A practice ontology approach to labor control regimes in GPNs: Connecting ‘sites of labor control’ in the Bangalore export garment cluster

Abstract

In this article, I develop a practice ontology approach to labor control regimes (LCRs) in Global Production Networks (GPNs). Thereby, I address the shortcomings of existing scalar approaches to LCRs, which have not yet produced a nuanced understanding of how labor control dynamics at different scales are interrelated. Building on Schatzki’s ‘site ontology’, I conceptualize LCRs in GPNs as emerging from the networked relationships between rather localized and rather unbounded constellations of exploiting and disciplining-practices ‘hanging together’ in socio-spatial ‘sites of labor control’. Drawing on empirical insights from the Bangalore export garment industry, I reveal how the highly localized labor process-site is linked to two larger sites, i.e. the sourcing process-site and the legal industrial relations process-site, through two practice-complexes: ‘production-targeting’ and ‘union-busting’. The contribution of this article is two-fold: First, the insights from the empirical analysis contribute to a more nuanced and relational understanding of the institutionalized, yet dynamic labor control architectures underpinning GPNs. Second, the practice ontology approach developed in this article contributes to the reinvigoration and further development of relational and network approaches in GPN analysis.