2003 biennial dinner

Asia is crucial to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Considerable progress has been made to date. Further progress is achievable but not guaranteed. Much remains to be done, especially in South Asia. Future efforts should be informed by past successes whilst recognizing the diversity of experience. Asia still needs development assistance especially to support changes in policy; help shift priorities towards the poor; and encourage innovation. With the right policies, China can continue to substantially reduce levels of extreme poverty and South Asia could accelerate progress. Develop ment agencies need to support nationally led efforts, work with a variety of partners including Government, and target areas and sectors critical for poverty reduction in flexible ways. The Department for International Development (DFID) is increasing its budget for Asia and will continue to focus on the poorest countries and people. With political commitment and real partnership, poverty can be banished in Asia.     

Where the Low Road and the High Road Meet: Flexible Employment in Global Value Chains

This article examines production organisation and employment patterns in the export-orientated centres of Denizli (Turkey) and Tiruppur (India). It argues that Denizli and Tiruppur's involvement in global value chains has resulted in segmented production patterns and insecure employment arrangements. Larger producers use sub-contractors as a strategy to mediate the instability of international contracts and pass the uncertainty in their global linkages on to smaller firms and their workforces. Such flux, then, has become a regularised feature of manufacturing work within the ranks of sub-contractors. Employers have solidified these production arrangements by recruiting rural and female workers. The article sheds light on the relationship between new production forms and rising employment insecurity.     

Reviews

The expansion of the global economy and the governance deficit it has generated raise questions about the possibilities for regulating the practices of participants in global production networks. This paper focuses on the regulation of industrial relations in Cambodia's textile and garment industry – a unique ensemble of state, trade union, private sector and international institutions that is promoted as a “fair model of globalisation.” We track the trajectory of Cambodia's industrialisation and insertion into the global economy over three interrelated phases: first, the beginnings of export-orientated garment production in the mid- to late 1990s; secondly, the promotion of Cambodia as an “ethical producer” from 1999; and, thirdly, privileging “competitiveness” in global production networks over labour compliance for its advantage. In doing so we centre our analysis on the complex intertwining of global production, the genesis of the unique ensemble of actors in Cambodia and the anomaly of Cambodia's labour movement.     

Local Government at the Nexus?

The modernisation of local government in the UK, pursued by Labour governments since 1997, has covered many, often conflicting elements. Councils have been encouraged to be both strategic ‘place shapers’ and also involved in the nurturing of democratic engagement. This latter theme of ‘democratic renewal’ has in itself contained paradoxical elements, but has been a consistent focus of attention. This debate around democratic renewal has also taken place in the context of a broader ‘rethinking’ of local governments’ role, in an era of partnerships, governance and new models of service delivery. Normatively and practically new justifications for local government have been sought. One such normative foundation has drawn on a range of theoretical perspectives to reimagine the place of local government in the democratic polity, seeing local authorities and local councilors as facilitators or nurturers of democratic health. In particular, broad theoretical developments in communicative and deliberative democracy, and also, more recently, on work based in ‘second generation’ governance theory, have been drawn upon to place local government at the nexus of state and civil society. This paper will examine the possibilities for such a role, from a normative standpoint, to argue that local government can have only limited success in this role, particularly in the context of New Labour's restructuring of the local state.     

Embracing Wikipedia as a research tool for law: to Wikipedia or not to Wikipedia?

Useful aspects of Wikipedia should be embraced as a research tool. Arguments are based upon a consideration of Wikipedia's purpose; policies and controlling mechanisms; commentator views on and academic use of Wikipedia as a teaching and learning tool; the fact that empirical research has found students will use Wikipedia. The results of a survey on the research preferences of a range of students engaged in various levels of legal study, from senior secondary school to second year law students, are presented and recommendations regarding educating students in the appropriate use of Wikipedia for research are made.     

Conference Plenary: When Liberation Movements Become One-Dimensional: On Critical Theory and Intersectionality

Abstract

One of the great obstacles to liberation and social change is the one-dimensional focus of many liberation movements. By “one-dimensional,” we mean the narrow reductionist approach to social change by many oppressed groups. In this article, we examine Marcuse’s notion of catalyst groups and connect that to the concept of intersectionality. We argue that critical theory must become a theory of intersectionality. While various forms of oppression have their own distinct logic of operation and specific target group, the continuation of each form of oppression is supported by other forms of oppression. One of the goals of this plenary was to help participants focus on the theme of the conference, critique and praxis, by envisioning new possibilities for theory, critique, praxis, and pedagogy in our time. To this end, we attempted to rethink Marcuse’s notion of one-dimensional thinking by linking it with Rene Girard’s concept of mimetic rivalry and the black feminist concept of intersectionality.     

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