“What about the workers? What do they think of … ethical trade initiatives? Where is their voice?” (p. xv). Kanchana N. Ruwanpura raises these questions at the very beginning of her book Garments without Guilt? It is precisely these questions that have guided her in her long-term research, beginning in 2008, on global labor justice and ethical codes in Sri Lankan apparel. With these guiding questions, Ruwanpura places labor at the center of the debate on ethical governance, focusing on the workers’ histories and how, against the backdrop of the country’s specific local political-economic configuration, they have actively shaped the capitalized landscape in Sri Lanka from the apparel sector’s initial development in the late 1970s to the present. (...read more here)
excerpt from: Doutch, Michaela (2024): Garments without Guilt? Global Labour Justice and Ethical Codes in Sri Lankan Apparels. In: The AAG Review of Books, 12:1, 23-25, DOI: 10.1080/2325548X.2023.2277952. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2325548X.2023.2277952