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PR3: Transnational Private Regulation, Production Regimes and Power Resources
SNF Project 2017-2020
Lead investigator: Prof. Jean-Christophe Graz (UNIL-IEPHI)
We explore the extent to which transnational private governance affects the capacity of workers to take collective action in pursuit of improvements in employment conditions in developing countries.
Transnational private labour regulation such as corporate codes of conduct and multi-stakeholder standards on labour, environment or human rights claim to respond to the governance deficits that have arisen as a result of the globalization of global production networks. Yet, little consensus exists about the effectiveness of their monitoring and enforcement practices or their ultimate impact.
We explore the extent to which transnational private governance affects the capacity of workers to take collective action in pursuit of improvements in employment conditions in developing countries.
Context
Since the 1990s, the concern has intensified about the responsibility of businesses in global subcontracting chains for exploitation of labour, inequality, and pollution. Many private transnational regulatory initiatives claim to address this concern by incentivizing multinational companies to voluntary sign up to human rights and environmental standards often referring to, for example, the International Labour Organization’s core labour standards. The effectiveness of this approach remains a complex and highly debated issue.
Over the last decade, scholars have studied the emergence, performance and problems related to transnational private labour regulation, their interactions on the transnational level and local level compliance. Stepping back from conventional debates on the overall effectiveness of transnational private governance, the project focuses instead on agency: the effect of transnational private labour regulation on the capacity of those involved, especially workers, to act in local contexts. With our project, we explore how different types of transnational private labour regulation, different national settings and different firm-level contexts of application combine to form what we call transnational hybrid production regimes.
Aim
The study examines how these regimes vary in the degree to which they support workers’ collective capacity to take action to improve their own conditions of employment. This is a cross country and cross sector study in Kenya and Brazil, based on a mixed method approach including ample field work and a survey of local actors.
The project tests two hypotheses. The hypothesis of institutional complementarity proposes that what is important for the impact of transnational private labour regulation on workers’ capacity to take
collective action is the interaction between the rights guaranteed by the transnational private regulatory initiative and existing local and national institutions. The hypothesis of production regime dependency proposes that different types of hybrid production regimes will provide more or less propitious contexts for worker’s collective action.
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Jean-Christophe and Nicole presented a paper in relation to the project at the 6th conference of the Regulating for Decent Work Network at the International Labour Office (ILO), Geneva, Switzerland, 8-10 July 2019.
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Hybrid Production Regimes and Labor Agency in Transnational Private Governance – New paper published (online first) by the research team of the PR3 project in the Journal of Business Ethics. The paper emphasizes the role of labour agency in the transnational private governance of labour standards. See: rdcu.be/bDu4j
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Jean-Christophe Graz presented the paper "Hybrid production regimes, transnational governance of labor standards and workers’ agency", in one of the two panels organized on Transnational private regulation at the 60th Annual Convention of the International Studies Associations (ISA), Toronto, 27-30 March 2019.
- March 1, 2019: Cécile Prébandier left the research team to give a new course to her professional career. A very big thank you for your contribution, your involvement and the good humour brought to this project - and all our wishes for the rest of your journey!
- Cécile Prébandier returned to Lausanne after several months in Brazil where she did field work in collaboration with the PR3 project’s Brazilian partners, Prof. Andréia Galvão from Unicamp (Universidade Estadual de Campinas) and Prof. Vitor Filgueiras from UFBA (Universidade Federal de Bahia).
- Jean-Christophe Graz presented a paper on “Labour standards of the world, Unite! Or how to map hybrid production regimes ” at the 30th Annual EAEPE Conference, Nice, September 5-8th, 2018.
- Jean-Christophe Graz and Nicole Helmerich presented a paper on "Agency in transnational private governance of hybrid production regimes ", at the 7th Biennial Conference of the ECPR Standing Group on Regulatory Governance, organized at the University of Lausanne, 4-6 July 2018.
- Nicole Helmerich organised a stream of six panels on transnational governance in the areas of labor, environment and human rights at the 7th Biennial Conference of the ECPR Standing Group on Regulatory Governance, at the University of Lausanne, 4-6 July 2018.
- Nicole Helmerich presented a paper on "Hybrid production regimes and layering of rules in labor standards » at the International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Convention, San Francisco, 4-7 April 2018.
- Jean-Christophe Graz et Cécile Prébandier presented a paper on “Hybrid production regimes and the layering of rules in the area of labour standards” at the Swiss Political Science Association annual conference in Geneva on the 5th and 6th of February 2018. More info
- The PR3 team presented a paper in the 'S38: Rethinking Agency Beyond, or in Spite of, the State” at the 11th Pan-European Conference on International Relations which will take place in Barcelona, Spain, on 13th-16th September 2017. More info
- Nicole Helmerich presented a paper entitled “Digitalisation and the reconfiguration of power in global value chains” in the International Labour Organization’s 5th Conference on Regulating for Decent Work in Geneva (3-5th July 2017). More info
- Nicole Helmerich hosted a SASE mini-conference on Transnational Governance of Global Production in a new Era of Information Sharing: Prospects and Challenges for Labor, Business and the Environment” during the annual SASE conference “What’s Next? Disruptive/Collaborative Economy or Business as Usual?” in Lyon, France (29 June- 1st July 2017). More info
Jean-Christophe Graz
Jean-Christophe Graz is principal investigator of the PR3 project. He is Professor of international relations at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Historiques et Internationales of the University of Lausanne. He has worked for over 15 years on regulation issues in global political economy. His research focuses in particular on transnational private governance, international standards, service offshoring, and more recently labour standards, global finance and insurance. Since 2006, he has been principal investigator of the following projects: “Governance by contract? The impact of the International Finance Corporation’s social conditionality on worker organization and social dialogue” (Swiss Network for International Studies – 2013-5); “INTERNORM - Pôle interactif des savoirs dans les processus de normalisation internationale (Direction Université de Lausanne & Fondation Anthropos – 2010-14); “Standards and international relations: Devolution of power in the global political economy” (Swiss National Science Foundation – 2006-10). He is currently completing a book manuscript with the tentative title “The power of standards: Hybrid authority in the globalisation of services”.
Jimena Sobrino Piazza
Jimena Sobrino Piazza holds a Master degree in Public Opinion and Survey Methodology from the Universities of Lausanne, Luzern and Neuchatel. Prior to that, she had completed undergraduate studies in political science in the University of Lausanne. Her work is dedicated to the challenges of capturing complex social phenomena into measurements and the responsible interpretation of them.
