1,720,975 research outputs found
How naked protest helps gain attention and pressurize governments to take action: a case study on Extinction Rebellion.
No full textChina in Zmabia
No full textProjektet tager udgangspunkt i Kinas investeringer i Zambias Kobberminer og fokusere på de to landes relationer med hinanden, samt de konsekvenser der forekommer af Kinas privatiseringer af Zambias kobbersektor. Projektet har en økonomisk og social tilgang, hvor Kinas FDI i Zambia, bliver analyseret for at se på hvor stor en økonomisk vækst der skabes i Zambia på vejne af udlandske investeringer. Derudover er der også blevet gjort brug af ressourceforbandelsens teori, til at se på de sociale, samt politiske problemer der er opstået i Zambia fordi de ikke opkræver skat af de kinesiske investorer i minesektorenThe project is based on China's investment in Zambia's Copper Mines and sets out to analyze the two countries' relations with each other, and the consequences that occur by China's dominating privatization of Zambia's copper sector. The project has an economic and social approach, and looks into China's Foreign Direct Investment in Zambia. We set out to analyze the FDI approach, to see how much economic growth has increased in Zambia. In addition, we have also used the theory on “The Resource curse” to look at the social and political problems that have emerged in Zambia, due to the fact, that they do not charge tax on Chinese investors in the mining secto
Bangladesh: A comparative analysis on challenges and solutions of the garment industry
No full textThe garment industry has become one of the propelling forces behind Bangladesh's social and economic progress because of its substantial influence on exports, job creation, and helping to alleviate poverty. This thesis focuses primarily on employees, their working conditions, precautions for safety, compensation, and other directly related areas of interest that we must comprehend in order to grasp the concept of changes that have been implemented. The region of interest includes not only Bangladesh but also all of the garment-producing nations in southern Asia. A secondary objective of this study is to offer a comparison and contrast of the different perspectives and approaches to the issue from the business perspective, i.e., the government of Bangladesh, global value chains, and businesses, and the humanitarian perspective, i.e., the workers, non-governmental organizations, activists, and humanitarians
The Contentious Politics of Constitution-Making: A Case Study of the Puzzling Paradox of Rejecting the New Carta Magna in Chile, 2019-2022
No full textIndian Foreign Policy behaviour and the rationale behind decision-making in the Indo-Pacific region
No full textAbstract:How has India executed its foreign policy decisions during specific eras of its history, and what are the rationale behind this behaviour, including the implications on the current government’s policies? This thesis attempts to answer this question through the concepts of neorealism and neoliberalism, with the inclusion of Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA), i.e., the Rational Actor Model (RAM). It goes through rigorous analysis and discussion of policy behaviours which shows that Indian policymakers, though different in leadership and values, have shared several similarities in their policy decisions. The securitisation and liberalisation of Indian foreign policy, and New Delhi’s duality shows a reluctance, that throughout the years have signified Indian foreign policy’s behaviour in themes such as nuclear capabilities and attempts at becoming a sixth member of the UNSC and in some regard the response to the 2020 conflict. It saw the exemplification of the ‘balancing’ of China and how the centralisation and consolidation of power affects specific policy decisions. The border disputes in the Kashmir province are still ongoing and seems to intensify during these last years, during Prime Minister Modi’s leadership. Overall, the comprehension between the historic and current foreign policy behaviour have been utilised in the accumulation of knowledge of heritage and ongoing events, which have served as a signifier of the relation between understanding India’s foreign policy traditions and how these continuities in current policymaking and decisions are critically and rationally made, illustrated by the in-depth analysis of the specific case study, i.e., the 2020 incident at Galwan Valley
The Political Economy of Social Upgrading:A class-relational analysis of social and economic trajectories of the garment industries of Cambodia and Vietnam
Full text linkMed udgangspunkt i et reformuleret begreb om globale værdikæder, forankret i marxistisk politisk økonomi og suppleret med indsigter fra strukturalistisk udviklingsøkonomi og afhængig-hedsteori, undersøger afhandlingen, hvilken rolle skiftende klasserelationer har i økonomiske og sociale udviklingsprocesser i den globale tøjværdikæde. Teoriapparatet placerer tøjarbejderes kol-lektive agens i skæringspunktet mellem en horisontal akse (bestående af lokale klasseforhold), og en vertikal akse (styrings- og fordelingsmæssige egenskaber ved værdikæden). Udstyret med dette teoriapparat lægger afhandlingen ud med, i et historisk perspektiv, at afdække hovedtendenserne i det 21. århundredes tøjværdikæde og deres implikationer for pro-duktionslande. Analysen viser, at en række forbundne processer, herunder overgangen til neoli-beralisme i det globale Nord og udfasningen af handelskvoter i det globale Syd, har skabt en ”le-verandørklemme” i form af samtidigt faldende eksportpriser og stigende krav til produktionstider, fleksibilitet og overholdelse af sociale og miljømæssige standarder. Inspireret af den brasilianske afhængighedstænker Marini argumenteres der for, at disse betingelser skaber en form for ”ulige bytte”, der giver sig udslag i en strukturelt faldende profitrate og tilskynder fabrikker i det globale Syd til – for at kompensere – at ”over-udbytte” tøjarbejdere, dvs. betale faldende reallønninger og presse dem hårdere end deres kroppe kan bære. På denne baggrund undersøger afhandlingen de sociale og økonomiske hovedudviklinger i tøjindustrierne i Cambodja og Vietnam. Ved hjælp af data indsamlet under feltarbejde i de to lande og en lang række øvrige kilder finder analysen, at tøjarbejderes kollektive handlen var en afgø-rende drivkraft bag social fremskridt i de to lande. I Cambodja, afhandlingens primære case, blev en længere periode – med uregelmæssige og utilstrækkelige justeringer af mindstelønnen, faldende levestandarder og en bølge af massebesvimelser – afbrudt af en ekstraordinær strejkebølge i 2012-2014. Disse begivenheder resulterede i en serie af lønstigninger og en ny lønfastsættelsesmeka-nisme baseret på årlige trepartsforhandlinger; indrømmelser, der bragte Cambodjanske tøjarbej-dere betydeligt tættere på en leveløn. Den skelsættende strejkebølge fandt sted på baggrund af strukturelle forskydninger i magtbalancen mellem arbejde, kapital og stat, herunder en midlertidig reduktion i overskydende arbejdskraft og et jordskredsvalg, der – med en gryende alliance mellem oppositionen og arbejderklassen – udgjorde den største trussel mod regeringspartiets magtposition i årtier. Sejren viste sig dog dyrekøbt, idet arbejdsgivere og regeringen, i forsøg på at genoprette profitabilitet og politisk kontrol, tog en række modtræk, der svækkede arbejderbevægelsen. I Viet-nam, der fungerer som komparativ case i analyse, udspillede et lignende scenarie sig nogle år tid-ligere: En historisk strejkebevægelse (2006-2012), forstærket af strukturelle opsving i tøjarbejderes forhandlingsposition, aftvang partistaten en række lønstigninger og en ny lønmekanisme. Disse magtforskydninger havde økonomiske implikationer, idet stigende lønomkostninger udgjorde en profitklemme, der tilskyndede tøjfabrikker til at bevæge sig op af værdikæden. I Cambodja var disse forsøg relativt virkningsløse, fordi den totale afkobling af eksportpriser og leveom-kostninger gjorde det vanskeligt at imødekomme lønstigninger via øget produktivitet. I stedet blev en stor del af tilpasningsbyrden pålagt tøjarbejdere i form af opskruede produktionskvoter og sti-gende arbejdspres. I Vietnam, derimod, havde tøjindustrien større succes med at imødegå lønstig-ninger med økonomiske tiltag, hvilken kan tilskrives landets mere ambitiøse industripolitikker og blandede ejerskabsstruktur. Overordnet peger analyserne på, at hvor arbejderes kollektive agens er afgørende for sociale fremskridt i den globale tøjværdikæde, kræver en socialt bæredygtig tøjindustri, at der gøres op med ”leverandørklemmen” og dens ekstreme prisdynamikkerBased on a Marxist reworking of the global value chains (GVC) framework, supplemented by insights from structuralist development economics and dependency theory, the thesis investigates what role evolving class relations play in processes of social and economic upgrading in global garment value chains. Situating workers’ agency at the intersection of a horizontal axis (local capital-labour-state relations) and a vertical axis (governance and distributional dynamics of the GVC), the thesis starts out by examining the key features of the 21st century garment GVC and their implications for producer countries. It is shown how a series of interrelated processes, including the transition to neoliberalism in the North, and the phase-out of quotas in the South, combined to produce a “supplier squeeze” in the garment GVC, with a simultaneous depression of export prices and an es-calation of non-price requirements. Drawing on the work of the dependentista Marini, it is argued that these distributional dynamics amount to a form of unequal exchange that incentivizes manufacturers to super-exploit workers, pushing their wages below repro-duction costs and/or working them beyond exhaustion.Against this backdrop, the thesis interrogates the social and economic trajectories of the garment industries of Cambodia and Vietnam. Based on fieldwork and secondary sources, the analysis shows that workers’ collective resistance to super-exploitation was a key driving force of social upgrading. In Cambodia, the thesis’ primary case, a lengthy phase of social downgrading, with infrequent minimum wage adjustments and deteriorat-ing living standards, was broken by a major strike wave in 2012-2014 – an event that re-sulted in a sequence of minimum wage hikes and a new wage-fixing mechanism. This “critical juncture” was leveraged by tectonic shifts in workers’ structural bargaining pow-er, including the temporary dry-up of surplus labour and a regime-shattering national election. The victory proved Pyrrhic, however, as employers and the government – eager to restore profitability and political control, respectively – pursued counterstrategies that severely weakened organized labour. In Vietnam, a parallel process took place a few years earlier: A historic strike wave (2006-2011), bolstered by upswings in workers’ structural power, forced the party-state to increase the minimum wage and introduce annual wage adjustments.These labour-led turning points, in turn, had economic implications, as wage-driven profit squeezes forced garment manufacturers to attempt moving up the value chain. In Cambodia, upgrading efforts were largely impotent, as the disconnect between export prices and living costs placed unrealistic demands on productivity growth; and a great part of the burden was shifted onto workers in the form of an intensification of labour processes. In Vietnam, in contrast, the garment industry was more successful in offsetting social upgrading through economic upgrading, a finding which is attributed to its mixed ownership and ambitious industrial policies. In sum, the thesis suggests that while gar-ment workers’ resistance is a key determinant of social upgrading, sustained improve-ments require a break with the “supplier squeeze” and its inflation-defying pricing dy-namics.<br/
Doing Well by Doing Right?:Exploring the Potentials and Limitations of a Business Case for Human Rights
No full textThis report explores the potentials and limitations of a business case for respecting human rights. It should be stressed from the outset that this in no way serves to justify a narrowly economistic approach. Human rights should be respected whether or not benefits outweigh costs. Nevertheless, it is not implausible to expect that companies will show greater respect for human rights, if there are sound economic arguments to do so.Against this backdrop, this report interrogates the empirical foundation of the claim that business can be “doing well by doing right”. The report draws on three sources of data.First, it is based on an extensive review of the academic literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and adjacent fields such as business ethics, management studies, organisational psychology and consumer research. Unlike the human rights field, which has paid little attention to its own nexus with economics, hundreds of empirical studies have since the 1970s investigated the relationship between CSR, or corporate social performance, and corporate financial performance. For an exploration into a potential business case for human rights, this vast body of work offers a useful point of departure; but it obviously raises the question of whether conclusions pertaining to CSR are applicable to human rights – a question that is discussed throughout the report.As the second source of data, the report uses of great number of opinion polls and surveys by private firms. These are valuable for capturing the shifting attitudes of corporate executives, consumers, investors and employees, but also provide up-to-date data to assess the relevance of research findings.Third, the report draws on interviews with the staff in charge of human rights initiatives at three of the companies that the Danish Institute for Human Rights is currently working with: Nestlé, L’Oréal and RB. These companies operate in the market segment for fast-moving consumer goods, which has been chosen, as it – due to its visibility and proximity to consumers – is the most likely to be affected by rising stakeholder expectations. Also, the companies were selected, as they have adopted proactive approaches to human rights, which makes them interesting cases for exploring if, and in what ways, they experience “returns on investment”. In addition, an interview was conducted with a representative of AIM Progress, a global initiative supported and sponsored by AIM – the European Brands Association, with the purpose of enabling and promoting responsible sourcing practices and sustainable supply chains in fast-moving consumer goods. These interviews revolved, among other things, around the drivers of human rights engagements, the feasibility of a business case and its key components, and any perceived gaps and limitations.<br/
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