Saidul Islam

From Sea to Shrimp Processing Factories in Bangladesh

Shrimp aquaculture in Bangladesh linking the European Union, the USA, and Japan exhibits several characteristics of a buyer-driven global commodity chain (GCC). The study shows that, along with the effects of local conditions, buyers’ pressures transmitted through the GCC affect gender and employment relations in the lower segments of the chain. It has been found that the feminisation of the workforce in aquaculture is accompanied by the marginality of females, who receive lower wages and social prestige than their male counterparts, and who are mostly concentrated at the beginning and end of the local supply chain, with very limited access to other important nodes of the GCC. In addition to being flexible (part-time, temporary, casual), much of the employment in Bangladesh shrimp aquaculture is also informal, without an employment contract or its associated rights. As there is an apparent gap between labour standards in private regulatory regimes and actual labour practices in the production and processing segments of the chain, the pressing question concerns how the structure of the commodity chain can allow companies to maintain the flexibility and low labour costs required for international competitiveness while ensuring more equitable and empowering labour market outcomes for workers.

State, religion, and environmentalism: fostering social cohesion and environmental protection in Singapore

Religions are taking on an increasingly influential role in driving the environmental movement and shaping the public policy in the world. However, little research has been done in Singapore to determine the extent to which religious environmental concerns affect state–religion relations despite the nation-state being home to a multitude of traditions. Using data from a survey that utilizes quota sampling, this study addresses this gap in two ways: firstly, to present a sketch of the environmental viewpoints and behaviors of six key religions in Singapore, namely the Buddhist, Catholic, Hindu, Islam, Protestant, and Taoist traditions; and secondly, to identify possible areas of tension between these religious groups and the state with reference to religious environmental concerns. Study shows that, while an apparent gap between environmental beliefs and actual environmental action persists, there is a desire by religious members for more societal activism and support with regard to protecting the environment. The study proposes that issues of religious environmental concern can act as a powerful overarching framework in guiding the state/religious environmental policy to create both multicultural social cohesion as well as environmental protection, and by doing so contribute to upholding the fundamental pillars of religious and national harmony in Singapore while concurrently facilitating the participatory citizenship.

Politics and Islamic revivalism in Bangladesh: the role of the state and non-state/non-political actors

ABSTRACT Bangladesh is an overwhelmingly Muslim majority country in South Asia. Islam is quite predominant in its political, social and cultural landscapes. While most classical and the contemporary sociologists predicted that religion would gradually fade in importance and cease to be significant with the advent of the industrial society, Bangladesh has instead witnessed a reemergence of the religious forces in its society. In order to address this theoretical exceptionalism and paradox, we have examined the role of both state and non-state or non-political actors in the Islamic revivalism in Bangladesh. Drawing on ‘Islamic revivalism’ as a theoretical construct and employing a triangulation of methods, we have critically investigated the contributions of five major independent regimes and key social, cultural and non-political organizations and groups to the Islamic revivalism in Bangladesh. We have found that Islamization in Bangladesh was actually initiated by the very first political regime in order to mobilize public supports and the subsequent regimes followed suit, albeit differently. None of the five independent political regimes in Bangladesh was however genuinely interested in establishing Islam and Islamic polity in society, but largely used Islam and Islamization to advance their political interests and legitimacy.

Women in Employment: Local Dynamics, Global Pressures

Women’s involvement in wage earning activities is viewed as a process of empowering them. This is particularly important in the Third World countries where hierarchical gender relations exist between men and women. Women’s earnings change the status of women in the family and increase their participation in decision making, transforming the patriarchal power relations into a more gender equitable one as documented in a number of studies. This chapter explores the trajectories of women employment and development, focusing on the case of Bangladesh. It will show how gendered beliefs and cultural practices shape the gender division of labor and how women’s labor market participation and vulnerability are influenced by these beliefs. It will then go on to discuss the shifting trends of women employment from traditional agriculture to modernized production, the antecedents of transforming and accelerating this shift and the development path of industrial relations system and labor regulation policies. It will also highlight the connection of labor rights with global capital and RMG trade.

Migrant Labor: Conditions, Contradictions and Confrontations

With the advent of the neoliberal globalization project following the debt crisis in the 1970s, the meaning of development was changed and reframed as “successful participation in the world economy” (McMichael, 2008: 151), characterized by Iiberalization that includes “privatization of public functions and the ‘freeing’ of markets for labor, money, goods, and services” (ibid.: 152). This led governments to open up their markets and find their “niche” in the global economy in order to survive. Underlying this strategy is the theoretical justification, by English political economist David Ricardo, of the comparative advantage (Maneschi, 1998). Economic growth could only be achieved when countries maximize their trade advantage through economic specialization. Global governors like the World Trade Organization (WTO) made sure that conditions were put in place for the opening up of markets, easy movement of labor and economic specialization to occur. Neoliberalism guarantees not only the mobility of capital but also that of labor. Labor now becomes “the new export” that increasingly circulates, seeking employment opportunities — whether legal, illegal or slave/bonded labor. Migration is not new to this century; the separation of people from their land is etched into the making of the modern world.

Labor, Gender and the Environment: Analytic Framework

This chapter will look into a range of theories that have been propounded to explain the issue of labor and gender justice. The understandings and policy initiatives demonstrated concerning social justice are not limited to a singular approach but rather a myriad of distinct and unique conceptual underpinnings. This chapter will go on to discuss five dominant approaches currently in practice (political economy, feminist political economy, global value chain, human rights, and social justice) and will justify the choice of “capability approach” as the main theoretical framework to explore the issues of labor, gender and the environment presented in the subsequent chapters in this book.

Globalization, Gender and Labor Rights: Trends and Trajectories

This chapter explores the complex intersection between gender and labor in the globalization of production. By reviewing the existing literature, this chapter draws on the central debates concerning the employment of women in global manufacturing enterprises, which will be organized into three central themes: the relationship between feminization of workforce and global manufacturing; how feminization and labor vulnerability intersect in global factories; and the policy debates of labor regulations. Drawing views from the existing literature, this chapter will conclude that the impact of globalization on women is a paradox. While it provides many women, mainly in the global South, a way of survival through expansion of employment opportunities, women workers face multiple oppressions where gender identity is used as a resource for globalizing the capital. The chapter raises a number of questions that correspond to how globalization of the economy shapes the dynamics of employment and rights of workers.

The Global Treadmill of Production and the Environment

The intent of this chapter is to illustrate how the global “treadmill of production” (see the section below) arguably leads to the global “treadmill of destruction”. Drawing upon the theory developed by Allan Schnaiberg (1980), the treadmill of production (ToP) focuses on production as the key process in explaining the increasing environmental problems in today’s globalization of production, especially in developing countries whereby environmental degradation occurs as a direct result of production demand from advanced developed countries. Therefore, with the interaction of state, capital and the environment, ecological resources are increasingly converted into profits via transnational organization of production and market exchange. Consequently, with an intensification of production processes driven by competition and drive to increase profits in the capitalist world economy, there has been a rising amount of both resource withdrawals from and toxic additions to the environment (Islam, 2013; Schnaiberg, 1980). The endless production thus results in a continual process of environmental degradation that impacts ecosystems and human well-being.

Third World Industrialization: Women Workers between Exploitation and Survival

Many scholars have argued that the expansion of global manufacturing is enhancing social justice through providing employment opportunities for women; on the other hand, others have claimed that economic globalization is less likely to expand freedom and labor justice since global manufacturing enterprises are mostly characterized by violations of labor rights. This chapter will address this debate and substantiate with empirical evidence from Bangladesh readymade garments (RMG) industries. We will first highlight how Third World industrialization became rooted in new forms of global production systems such as the “World Factory” and the export processing zones (EPZs), giving rise to a gendered division of labor, and then engage in scholarly debate on flexible accumulation and patterned outcomes.

Conclusion: Social Justice in the Globalization of Production

Ever since its inception, capitalism has taken several forms to sustain its position as a dominant form of economic system. The basic form of capitalism was found in agrarian societies where commodity surpluses were sold for profit. During the Industrial Revolution, as society progressed into industrial capitalism, Henry Ford’s remarkable invention of the assembly line that facilitated speedier production of cars was replicated in various industries throughout the global economy. This marked the beginning of the Fordist regime, where industries began to see unprecedented production of goods in the emergence of machineries. While this has brought about standardization and an increase in quality of commodities produced, workers were also subjected under strict and rigid control systems with no room for creativity to flourish as difference was seen as a compromise on standards. In addition, people began to work in factories and produce not for themselves but consumers whom they might never have met. Profit was also consolidated in the hands of the owners of those with means of production, while workers were reduced to getting wages for their labor. During the Fordist regime, males were traditional breadwinners and were predominant in the workforce. The majority of the women took on roles of the traditional homemaker, and few participated in the industrial economy. Also in the Fordist regime, increased demand and the advancement of technology enabled, expedited and intensified extraction of raw materials and resources, creating huge amounts of land wastes that were not disposed of properly. However, the issue was put on the backburner due to pressing issues such as unemployment and economic crises.