Commodity Chains and Economic Opportunity Structure: The Anti-Sweatshop Movement and the Global Apparel Industry

• In Event: 463 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 22. The Mobilization and Strategy of Unions

Abstract

Political opportunity structure (POS) is a central concept in social movement theory, providing a framework for analyzing how social structures create opportunities and constraints for movements, shaping their chances of success. Scholars have traditionally emphasized the state as the focus of POS. Under globalization, however, many movements are directly confronting transnational corporations and industries. Drawing on the theory of commodity chains and a case study of the anti-sweatshop movement, I develop a model of the economic opportunity structure (EOS) that shows how apparel industry practices such as outsourcing production shape the EOS. In turn, I look at how this creates openings for different constituencies affiliated with the movement, focusing on sweatshop workers and United Students Against Sweatshops. Their different social locations mean that their EOS is different along a number of dimensions, including the social arenas their freedom to organize, legitimacy in the mass media and other social arenas, and the leverage they can exert over their opponents. Student activists have a much more open EOS, which they use to create new opportunities for workers, which has allowed them to unionize in specific cases.

Author

• Matthew S. Williams, Loyola University-Chicago