Governing Corporate Social Responsibility in the Apparel Industry after Rana Plaza

190 Pages·2017·2.78 MB·English

by  Anil Hira

GOVERNING
CORPORATE SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY IN THE
APPAREL INDUSTRY
AFTER RANA PLAZA
Edited by
Anil Hira & Maureen Benson-Rea
Governing Corporate Social Responsibility
in the Apparel Industry after Rana Plaza
Anil Hira • Maureen Benson-Rea
Editors
Governing Corporate
Social Responsibility
in the Apparel
Industry after
Rana Plaza
Editors
Anil Hira Maureen Benson-Rea
Department of Political Science Management & International Business
Simon Fraser University University of Auckland
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada Auckland, New Zealand
ISBN 978-1-137-60178-0 ISBN 978-1-137-60179-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-60179-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017936946
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
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Dedicated by Andy Hira to all our brothers and sisters who, in silent
desperation, make the clothes we wear. Know your silence is temporary.
Dedicated by Maureen Benson-Rea to all who fight for improved conditions
for all workers: workers’ rights are human rights.
A
cknowledgements
The editors would like to thank Stacy Noto of Palgrave Macmillan for her
initial encouragement to bring out a volume around this subject.
vii
c
ontents
Introduction 1
Anil Hira and Maureen Benson-Rea
Threads of Despair: An Argument for the Public Option
in Garment Governance 29
Anil Hira
The Legacy of Rana Plaza: Improving Labour and
Social Standards in Bangladesh’s Apparel Industry 81
Mustafizur Rahman and Khondaker Golam Moazzem
A Governance Deficit in the Apparel Industry
in Bangladesh: Solutions to the Impasse? 111
Mohammad Tarikul Islam, Amira Khattak, and Christina Stringer
Anti-consumption and Governance in the Global
Fashion Industry: Transparency is Key 147
Michael S.W. Lee, Miriam Seifert, and Helene Cherrier
Index 175
ix
A c
bout the ontributors
Maureen  Benson-Rea is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of
Management and International Business at the University of Auckland
Business School, New Zealand. She has held academic positions in the UK
as well as several international policy roles with a major UK business
organisation. Maureen has published extensively in the areas of interna-
tional business, strategy and marketing. Her work has appeared in
International Business Review, Marketing Theory, European Management
Journal, Industrial Marketing Management, Public Administration,
Journal of Business Research, Multinational Business Review among
others.
Hélène Cherrier completed her PhD at the University of Arkansas on
dispossession and identity work in the context of downshifting. Hélène’s
research focuses on bringing about a more sustainable and just society.
Her current research interests consider waste value, social and environ-
mental activism, and object-subject relations. The approach follows in the
tradition of work in consumer culture theory and material culture studies
and involves qualitative enquiries.
Andy Hira is Professor of Political Science at Simon Fraser University in
Vancouver, Canada. He is a political economist specialising in industrial,
technology and energy policies for development. His books include An
East Asian Model for Latin America (2007), and What Makes Clusters
Competitive? (2013). He has also written articles on the promotion of
biofuels and renewable electricity, as well as the promotion of high tech
xi
xii ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
sectors in the developing world. His current interests are in climate change
strategies for the developing world.
Mohammad Tarikul Islam’s Research focuses on the debate of whether
and how international business literature can be integrated with the global
value chain (GVC) literature. His research towards furthering this debate
is developed based on theories such as inter-firm relationships, resource/
capability-based-view, entrepreneurship and value chain governance and
their economic and social outcomes. His research has appeared in reputed
journals and peer-reviewed conference proceedings.
Amira Khattak is an Assistant Professor in the College of Business
Administration, Prince Sultan University, Saudi Arabia. Her areas of inter-
est and research are environmental and social upgrading in global value
chains (GVCs). Amira has published work related to social and environ-
mental upgrading in reputed journals in the field of GVC.
Michael S.W. Lee is a Senior Lecturer of Marketing at the University of
Auckland Business School where he is the Director of The International
Centre of Anti-Consumption Research (ICAR). He is an award winning
teacher of marketing strategy, marketing research, consumer behaviour,
advertising and promotions, and contemporary issues in marketing. Mike
has published and/or guest edited special issues in Journal of Business
Research, Consumption, Markets and Culture, European Journal of
Marketing, Advances in Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer
Marketing, Journal of Consumer Behaviour, Journal of Macromarketing,
Journal of Public Policy and Marketing and Journal of Consumer Affairs.
His research interests are in brand avoidance, consumer resistance and
activism, and, most notably, anti-consumption.
Khondaker Golam Moazzem is Additional Research Director at the
Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Bangladesh. He is the programme
coordinator of ‘Civil Society Initiative on Post Rana Plaza Developments’
which was launched by CPD and 13 civil society think tanks and renowned
personalities in Bangladesh. Moazzem is a member of the Advisory
Committee of ‘Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety’, a private
sector-led initiative for monitoring compliance in the garment sector
of Bangladesh. His major area of research interests include global value
chain development, industrial relations and social dialogue, trade related
issues, entrepreneurship development and private investment including
foreign direct investment. He is the project director of the CPD-RMG
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS xiii
New Dynamics in Bangladesh’s Apparels Sector: Perspectives on Restructuring,
Upgradation and Compliance Assurance (2016). His latest publication is
(with Abeer Khandker), Post Rana Plaza Developments in Bangladesh:
Towards building a Responsible Supply Chain in the Apparel Sector (2016).
Mustafizur Rahman is Executive Director of the Centre for Policy
Dialogue, a leading civil society think tank in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Previously he was Professor at the University of Dhaka and a member of
the University Senate. He has also carried out research as a Visiting Fellow
at University of Oxford and Yale University and has served as a member of
Panel of Economists for successive Five Year Plans and Perspective Plans of
Bangladesh. His current research interests are in export competitiveness of
Bangladesh’s apparels sector, macroeconomic management and fiscal-
monetary policies, regional integration and multilateral trade issues. He
has published widely in reputed journals and books.
Miriam Seifert is a PhD candidate at the University of Auckland. Her
research interests are in sustainable and anti-consumption, slow and fast
fashion, alternative economies and business models and dynamic capabili-
ties research.
Christina  Stringer is an Associate Professor in the Department of
Management and International Business, University of Auckland Business
School. She specialises in global value chains (GVCs) with an emphasis on
economic, social and environmental upgrading initiatives as well as labour
rights within GVCs. She has published in a range of journals including
Competition & Change, Critical Perspectives on International Business,
Environment and Planning A, Global Networks, Journal of Economic
Geography, Journal of Management Inquiry, Marine Policy and
Thunderbird International Review.