In an article featured in the Washington Post, Professor Layna Mosley examines the debate on whether globalization has a negative impact on poor workers in the developing world. The evidence indicates that results are mixed:
Working conditions in many parts of the world are far from ideal. Globalization and technological changes have made it easier to find and publicize instances of forced labor, child labor, poor working conditions and limits on workers’ capacity to organize and bargain. But, for many workers, the alternative — marriage and rural work at a very young age — may be worse than the supply chain status quo: an urban factory job that provides a modicum of autonomy.
The trick, then, is to identify the conditions that allow developing countries to participate in global production networks, but to also ensure that these countries — and groups within those countries — can reclaim some voice with regard to foreign corporations and domestic elites. While this outcome is far from automatic, it is not impossible.
Read the full article here.