The ‘integrative approach’ and labour regulation and Indonesia: prospects and challenges

In contrast to theories of regulation which bypass the state and cede regulatory authority to private regimes, the scholar Kevin Kolben makes a cogent argument for the state to be brought back to centre stage in labour regulation, but envisages that private actors can develop and strengthen its capacity. This article considers the utility of what he terms an integrative approach for Indonesia. In line with what the approach advocates, the article examines the relationships between private actors and the state and considers the extent to which the former can communicate, interact with and incentivise the latter in ways which strengthen its regulatory capacity. Several challenges are identified. Finally, the potential of the Better Work Programme in Indonesia to further the goals of the approach is assessed

Governmentalizing Gramsci:Topologies of power and passive revolution in Cambodia’s garment production network

This article takes a fresh look at the multiple power relations between state, capital and labor in global production networks. Moving beyond debates about public vs. private governance, it brings together Antonio Gramsci’s concepts of hegemony and the integral state with Michel Foucault’s concepts of governmentality and the “dipositive” in order to analyze the power topologies that permeate global production networks. Using the Cambodian garment production network as example, we scrutinize the discourse of “decent work” and “ethical manufacturing,” exemplified by the Better Factories Cambodia program, and discuss the implications for labor agency, power and political contestation. The article concludes with reflections on “governmentalizing Gramsci,” thinking power topologically and the value of a cultural political economy in the analysis of global production networks

Abortion Counselling in Britain: Understanding the Controversy

This article reviews literature from a number of disciplines in order to provide an explanation of the political controversy attached to the provision of abortion counselling. It will show how this is an area of health policy debate in which women's reproductive bodies have become a setting for political struggle. The issue of abortion counselling in Britain has undergone a number of discursive shifts in response to political manoeuvring and changing socio-legal framing of abortion. In particular, the article shows how much of the controversial reframing of abortion counselling was a tactical shift by political actors opposed to abortion per se, and this work is critiqued for not contextualising abortion. The article then focuses on women's abortion experiences and discusses research that shows how women's decision-making processes, and responses to an abortion, are related to gendered socio-cultural contexts: the extent to which women having an abortion feel they have transgressed societal norms and values, for example, is likely to affect their abortion experiences. Finally, it is suggested that providing a non-judgemental context, and challenging negative discourses on abortion, may be the most effective way of minimising the possibility of negative emotions

At the Roots of Labour Activism: Chinese and Cambodian Garment Workers in Comparative Perspective

In China extensive, co-ordinated strikes such as those that have taken place in Cambodia in recent years remain rare, with most protests initiated by Chinese workers contained inside single factories or industrial zones. Also, while Cambodian workers often mobilise for their interests and broader policy issues, such as the determination of the minimum wage, Chinese workers largely limit themselves to protests against violations of their legal rights. How can these different patterns of labour activism be explained? Through factory gate surveys and interviews conducted during the summer of 2016 in a sample of Hong Kong-owned garment factories in Dongguan and Phnom Penh, this study provides a comparative analysis of the root causes of labour activism in China and Cambodia. In particular, the article focuses on three elements that play an important role in determining labour activism: the expectations of the workers regarding wages; the workers’ perception of the labour law and the legal system; and trade union pluralism

User-producer Interaction and the Case of Biomedical Innovation

Science-based biomedical innovation is a complex process that calls on cooperative activity between a number of public and private-sector organisations and professions, such as the role of physicians and hospitals in the conduct of clinical trials. Basing itself on the literature that discusses innovation as the outcome of user-producer interaction, which has been concerned mainly with manufacturing innovations, this paper discusses the impact of end-users, ie patients, on the process of biomedical innovation. Primary evidence of the involvement of user groups in a number of current developments is discussed, and the prospects for generalising such findings is analysed.