roads and low roads in economic development
Week 4 - March 15 & 17
Global outsourcing and jobs
Week 5 - March 22 & 24
Corporate codes of conduct: what are they? do they work?
Week 6 - March 29 & 31
Industrial districts in Italy : a model of success?
Week 7 - April 5 & 7
Mid-term exam and video (“The global assembly line”)
Week 8 - April 12 & 24
Social and labor conditions in contemporary industrial districts
Week 9 - April 19 & 21
The corporate accountability movement: emergence and sustainability
Week 10 - April 26 & 28
Company case studies: Wal-Mart, Marks & Spencer, and other
Week 11 - May 3 & 5
Country case studies: China and others
Week 12 - May 10 & 12
Student research projects
Week 13 - Final Exam
Readings Corporate Codes of Conduct and Business-NGO Relations
Jem Bendell. 2004. "Barricades and boardrooms: a contemporary history of the corporate accountability movement." UN Research Institute for Social Development (downloadable at http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCCF9/(httpPublications)/504AF359BB33967FC1256EA9003CE20A)
Gary Gereffi, Ronie Garcia-Johnson, and Erika Sasser, "The NGO-Industrial Complex," Foreign Policy (July-August 2001), pp. 56-65.
Ethan B. Kapstein, "The Corporate Ethics Crusade," Foreign Affairs (Sept/Oct 2001).
Maquila Solidarity Network. 2004. "2003 year end review: emerging trends in codes and their implementation." MSN Codes Memo, No. 16 (January/February).
David F. Murphy and Jem Bendell. 1999. "Partners in time? Business, NGOs, and sustainable development." UN Research Institute for Social Development, Discussion Paper No. 109, Aug.
Global Production and Trade Networks
Gary Gereffi. 2001. "Shifting governance structures in global commodity chains, with special reference to the Internet."American Behavioral Scientist 44, 10: 1616-1637.
Gary Gereffi. 2005. "The global economy: organization, governance, and development." In Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg (eds.), Handbook of Economic Sociology , 2 nd ed. Princeton University Press and Russell Sage Foundation.
Raphael Kaplinsky, "Globalisation and unequalisation: what can be learned from value chain analysis?" Journal of Development Studies 37, 2 (2000): 117-146.
Global Outsourcing
Gary Gereffi and Timothy Sturgeon. 2004. "Globalization, Employment, and Economic Development: A Briefing Paper." Available at http://www.soc.duke.edu/sloan_2004/"
"Global Outsourcing: Threat or Necessity for U.S. Competitiveness?"
Panel at Duke University , April 13, 2004
http://www.soc.duke.edu/outsourcing/
Governance Issues
Jem Bendell. 2004. "Flags of convenience? The Global Compact and the future of the United Nations." ICCSR Research Paper Series No. 22-2004, Nottingham University, ISSN 1479-5124 (see http://www.jembendell.com/).
Gary Gereffi and Frederick W. Mayer. 2004. "The demand for global governance." Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Duke University , Working Paper Series, September.
Jobs and Labor Standards
Kate Bronfenbrenner (Cornell) and Stephanie Luce (U. Mass, Amsherst), "The Changing Nature of Corporate Global Restructuring: The Impact of Production Shifts on Jobs in the US , China , and Around the Globe"
(submitted to the U.S.-China Economic Security and Review Commission, Oct. 14, 2004)
http://www.uscc.gov/researchpapers/2004/cornell_u_mass_report.pdf
Sandra Polaski. 2003. "Trade and labor standards: a strategy for development countries." Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 23 pp.
Sandra Polaski. 2003. "Central America and the U.S. face challenge – and chance for historic breakthrough – on workers' rights." Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Issue Brief, February, 8 pp.
Sandra Polaski. 2004. "Job anxiety is real – and it's global." Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Policy Brief, May, 8 pp.
Gay Seidman and Robert Ross (eds.), Social Clauses in Trade Agreements
Published in the Political Economy of the World-System Newsletter, Fall 2003.
http://www.asanet.org/sectionpews/
Sloan Foundation Workshop on "Globalization, Employment, and Economic Development"
Co-organized by Gary Gereffi and Timothy Sturgeon, Rockport , MA , June 14-16, 2004
http://www.soc.duke.edu/sloan_2004/
Relevant websites
Asian Monitor Resource Center
http://www.amrc.org.hk/
They have just published “A Critical Guide to Corporate Codes of Conduct”
Clean Clothes Campaign
http://www.cleanclothes.org/
Globalization and Labor Standards (directed by Katherine Stone, UCLA Law School)
http://www.laborstandards.org/
A research network managed by the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations at the University of Michigan. The Network aims to promote the development and wide dissemination of high quality research exploring the relationships among the processes of economic "globalization," the situation of workers and their organizations, and wider societal dynamics from diverse ethical, theoretical and disciplinary perspectives.
Labour Start – "where trade unionists start their day on the web"
http://www.labourstart.org/
Maquila Solidarity Network – Current Campaigns against companies like Nike, Wal-Mart, and others
http://www.maquilasolidarity.org/campaigns/index.htm
MOVE : The Changing Geography of Production in Labor-Intensive Industries
http://www.uom.gr/move/partnersPhoto2.html
No Sweat! (UK)
http://www.nosweat.org.uk/
Sweatshop Watch – Analyses, information, newsletter
http://www.sweatshopwatch.org/
Sweatshop Watch – Globalization and the Apparel Industry
(a webpage with analyses, studies and reports put out by sweatshopwatch.org, last updated 22 Sept. 2004 )
http://www.sweatshopwatch.org/global/analysis.html
Textiles & Clothing – website by the International Trade Center in Geneva
http://www.intracen.org/textilesandclothing/welcome.htm
Working for Justice in the Global Economy
(part of the International Labor Rights Fund in Washington , DC)
http://www.laborrights.org/
Worker Rights News and other ILRF publications
http://www.laborrights.org/publications/
Corporate Websites – Social Responsibility focus
In February 2001, the Global Alliance released a 106-page Nike-funded report that is quite critical of the labor conditions at nine Nike contract factories in Indonesia http://www.theglobalalliance.com. For Nike's defense of its global business practices, including disclosure information on the factories used to make Nike products with the Duke logo, see the company's website:
http://www.nikebiz.com/labor/index.shtml
Telecom Italia Mobile
http://www.company.tim.it/investor/cp_libera_liv/0,,29_101,00,00.html
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spring 2005