Angela Serrano Zapata, CASAS’ member, has published this article with M. Sofía Luna Siachoque in Journal für Entwicklungspolitik.
Abstract: This study reveals a fundamental driver for the reconfiguration of global value chains: the deliberate appropriation of unpaid women’s labour by corporations. Through 12 months of ethnographic research across different segments of the palm oil value chain and by tracing key historical shifts in the Colombian palm oil industry, this research delivers a contextually grounded and historically nuanced perspective on the pivotal role of unpaid gendered lab our in shaping global markets. We find three instances of value chain governance transformation intricately linked to the exploitation of unpaid women’s labour within the palm oil industry. These instances encompass: (1) the dismantling of workplace care amenities, (2) labour outsourcing, and (3) the expansion of contract farming. These strategies exploit unpaid gendered labour to subsidise palm oil production while deepening labour fragmentation and marginalising women from collective action. As a result, women often take on additional roles to sustain their households while simultaneously providing crucial, yet unrecognised, inputs for the operation of the palm oil industry.
Check the full article here: https://doi.org/10.20446/JEP-2414-3197-41-1-24
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CASAS
The Collective of Agrarian Scholar-Activists from the Global South (CASAS) is a community of Scholar-Activists working in critical agrarian studies.