Skip to main content

ETHNOS_APP

Home • Search • Journals • List 0

Despotism on the shop floor

Foreign company labour governance in Ethiopia's industrial park

Bibliographic Data

ID2248233
AuthorsYonas Tesema (0000-0002-3308-2263, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume40
Issue4
Pages8-12
Publication date2024-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropology Today (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0268-540X • E-ISSN: 1467-8322
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-8322.12902
OpenAlexW4402236833
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited15

In recent years, Ethiopia has become a prime destination for labour-intensive, export-oriented manufacturing industries by virtue of its favourable investment climate and cheap labour. This article examines the labour governance and disciplinary strategies of foreign companies in Ethiopia's industrial park, focusing on the Blue Apparel Company (BAC) in the Bole Lemi Industrial Park, Addis Ababa. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted from August 2021 to August 2022, the study reveals how relaxed labour regulations and the absence of trade unions enable foreign firms to enforce strict, profit-driven governance. The analysis highlights despotic management practices, hierarchical power dynamics and their impact on local workers. The findings shed light on the intricacies of labour control in globalized production regimes and highlight the challenges workers encounter in emerging economies

Business · Corporate governance · Economics · Industrial park · Management · Political science · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Finance

  • Aspiring for a Better Future

    Open Access•Yonas Tesema•Anthropological Forum•2024

  • Neoliberalism as Exception

    Aihwa Ong•Neoliberalism As Exception•2006

  • Gender and the South China Miracle

    Ching Kwan Lee•Gender and the South China Miracle•1998

  • Made in China

    N Pun, Pun Ngai•Made in China•2005

  • The Oxford Handbook of the Ethiopian Economy

    Fantu Cheru, Christopher Cramer et al.•Oxford Handbook of the Ethiopian…•2019

  • First encounters with industrial work

    Harald Aspen•Annales d Ethiopie•2020

  • Labour challenges in Ethiopia’s textile and leather industries

    Open Access•Vincent Hardy, Jostein Hauge•African Affairs•2019

  • Classes of Labour' at the Margins of Global Commodity Chains in India and China

    Open Access•Alessandra Mezzadri, Lulu Fan•Development and Change•2018

  • The Politics of Production

    David Gartman, M Burawoy•Social Forces•1988

  • Spirits of Resistance and Capitalist Discipline, Second Edition

    Aihwa Ong, Carla Freeman•Spirits of Resistance and…•2010

  • The Chicken Trail

    Open Access•Frances Webber•Race & Class•2014

  • Unjust Manufacturing

    Yonas Tesema•Journal of Anthropological Research•2024

  • An Anthropology of Structural Violence

    Paul Farmer•Current Anthropology•2004

  • The Ethiopian developmental state and struggles over the reproduction of young migrant women's labor at the Hawassa Industrial Park

    Daniel Mains, Robel Mulat•Journal of Eastern African Studies•2021

  • Chinese labor in a Korean factory

    Young Jeong Kim•Ethnic and Racial Studies•2014

Unique citing works1
Citations per year0,5
Citation span2024 - 2024 (1)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 1
Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae