The political economy of inclusion and exclusion

State, labour and the costs of supply chain integration in the Eastern Caribbean

Bibliographic Data

ID12316043
AuthorsGavin Fridell (0000-0002-8854-0823, International Development Studies, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Canada, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume29
Issue3
Pages749-767
Publication date2020-10-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueReview of International Political Economy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0969-2290 • E-ISSN: 1466-4526
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09692290.2020.1838315
OpenAlexW3093776412
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited31

The dual emphasis on the benefits of global supply chain integration and private governance to address its ethical gaps have given prominence to an inclusive vision of chains which, this paper argues, drawing on the case of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), has been greatly exaggerated. In the post-war era, SVG built a successful banana industry under a preferential agreement with the EU. When the agreement collapsed under free trade reforms, the burden of finding new forms of reintegration fell on the state and laboring classes. The paper argues that conventional supply chain approaches have adopted a static understanding of the relationship between inclusion and exclusion, overlooking the exclusionary nature of supply chains and placing too much emphasis on assessing the possibilities for private supply chain initiatives to address their negative social and environmental impacts. The effect has been to obscure the centrality of the state and laboring classes in continuing, out of necessity, to confront, manage, and address the many costs that corporations are not willing to pay. It is their centrality to managing the uneven and unpredictable nature of supply chain integration/reintegration, that is often the most hidden of all

Business · Centrality · Corporate governance · Economic growth · Economics · Inclusion (mineral · Market economy · Political science · Politics · Social exclusion · Sociology · State (computer science · Supply chain · Global trade and economics · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Innovation and Socioeconomic Development · Law · Finance · Marketing

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