240139 FS FM1 - Research Seminar (Part 1) - Research Design (2020W)

This is a two-semester long course on global production networks, labour and transnational organizing. In the first semester, each student should develop an own research project and a theoretically and empirically informed research design on a topic related to the main theme of the course. The research design developed during this semester will be the basis for conducting the research project and writing a research paper in the spring semester 2021.

The overall theme of the course deals with changes in the global economy and the expansion of global production networks that connect firms, workers and consumers around the globe. These transformations in global production have crucial implications for how firms, producers and workers in the Global South are integrated into the global economy and for uneven socio-economic development outcomes. The outcomes are closely related to asymmetric power relations and inequalities intrinsic to global production networks, but also to political economy dynamics in regions and countries in which firms, producers and workers are embedded.

Chain and network approaches used to mainly focus on firms and implications for economic upgrading, but more recently the social outcomes of globalized production and also the role of labor agency, worker power and transnational struggles and organizing has developed to an important research area. The rise of global production networks has posed challenges to traditional labour regulation, and over the past decades numerous responses have emerged in the context of transnational labour governance, including the emergence of “privatized” corporate self-governance, multi-stakeholder initiatives as well as transnational labour activism and efforts to organize “along the chain”, linking workers and producers in the Global South to workers, consumers, firms, states and other actors in the Global North.

This research seminar focuses on the socio-economic uneven development outcomes of global production networks and particularly on implications for and the role of labour, worker power and transnational organizing in global production networks. The conceptual focus will be on chain and network approaches and particularly on concepts for understanding labour agency and worker power, drawing on insights from global labour studies, labour history and feminist studies. Methodologically, the focus will be on trade, labour and industry data and particularly interview-based methods to conduct research on topics around global production networks, labour and transnational organizing.

The first semester of the research seminar has three main objectives:
- First, acquire a critical understanding of the literature on global production networks, labour/worker power and transnational organizing
- Second, develop an understanding of the research process and be able to develop an own research project and design, including finding a research area/topic, developing research objectives and questions, understanding the importance of theory and getting an overview of methodological approaches
- Third, develop an own research project and design, which should be related to the overall theme of the class and includes reading literature, dealing with theoretical concepts and developing methodological approaches that are particularly relevant for the specific project; each student picks a particular case study on transnational organizing, e.g. the Clean Cloth Campaign, Fair Trade, Via Campesina, transnational trade union activities or a topic of choice related to the main theme

Sessions will involve inputs by the lecturer, discussions and presentations based on required readings for each class, group discussions among students working on similar research topics, presentations by students on their research projects and designs, individual and also group meetings with the lecturer, and other formats that will be useful to support students in developing their own research projects.