Midterm 2 Prep (Class 13-22)

Question 1

Reasons for increased consumption of clothing

Answer 1

from social media/trends, globalization (cheaper), rate at which trends rise and fall

Question 2

What affects what we wear?

Answer 2

> environmental/social impacts of (fast) fashion: what we wear is about the structural forces in our lives, not just personal choice (e.g. weather, destination, accessibility, agency, gender expectations, etc.)  fast fashion

Question 3

commodity fetishism

Answer 3

> commodity fetishism: clothing has dual nature between use and exchange value. The exchange value (price) often hides the social/environmental character, obscures the conditions of production and the flows of capital, and what allows these conditions to occur (labour conditions, wages, profit flows, government involvement, water use, pollution, waste production, greenhouse gas emissions)  commodities appear independent from the relationships that produce them

statistics:&raquo_space;25-60mill ppl employed in garment sector, 90% no way to negotiate wage/conditions, 1 garbage truck of clothing per second is dumped, 1.2 billion tons of CO2 produced/year

Question 4

Why is looking at commodities as objects wrong?

Answer 4

> > > commodities appear simple b/c we exchange 1 for another (money for clothes), but this exchange obscures relationships between people)  attribute/structure of economic system, looking at commodities as objects = fetishizing
structural problems: consumer demand, complicated supply chain, lack of gov regulation, histories of colonialism and patriarchy

Question 5

fast fashion

Answer 5

= readily available, inexpensive, designs come and go fast, quantity produced and disposed is high

Question 6

What was Marx point about capitalism and a pair of jeans

Answer 6

> > Karl Marx  how is great wealth growing amidst great poverty, we need to see capitalism in a pair of jeans  signifies a wider set of relationships (geographical) that are more pronounced as economy globalizes

Question 7

what are overarching structural problems that affect the garment/RMG/fast fashion industry

Answer 7

> structural problems: consumer demand, complex supply chain, lack of gov regulation, histories of colonialism and patriarchy

Question 8

History of garment sector

Answer 8

> History: 1960s =98% clothing purchased was produced in US, present = 2%, 2000s = 26.2% and 17.1% price fall (Europe and US), 18% and 21% increase in exports from China (US and Europe)

Question 9

Why could Levi’s not afford to keep making jeans in El Paso

Answer 9

> > keeping production in US was not viable b/c competitors were cheaper (El-paso = 7/pair, China = 1.50/pair)

Question 10

What is the problem with outsourced clothing

Answer 10

indirect employment = decrease accountability cheaper

Question 11

Anu Muhammad’s point about increased employment due to RMG but also bad conditions

Answer 11

bad (cheap = abundance, workers are commodities – sell time for wage causes tension  similar to Van, housing unaffordability tied to wages out of wacc with living conditions

Question 12

Anu Muhammad’s point about uneven cost/benefit capture

Answer 12

(workers make unlivable wage whilst companies amass superprofits due to cheap labour)

Question 13

Anu Muhammad’s point about the power of brands

Answer 13

power (firms put pressure on suppliers for lower prices = race to the bottom between suppliers

Question 14

economic globalization

Answer 14

economic globalization = ongoing interconnectedness of all aspects of economic activity at a global scale

Question 15

2nd characteristic of economic globalization (MNCs)

Answer 15

MNCs (own/control production in 1+countries aside from home country)  40% of all trade (primary private economic actor of globalization)

Question 16

what is the argument for neoliberal economic globalization

Answer 16

> > argument for neoliberal economic globalization = more efficient if diff places can specialize in what they do at a lower cost  goods produced at lower cost = better for everybody. There will be some losers, but overall everyone else is better off (globalization is not a natural change)

> expectation: 1) trade liberalization benefits all 2) poverty and development best solved thru economic growth 3) states/international institutions advance policies to support

Question 17

Problem with neoliberal economic globalization

Answer 17

economic growth is true, but race to bottom –> the conditions are bad and value exports becomes less and less so countries have to export more and more to get the same amount they used to

Question 18

neoliberal globalization

Answer 18

> neoliberal globalization: set of ideas about what globalization should be (free markets w/ less gov intervention, self-interested individuals and firms maximize own outcomes will maximize social returns)

Question 19

argument for capitalism

Answer 19

> argument for capitalism = poverty is the natural condition of humanity, and capitalism has delivered steady and dramatic reduction over time

Question 20

Argument against capitalism, trade liberalization and colonialism

Answer 20

1) does not incl. non-commodified subsistence (e.g. foraging, access to commons, things especially important in the past), 2) enclosure (constrains ppl’s access to food and livelihood, economy/GDP may grow, but what about what the people have lost) 3) WB methodology (prices across whole economy used but only price of essential goods matter  methodology matters) 4) lack of info pre-1820s (pre 1800s have little info  impression that everything was same before 1820, but colonial processes happened that caused underdevelopment and poverty)

> > TLDR: statistics and graphs used are inaccurate, and the incorporation of ppl into capitalism is actually associated with increased poverty and decreased wellbeing  3rd world was produced by colonial processes, and improvements in health stem from things like unions who demanded better conditions, wages, etc.

Question 21

How is cheap labour in garments and fashion linked to capitalism and colonialism

Answer 21

> > > 1) the cheap labour fast fashion depends on is rooted in colonial and capitalist processes 2) countries with colonial powers created unequal structures and wealth inequalities that fast fashion capitalize on today

Question 22

globalization

Answer 22

> globalization = series of successive waves of transformation that remake the world in complex ways  economic geographers ask what is happening in processes of economic transformation
>each wave has own drivers, logic, key actors, etc.  each wave changes how the next one will happen, and the effects and consequences differ for different groups (social and political fallout from each stage)

Question 23

What globalization is not

Answer 23

> > globalization =/ 1) market-led convergence  fairy tale from 1990s where ppl believed capitalism was the only way forward 2) end of history 3) death of geography  each wave produces geographies that are important

Question 24

What globalization is

Answer 24

> > globalization = 1) strong discourse  narrative way of describing the world that has significant political consequences 2) uneven integration of world economy 3) selectively remaking connections  new capacities/inequalities – new forms of business enable different forms of globalization by virtue of existence  globalization enables unimaginable future globalization forms

Question 25

thoughts on globalization in the past vs now

Answer 25

> thoughts then VS now: then = globalization is not going away and is going to happen no matter what, today = recoil against globalization, and protecting those displaced by earlier waves  simple populist solutions for complex problems (e.g. build a wall = throw out 10s of thousands of migrants who do essential work for the economy)

Question 26

gender

Answer 26

gender = socially constructed categorical distinction between men/women, femininity/masculinity  this expression of gender has been naturalized in social/political/economic systems and the way we move thru systems is separated by the binary that is gender

> > diverse expressions of gender exist outside of this binary, and it always intersects with other categories of embodied difference (race, sexuality, class, etc.)

Question 27

gendering of work

Answer 27

> gendering of work = how gender shapes peoples experience/participation in the workplace (e.g. women in customer service and women in leadership are treated differently than men)

Question 28

division of labour and gendered division of labour

Answer 28

> division of labour = separation of roles in the process of production and society at large

> > gendered division of labour = certain jobs/tasks are gender-coded as associated with femininity or masculinity (e.g. household task division, workforce placement  reproductive realm is outside of capitalist concept of productivity

Question 29

women’s work

Answer 29

> Women’s work = work done by ppl who identify as women, and work that is perceived as women’s work, feminized/better suited for women

> Women’s work has stereotypes of lower skill, underrepresented in roles of power, high insecurity

Question 30

devaluation of women’s work

Answer 30

> devaluation of women’s work = treating work as if it is less important/valuable

Question 31

Ways to measure work devalument

Answer 31

> devaluation of women’s work = pay, how women are being treated, conditions of work, perception of employment

Question 32

How is women’s work devalued

Answer 32

1) chore work devalued as labour of love 2) believe all women have man at home that makes the primary income 3) patriarchy  structure of power that makes sure men dominate both public and private spheres, ensuring feminine attributes are undervalued whilst masculine attributes are privileged  not permanent state of things, and also geographically dependent (no universal patriarchal framework)

Question 33

How are women both necessary and disposable to companies

Answer 33

> > linked to companies bottom line, GBVH = way of women being undervalued, brands constrain women’s choices and take advantage of this to accumulate profits (but women are not without agency)

Question 34

What does the AFWA report say?

Answer 34

1) including economic harm in GBVH harm (widens the view of things that impact the thriving and safety of women at work) 2 understand issues faced more broadly with sexism and patriarchy 3) women’s devaluation is necessary for firms to make profit or else clothes wouldn’t be cheap

Question 35

Examples of increased GBVH and feminization of labour during COVID

Answer 35

(unpaid wages, illegal deductions, terminations, gender pay gap, denial of livable wage, gendered fall in income)

(more flexible and precarious than before  short term contracts)

(more ppl staying home = more care work)

Question 36

Mohanty’s problem with western femininsm

Answer 36

1) north presented women from south as homogenous, powerless victims of their circumstances, ignoring the agency and resistance these women have put up 2) objectification thru saving them from global south male and that they have little compared to women of global north (no education, poor, no agency)

since the 1986 writing, Mohanty revised her book (2003) that there have been improvements since, but there are still tightly scripted female stereotypes in feminist scholarships, especially of women from global south

> > not hearing from the people you’re trying to help may only harm/perpetuate power relations and devaluation of women further through stereotypes  solutions are simplistic
politics of representation: who does the representing, how is the representation characterized, and how does it circulate (what are the implications of the representation)

Question 37

What was Geraldine’s work?

Answer 37

> EXAMPLE: Geraldine and Bagong Barrio  a key textile and footwear manufacturing area in the past, in 1980s Herrera law and other ended unionization and secure work, regualarized workers lost their  became impossible to survive for most so transnational migration began

Question 38

How should we represent women in the fast fashion industry?

Answer 38

> > How should we represent women in the fast fashion industry  politics of representation: how a community/place/person/nation is pictured in media and writing  who does the representing, how is the representation characterized, and how does it circulate (what are the implications of the representation)

Question 39

What are implications of western feminist stereotypes of women from global south

Answer 39

> > implications of western feminist’s stereotype: emphasis on shock value, women as victims/passive/helpless and preyed on by hyper-sexualized males, useful for galvanizing outrage by consumers but not always helpeful  women of the north want overnight solutions that make them feel better, and they think they can tackle all problems at once, unwilling to see the complexity and interrelation of these problems

Question 40

how does the gov see the development in Bangladesh

Answer 40

> representation by gov  president of Bangladesh said garment industry is a blessing to teeming millions that could not find employment, and made womenfolk more self reliant and less likely to remain victims of social discrimination  True, but gov and industry don’t talk about problems, and companies draw on these narratives for compliance

Question 41

How is Shimu represented in the film?

Answer 41

> Shimu = good woman, she works hard, stands up for her friends by becoming union president, obeys her husband, she is a very linear “hero” character, she is unique in that she is the sole breadwinner of the household for a majority of the film, but the pay she gets is very little if she even does get paid at all (overtime wages not paid), and Shimu still does the household work like cooking for her husband and herself

Question 42

How is Rahul presented in the film?

Answer 42

> Rahul = slightly out of the stereotype husband, he doesn’t have a job as primary breadwinner for most of the film, and he is willing to do chores with Shimu occasionally. However, he does exhibit violence towards Shimu and possessiveness as if she is an object, throwing her around when he is upset and locking her in the home after the security threatens to strip her, and asking/forcing her to dress modestly

Question 43

How is Dahlia represented in the film

Answer 43

> Dahlia = non-stereotypical woman, she is explicit in her sexual desires and is punished for it. However, at one point she stops caring about public perception  she has stereotypical gender conforming thoughts, because she wants to get married and no longer have to work

Question 44

How are the factory managers/owner represented in the film

Answer 44

> Factory managers  stereotypical display of power, the managers threaten anyone who wants to join the union with firing and also preventing them from getting job elsewhere, they treat the women badly because they are above them on the hierarchy even though they wouldn’t have a job if the women didn’t work, they try and appease the brands

Question 45

How is gov represented in the film?

Answer 45

> Ministry of Labour  bend to the power of the MNCs, the sir is unwilling to sign Shimu’s factory’s union appeal because of the pressure from the owner, he only signs through blackmail from Shimu

Question 46

How does the film show the effects of education?

Answer 46

> Apa and education of women’s rights  shows how educating women and workers about their rights can help them stand up for themselves and better conditions

Question 47

Points from Q&A with film director

Answer 47

> > Points from Q&A  1) actual Shimu’s factory closed 3 yrs after unionization due to lack of demand since their factory’s supply was too expensive, Shimu ended up becoming a migrant worker in Jordan 2) as consumers, engage with MNCs and hold them accountable is the best way to help the workers

Question 48

How is labour a commodity, and what does Marx say about it?

Answer 48

> Labour commodity: we are commodities thru the job market, and the value employers gain from workers is a lot (as crucial as customers), but the value the worker gains from labour is less  this discrepancy is the source of profit
>market pressures to reduce costs come at the expense of workers and they experience alienation (compromising of our full human-ness)

Question 48

regional organizing

Answer 48

> > regional organizing (done by AFWA) = counter the strategy of brands relocating  workers need to come together in collectivity instead of competition, but unions also solidify existing system and don’t challenge it

Question 49

capital mobility

Answer 49

> capital mobility = ability of owners of capital to deploy their resources in different geographical locations

Question 50

reformist reforms

Answer 50

> reformist reforms = campaigns and projects that fail to challenge the wider political/cultural/economic orders that caused the issue in the first place (e.g. #Payup, boycotting fast fashion and not luxury), and have no effect on underlying conditions of exploitation or the systemic/structural conditions  instead legitimize the system further

Question 51

Abolitionists

Answer 51

> Abolition/Abolitionists  can’t fix system, need to end it and build new institutions (system is working, just not in the way you think it is VS reformists = system is working a bit wrong, need to tweak it)

Question 52

What does Pham say about sweatshops and the structure of the economy?

Answer 52

> > sweatshops are not a bug in the system, but rather a logical result of the structural forces that have been designed to extract from/neglect/forget an array of human/environmental resources especially of the Global South (similar Tranjan)

Question 53

What are critiques of Pham’s proposals

Answer 53

> > > proposals/solutions: alternative forms of clothing production that refuse commodification of labour (e.g. worker cooperatives  workers own their labour, more autonomy, receive some profits)  critiques: more like a non-reformist reform (transformative) reform that provides an alternative, but is not exactly an entire overhaul, its not scalable, serves a different market than the mass production/fast fashion, vulnerable to market shifts, doesn’t incl. worker’s voices

Question 54

What are worker cooperatives

Answer 54

worker cooperatives  workers own their labour, more autonomy, receive some profits

Question 55

benefits of unions

Answer 55

> benefits of unions: better benefits, increased job security, safer conditions, increased access to healthcare and
retirement plans, close wealth gap, help non-unionized workers as well  can be threatening (firms move elsewhere)