Programme full

Thursday 16 April 2015 13:30 - 15:00
PAPER SESSION 5
in the RMG sector of Bangladesh. A mixed methods approach was used to interview factory owners and opinion
leaders and 1014 female garment workers in the City of Dhaka were surveyed using face-to –face interviews. The
data collected gave understanding of the women's vulnerabilities, capabilities, power relations and attitudes to their
working life. From analysis of the quantitative data collected it appears that for most, there is a positive view of their
work and conditions and there is a feeling that life has improved from employment in the garments sector, although
there is evidence of alienation from workplace authority. A small group exists whose working life is poor and who
suffer physical, including sexual abuse and are tormented verbally and emotionally. For most women although they
consider life to be improving, they are in poverty manifested by very low wage rates, multiple house occupancy and
very impoverished environments. Qualitative evidence exists to show that this leads to mental illness and emotional
distress. Recommendations are made on ways to improve the well-being of those working in the RMG sector.
At the Margins of 'Public-Private Debate': Rethinking Shop Floor With The Experiences Of Women Textile
Workers in Turkey
Saka, B.
(Middle East Technical University)
In this paper, I intend to explore the gendered manifestations of industrial relations in the lives of working women at
the turn of the second half of the 20th century in Turkey. Specifically, I will focus on textile sector in Turkey, which
stands as the leading sector witnessing the emergence of the initial entrance of women into the paid labor force. I will
argue that a case study of factory may illustrate the gendered history of working class in the non-Western context.
While an affluent literature on the working class history is flourished since the time of the British historian E. P.
Thompson, the scholarly debate on restoring the once-lacking gender perspective has been recently revived. The
latter has exclusive claims on the American and European experiences of the working women, however. In this paper,
I aim to discuss both conceptual and empirical relations between 'gender' and 'class' in a gendered perspective of
class which, I assume, might be held through problematization of two dualities: politics-economy the former and
private and the public sphere the latter. Resting on the ongoing filedwork being conducted with women textile workers,
I will argue that mentioned dualities,-culminated in 19th century liberal thought- while operating as ideological
constructs has analytical power to explain condition of women workers at the workplace. In brief it will be argued that,
workplace - the temple of production- can not be seen public apriori but its boundaries are continously defined and
redefined through women textile workers struggle.
Fashioning Power: Stakeholder Strategies In Fashion Activist Networks Post-Rana Plaza
Hanlon, M.
(University of Edinburgh)
In the global fashion and apparel industry, transnational labour rights (TLRs) organisations have turned away from
seeking support from state mechanisms and institutions, calling instead on corporations to improve labour conditions
for garment workers in fashion and apparel commodity value chains through corporate social responsibility (CSR).
These stakeholders, TLRs organisations and corporations alike, are engaged in a global movement for so-called
responsible fashion. In the wake of the Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh, a new group of activists has
emerged to campaign for garment worker labour rights in Bangladesh: an organized, transnational collective of
Western responsible fashion activist-entrepreneurs. This network campaigns online and offline to connect the actions
of Western consumers to the work and life experiences of Bangladeshi garment workers. Through such campaigns,
consumers in support of responsible fashion, determined through consumption practices, are positioned as caring,
while consumers supporting 'fast fashion' and/or conventional fashion companies and products are viewed as
uncaring, seen as hindering opportunities for enhancing garment worker life. Such campaigns present polarized,
ahistorical narratives that seemingly ignore not only international and domestic policies impacting the sectors'
development, but also issues of worker agency, culture, and gender, among others. Discussing preliminary research
findings gathered through online data collection and in-depth qualitative interviews with responsible fashion industry
stakeholders, this paper questions the interests and motivations behind these online and offline campaign strategies,
mapping potential points of cooperation and contestation amongst Western stakeholders working to secure the labour
rights of garment workers in Bangladesh.
193 BSA Annual Conference 2015
Glasgow Caledonian University