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The Research Issues
Liberalisation and Global
Neo-Liberalism
Over the past 10 years the clothing sector has experienced
a steady liberalisation within the context of the World
Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Textiles and
Clothing. By 2005 all quotas affecting trade in the
global clothing industry between WTO members will have
been removed, although it is likely that several other
trade restraints will remain in place in some countries.
Understanding the impacts of this process of liberalisation
is one aim of the Global Apparel Research Programme.
Europeanisation and
Outward Processing
Alongside global liberalisation of the clothing industry
there has been a steady process of pan-European integration
within the context of the collapse of state socialism
in East-Central Europe and the European Union’s
on-going creation of a free-trade area and customs union.
The clothing industry has been a key part of this process
of increased economic interaction between east and west
Europe since the early to mid 1980s. This process of
integration – largely but not exclusively driven
by outward processing contract production in East-Central
Europe for markets in the EU – is itself undergoing
significant change as EU enlargement occurs.
A response to the European Commission’s report
on the future of the textiles and clothing sector in
an enlarged EU is available here.
[downloadable pdf file]
Regional Concentration
and Clusters
For many years, the clothing industry has been considered
to be one of the archetypal examples of industrial agglomeration
and regional concentration. From the textiles and clothing
districts of the Third Italy, to the concentration of
garment workshops in east and north east London, to
the former state-owned enterprise dominated production
complexes of Central Europe, to the clusters of producers
in newly industrialising regions of China, the clothing
sector is often characterised by a geographically proximate
complex division of labour between firms. Understanding
how such regional concentrations of production are able
to respond to the challenges faced by the industry is
a central aim of this research programme. A discussion
of the role of regional clusters in Slovakia is available
in the journal Economic
Geography.
Downsizing and De-Industrialisation
Despite arguments that regional agglomeration provides
for considerable flexibility and competitive advantage,
the last 20 years have witnessed a quite profound loss
of employment and activity in the clothing industry
in certain parts of the world economy. This process
of downsizing has had a major impact on higher cost
locations in which firms have found themselves having
to deal with the pressures for relocation to lower cost
parts of the world economy. Exploring the impacts of
the responses of firms to these pressures and possibilities
for maintaining employment even in higher cost locations
is a key aspect of the research programme.
Upgrading and Higher
Value Production
One possible response to continual pressures of relocation
and cost reduction in the clothing industry is said
to be the upgrading of production and activity into
higher value areas. A key element of this is increasing
the design intensity of production and making links
between fashion design and manufacturing much stronger.
This is all about attempting to capture value within
a globally fluid industry. It is a strategy that many
regional and economic development institutions in higher
cost locations are pursuing, not least in London [see:
http://www.lda.gov.uk/server.php?show=nav.001002003007].
Workers and Working Conditions
The global garment industry has a largely feminised
workforce, often working in poor conditions. The sweatshop
trope has been a powerful way of representing the position
of garment workers, and requires consideration of the
struggles over labour and life in the industry.
Cultures of Economy in
Garment Production
The global garment industry is invariably associated
with a feminised labour force, articulates with domestic
household economies and also often involves ethnic minority
businesses and labour. Understanding how the globalisation
of activity in the garment sector articulates with this
wider cultural economy of economic practices is a central
part of the research programme.
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Reconfiguring Economies,
Communities, and Regions in Post-Socialist Europe: A
Study of the Apparel Industry
This collaborative project, funded by the US National
Science Foundation, examines the dramatic reconfiguration
of the Central and East European apparel sector in the
context of global liberalisation and European integration.
In particular, the project examines the impacts of forms
of post-socialist global and pan-European integration
on communities in Central and Eastern Europe reliant
upon the apparel industry.
The project involves research collaboration with Professor
John Pickles, University of North Carolina, Professor
Bob Begg, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Professor
Milan Bucek, Economics University, Bratislava, and Dr.
Poli Roukova, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
Summary of the project
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Manufacturing London: Globalization
and Industrial Upgrading in the Metropolitan Clothing
Sector
This project, funded by the British Academy, examines
the responses by clothing firms in London to the competitive
pressures experienced in relation to globalisation and
pressures for the relocation of production. It asks
whether firms are able to upgrade into higher value
production and design capabilities, or whether they
face continual pressures to deal with competitive pressures
through other means.
This project also involves Dr.
Yara Evans as a research officer.
Summary of the project
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