Power, inequality and corporate social responsibility : the politics of ethical compliance in the south Indian garment industry

Abstract

This article focuses on what the author calls the politics of ethical compliance, that is, the ways in which ethical corporate regulations are shaped by and constitutive of power relations and inequalities in the global market. It explores the ways in which ethical and social standards imposed on supply firms help to generate not only measurable and auditable changes in conditions of work, but also to mould social relationships between different actors in transnational production chains. It will be argued that codes and standards are not merely technical tools to regulate labour regimes. They do not merely contribute to the manufacturing of commodities to specified standards; they also generate new social regimes of power and inequality