Global textile production processes and transnational governance

Problems surrounding the manufacture of textile products have been the subject of public reporting for several years now. Long before other sectors came under the spotlight, violations of labour rights and inhumane conditions in textile factories – largely in Asian countries – were being highlighted. 

Background

In addition to the social issues, increasing attention is being paid to the environmental impacts of both fabric finishing and the cultivation of raw materials. As a result, the interconnection between various problems along a highly globalised value chain is becoming increasingly transparent to consumers.

Since the late 1990s, numerous initiatives have been established to provide answers and solutions to this situation. These initiatives have been launched by a variety of stakeholders and take on a wide range of organisational forms. The stated aim of all these organisations is ultimately to make the textile value chain more sustainable and thereby to ensure that the production process can be controlled and regulated. It is often unclear, however, whether this is genuinely the intention and whether successful implementation is the goal of all these efforts, or whether certain forms of greenwashing are at play.

However, it is evident that, by highlighting the risks of the value chain, all these initiatives succeed, on the one hand, in generating certain images and perceptions of the prevailing problems and the globalised sphere of production, and, on the other hand, in developing techniques for control, standardisation and auditing. It is evident that the actors and their respective organisations possess considerable potential for influence, as they not only establish specific ways of thinking and justifications regarding a global economic order and legitimate modes of production, but also create and normalise a framework for action.

Project objective

The aim of the project is to gain an understanding of these fundamental processes involved in establishing structures of thought and justification, and the associated actions. The focus is on the question of how the textile production process is socially constituted as a governable space.

To answer these questions, we draw on Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality. This allows us, on the one hand, to analyse the discursive structures and justifying narratives surrounding the value-creation process and, on the other hand, to link them to concrete techniques of control, such as auditing procedures.

The project’s central question is explored on an exploratory basis using a case study. The focus is on a multi-stakeholder initiative centred primarily on the protection of labour rights and the improvement of working conditions. Due to the composition of its stakeholders, this initiative is of particularly high political relevance compared to other initiatives.

Results

With regard to the analysed narratives of thought and justification, the analysis of the aforementioned multi-stakeholder initiative reveals that complex global interrelationships – which contribute significantly to the violation of labour rights in the garment industry’s production process – are excluded. Governance thus becomes possible because only a small part of the complex overall structure becomes the sphere of governance. This area is the country of production and the production site. It is here that the causes and solutions to the problem are identified. The conceptual framework makes no connection between the causes and potential solutions and other actors, such as internationally operating brand companies or retailers.

This ‘localisation’ of causes and reasons affects how the actors in the value chain are portrayed: the local supplier is the primary object of governance; their actions require change and control. The standardisation of working conditions through codes of conduct and their monitoring via audits are the practical techniques of governance through which the power relationship between suppliers and brand companies, as well as the multi-stakeholder initiative, is put into practice.

Through the interplay of argumentative structures, identity constructions and techniques of governance, hierarchical relationships are established and existing power structures between the individual actors in the global production chain are consolidated.

Outlook

Multistakeholder initiatives are currently viewed, both in social science research and in practice, as a promising solution for eliminating exploitative production conditions in the clothing industry. However, their effectiveness and their potential to resolve specific problems are contested.

The project’s findings show that it is important not only to examine transnational forms of governance in terms of their practical functionality and effectiveness, but also to critically scrutinise the structure and implications of their content, in the form of patterns of thought and action. By shaping patterns of thought, the initiative under investigation influences perceptions of the problems in textile production in a decisive and manipulative manner. Through associated patterns of action, a reality is created in which responsibility and the need for action are unilaterally situated at the local level.

Further research could investigate the extent to which similar discursive structures are also present in other initiatives within the clothing industry. It would also be important to examine the effects of these narratives of thought and justification on a broader societal discourse. In conclusion, it must be emphasised that, with regard to the question of how production processes are socially constituted as governable spaces, the level at which discursive structures are established – and the associated legitimisation of action – is of crucial importance; however, the analysis of other forms of power (resource-based, institutional) must be integrated as equally significant. In further research into the constitution of new transnational spaces for the governance of globalised production processes, it is therefore important to integrate discourse-oriented and materialist-oriented theoretical perspectives.

Discussion group “Foundations and the Democratic Public Sphere”