Women workers in the garment factories of Cambodia

For more than two decades, there have been discussions about how to sustainably improve the situation of garment workers in so-called low-wage countries in the Global South. The dominant answers to date are top-down approaches from the Global North, which attempt to determine and regulate from above the working conditions of mainly young women from rural areas. But what if we instead start with these garment workers and their agency on the ground? What if we start with these women and stay with them to explore their situations, their challenges and problems, and what new or alternative opportunities there might be for a transnational practice of solidarity from below in the global garment production network?
This book starts with (in)formal and (non-)unionized women workers in garment factories in Cambodia and stays with them to explore how women workers are spatially embedded in the global garment production network, how they (re)act as subjects of (re)production in their everyday spaces, and how they can network and organize from below on a trans-
national scale to fight for their real needs and demands on the ground. Drawing on a feminist labour geography perspective on global (re)production networks, Michaela Doutch's book puts women workers in garment factories in Cambodia at the heart of the debate as key actors in change.

Acknowledgements v
Table of figures, images, maps, and tables xi
Acronyms and abbreviations xiii

Chapter 1
Labour in global industries 1
1.1 Starting and staying with labour a scientific and political project 3
1.2 The point of departure: Women workers in the Cambodian garment sector 6
1.3 Book outline 9

Chapter 2
Towards a feminist labour geography of global (re)production networks 15
2.1 Introduction 15
2.2 The global (re)production network approach 16
2.3 Towards a feminist labour geography 29
2.4 Labour agency as gendered multiple-scalar processes 39
2.5 Conclusion 49

Chapter 3
Cambodian women in the global garment (re)production network 51
3.1 Introduction 51
3.2 From rural areas to the city creating translocal life realities 53
3.3 Women workers vertical integration into the garments GRPN 62
3.4 Women workers horizontal embeddedness into the garments GRPN 74
3.5 Conclusion 81

Chapter 4
Working with women workers. A (facilitated) feminist (participatory) action research approach 85
4.1 Introduction 85
4.2 The epistemological grounding of this project and the issue of positionality and representation 89
4.3 Action research 96
4.4 Feminist participatory action research 105
4.5 A broader transdisciplinary framework 108
4.6 Research questions and sampling 112
4.7 Building access the master s thesis as a preparatory phase 117
4.8 Getting to know the women workers in the Cambodian garment sector: The first phase of data collection 120
4.9 Taking action: The second phase of data collection 123
4.10 Conclusion 126

Chapter 5
Becoming a woman, becoming a worker. Life stories of Cambodian garment workers 129
5.1 Introduction 129
5.2 Experiencing the working class 135
5.3 Everyday struggles of social reproduction 144
5.3.1 Struggles for care 145
5.3.2 Towards a broader understanding of social reproduction 160
5.4 Conclusion 178

Chapter 6
The Cambodian garment workers general strike of 2013/2014 and the post-strike developments 183
6.1 Introduction 183
6.2 Women workers views from below on the general strike of 2013/2014 187
6.2.1 Women workers and their everyday places and spaces of (re)production 187
6.2.2 Trade unions and their formal networks 194
6.3 Post-strike developments 198
6.3.1 Higher wages do not mean more money 199
6.3.2 It s about living and reproducing 204
6.3.3 The issue of gender-based violence 216
6.3.4 The politicization of labour and shrinking spaces 220
6.4 Conclusion 225

Chapter 7
Transnational labour solidarity. A bottom-up approach to (self-)networking and organizing labour in the garments GRPN 229
7.1 Introduction 229
7.2 Transnational labour solidarity or (self-)networking and organizing labour in the global garment industry 233
7.3 Barriers to (self-)networking and organizing along the chain 241
7.3.1 Mental barriers 243
7.3.2 Structural barriers 252
7.4 (Self-)networking and organizing via processes of social reproduction 256
7.4.1 Action establishing real contact between garment workers and truck drivers 258
7.4.2 Existing in a dialectic totality potentials and problems of (self-)networking and organizing labour along the production chain via the next-node approach 273
7.4.3 The need to generate concrete strategies together 283
7.5 Conclusion 285

Chapter 8
A feminist labour geography of global (re)production networks 289
8.1 Introduction 289
8.2 Considering the capitalist totality and the gendered spatial reality of production and social reproduction processes 292
8.3 Identifying workers as subjects of (re)production 294
8.4 Conceptualizing social reproduction as a potential for labour agency 297
8.5 Tapping into the potential of social reproduction in transnational practices of labour solidarity 298
8.6 Limitations and implications for further research 300
8.7 Concluding remarks 302

References 305
Appendices 327