Description: Sri Lanka's apparel sector holds an enviable place in the imaginary of its competitors for having a niche position amongst global retailers, given its claims of producing 'garments without guilt'. Exploitative labour conditions are not part of the industry's portfolio - ethicality, eco-friendly production and unblemished conditions of work are. Sri Lanka's transition away from a protracted ethnic war has meant that the industry portrays itself as investing in the former war zone to create jobs without reflection on how its vaunted mantle, the deployment of ethical codes effectively, themselves may be under duress. This book uses an analytical framing informed by labour and feminist perspectives to explore how labour struggles in the post-1977 period in Sri Lanka provided important resistance to capitalist processes and continue to shape the industry both within and outside of the shop floor. It studies contextual moments in the country's recent history to rupture the dominant narrative and record the centrality of labour in the success of the country's apparel industry.
Brief description: Kanchana Ruwanpura is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Gothenburg. She was previously Reader at the Institute of Geography, University of Edinburgh. Her focus areas for both research and teaching are uneven development, environmental debates, research ethics and feminist politics.
Review Quotes: 'This book is the antidote to the frustrating tendency for the garment industry to be treated as an amorphous mass of factories that exist in identical conditions and social frameworks ... The years of factory research ... are clear in Ruwanpura's authoritative account of the historical context and current conditions that lie behind "Made in Sri Lanka" clothing label. In deciphering the ethical claims ... this book does a brilliant job of showing that successes are not due to benevolence ... but vital social institutions ...' Tansy Hoskins, Resurgence and Ecologist