‘Everywhere in chains’: Work, commodity chain analysis, and the subversion of accountability

James Lawson, null

doi:10.13169/workorgalaboglob.5.1.0040

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Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Volume 5, Issue 1

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‘Everywhere in chains’: Work, commodity chain analysis, and the subversion of accountability

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Author(s): James Lawson

Publication date (Print): Summer 2011

Journal: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

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Abstract

‘Chain’ literatures analyse the production and exchange linkages that bind nodes of production into a linear sequence. These chains typically extend beyond the remit of any one jurisdiction, firm, or civil-societal institution. Conventional treatments of accountability are informative, but rarely have chains in mind The concept of an accountability chain addresses these gaps. A central consideration in governance and accountability along a chain is the necessary bias in communications introduced by the very media that make accountability relations possible. This article addresses some basic strategic considerations that arise when accountability relations are viewed this way. It also addresses accountability itself and its worrisome degree of ‘modesty’ When the activities that are supposed to be monitored occur too much beyond the direct observation or control of the monitors.

Content

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.13169

Journal ID (publisher-id): workorgalaboglob

Title: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 1745641X

ISSN (Electronic): 17456428

Publication date (Print): Summer 2011

Volume: 5

Issue: 1

Pages: 40-57

Article

Publisher ID: workorgalaboglob.5.1.0040

DOI: 10.13169/workorgalaboglob.5.1.0040

SO-VID: ab773ee7-1ad6-4e33-a792-d9f5df17d54b

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History

ScienceOpen disciplines: Sociology,Labor law,Political science,Labor & Demographic economics,Political economics

References

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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Aronowitz, S. (1981) A Metatheoretical Critique of Immanuel Wallerstein's “The Modern World System”. Theory and Society , 10:503–520.

[2] Bair, J. (2005) Global Capitalism and Commodity Chains: Looking Back, Going Forward. Competition and Change , 9:153–180.

[3] Bovens, M. (2007) Analyzing and Assessing Accountability: A Conceptual Framework. European Law Journal , 13: 447–468.

[4] Bentham, J. ([1791]1995), Panopticon. In Miran Bozovic (ed.), The Panopticon Writings , London: Verso.

[5] Brenner, R. (1977) The Origins of Capitalist Development: A Critique of Neo-Smithian Marxism. New Left Review , 104:25–92.

[6] Brown, L. (2001) Designing a New Materials Economy. Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth . New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co.

[7] Butler, J. (2005) Giving an Account of Oneself , New York, Fordham University Press.

[8] Cashore, B., G. Auld & D. Newsom, D. 2004. Governing through Markets: Forest Certification and the Emergence of Non-State Authority , New Haven:Yale University Press

[9] Chaklar, A. (1998) History of Workers' Compensation in BC. Victoria, BC: The Royal Commission on Workers' Compensation in BC

[10] Ciccantell, P. & D.A. Smith, (2009) Rethinking Global Commodity Chains: Integrating Extraction, Transport, and Manufacturing. International Journal of Comparative Sociology , 50:361–384

[11] Cover, R. M. (1983) The Supreme Court 1982 Term: Forward – Nomos and Narrative. Harvard Law Review , 97:4–68

[12] Cross, M. S. (1973) The Shiners' War: Social Violence in the Ottawa Valley in the 1830s. Canadian Historical Review , 54:1–26

[13] Cruikshank, B. (1999) The Will to Empower: Democratic Citizens and Other Subjects , Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press

[14] Custers, P. (1997) The Japanese Style of Management Compared to its ‘Precursor’, Fordism. Capital Accumulation and Women's Labour in Asian Economies . London: Zed Books

[15] De Kerckhove, D (1995) The skin of culture: investigating the new electronic reality , Toronto, Somerville House Publications

[16] Downs, A. (1967) Inside Bureaucracy , Boston, MA, Little, Brown & Co.

[17] FINER, H. 1941. Administrative Responsibility in Democratic Government. Public Administration Review , 1:335–350

[18] Foucault, M. (1979) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison , New York, Vintage Books

[19] Freidrich, C. J. (1940) Public Policy and the Nature of Administrative Responsibility. In: FRIEDRICH, C. J. & MASON, E. S. (eds.) Public Policy . Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press

[20] GereffiEREFFI, G. (1994) The Organization of Buyer-Driven Global Commodity Chains: How US Retailers Shape Overseas Production Networks. In: G. Gereffi & M. Korzemiewicz (eds.) Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism . Westport, CN: Greenwood Press/Praeger

[21] Gereffi, G. & M. Korzeniewicz (eds.) (1994) Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism , Westport, CT: Greenwood Press/Praeger

[22] Harvey, D. (1982) The Limits to Capital , Chicago, University of Chicago Press

[23] Harvey, D. (1989) The Condition of Postmodernity , London, Oxford University Press

[24] Harvey, D. (2003) The New Imperialism , Oxford, Oxford University Press

[25] Hopkins, T. K. & I. Wallerstein (1986) Commodity Chains in the World-Economy Prior to 1800. Review: A Journal of the Fernand Braudel Center , 10:157–70

[26] Hughes, A. & S. Reimer (eds.) (2004) Geographies of Commodity Chains , London: Routledge

[27] Innis, H. A. (1991) The Bias of Communication , Toronto, University of Toronto Press

[28] Innis, H. A. [1956] (1995) The Importance of Staple Products in Canadian Development. In: DRACHE, D. (ed.) Staples, Markets, and Cultural Change: Selected Essays . Montréal-Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press.

[29] Jessop, B. (1990) State Theory: Putting the Capitalist State in its Place , University Park, Penn., Pennsylvania State University Press.

[30] Johnson, D. (2002) Thinking Government: Ideas, Policies, Institutions and Public-Sector Management in Canada , Peterborough, ON, Broadview Press.

[31] Kaplinsky, R. & M. Morris, 2001. A Handbook for Value Chain Research [Online]. Institute of Development Studies. Available: http://www.inti.gov.ar/cadenasdevalor/manualparainvestigacion.pdf [Accessed January 5 2011].

[32] Keck, M. E. & K. Sikkink, (1998) Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics , Ithaca, Cornell University Press.

[33] Klein, N. (1999) No Logo , New York, NY, Picador.

[34] Latour, B. (1987) Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society , Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.

[35] Lawson, J. (2009) Power, Political Economy, and Environmental Governance: Staple Chains as Media of Power. International Journal of Green Economics .

[36] Lawson, J. (2009/10) Explaining Workplace Injuries Among BC Loggers: Cultures of Risk and Desperation. BC Studies , 164:51–74.

[37] Lefebvre, H. (1991) The Production of Space , Oxford, Blackwell.

[38] McLuhan, M. (1965) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man . New York: McGraw-Hill.

[39] Magnusson, W. (1995) The Search for Political Space: Globalization, Social Movements, and the Urban Political Experience , Toronto, University of Toronto Press.

[40] Marx, K. (1976) (1990) Capital: A Critique of Political Economy , London, Penguin Classics.

[41] Massey, D. (1993) Power Geometry and a Progressive Sense of Place. In: BIRD, J., Curtis, B., Putnam, T. & Robertson, G. (eds.) Mapping the futures: Local cultures, global change . London: Routledge.

[42] Massey, D. (1994) Space, Place, and Gender , Minneapolis, MN, University of Minneapolis Press.

[43] Meidinger, E. (2008) Competitive Supragovernmental Regulation: How Could It Be Democratic? Chicago Journal of International Law , 8:513–534.

[44] Neill, R. (1972) A New Theory of Value: The Canadian Economics of H.A. Innis , Toronto, University of Toronto Press.

[45] Osborne, D. & Gaebler, T. (1992) Reinventing Government , Reading, MA, Addison-Wesley.

[46] Princen, T. (2002) Distancing: Consumption and the Severing of Feedback. In: Princen, T., Maniates, M. & Conca, K. (eds.) Confronting Consumption . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

[47] Quinlan, M., Mayhew, C. & Bohle, P. (2001) The Global Expansion of Precarious Employment, Work Disorganization, and Consequences for Occupational Health: Placing the Debate in a Comparative Historical Context. International Journal of Health Service , 31:507–536.

[48] Raikes, P., Jensen, M. F. & Ponte, S. (2000) Global Commodity Chain Analysis and the French filière Approach: Comparison and Critique. Economy and Society , 29:390–417.

[49] Rammohan, K. T. & Sundaresan, R. (2003) Socially Embedding the Commodity Chain: An Exercise in Relation to Coir Yarn Spinning in Southern India. World Development , 31:903–923.

[50] Rueschemeyer, D. (1986) Power and the Division of Labour , Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press.

[51] Sasser, E. N. (2003) Gaining Leverage: NGO Influence on Certification Institutions in the Forest Products Sector. In: Teeter, L., Cashore, B. & Zhang, D. (eds.) Forest Policy for Private Forestry: Global and Regional Challenges . Wallingford, UK: CABI Publishing.

[52] Schedler, A. (1999) Conceptualizing Accountability. In: Schedler, A., L. Diamond, & M. F. Plattner, (eds.) The Self-Restraining State: Power and Accountability in New Democracies . Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.

[53] Scott, J. C. (1998) Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed , New Haven, Yale University Press.

[54] Scott, M. B. & Lyman, S. M. (1968) Accounts. American Sociological Review , 33:46–62.

[55] Smith, N. (1984) Uneven Development: Nature, Capital and the Production of Space , New York, NY, Basil Blackwell.

[56] Stanbury, W. T. (2000) Environmental Groups and the International Conflict Over the Forest of British Columbia 1990 to 2000 , Vancouver, SFU-UBC Centre for the Study of Government and Business.

[57] Vosko, L. F. (2000) Temporary Work , Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

[58] Wakefield, E. G. (1834) England and America: a comparison of the social and political state of both nations , Vols. 1–2. New York: Harper

[59] Watkins, M. (2006) Staples and Beyond , Montréal/Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press.

[60] Wood, E. M. (1986) The Retreat from Class: A New ‘True’ Socialism , London: Verso.