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Pyramid subcontracting and moral detachment: Down-sourcing risk and responsibility in the management of transnational labour in Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Amanda Wise
Amanda Wise*
Affiliation:
Macquarie University, Australia
*
Amanda Wise, Department of Sociology, Macquarie University Balaclava Road, North Ryde, NSW 2109, Australia. Email: amanda.wise@mq.edu.au
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Abstract

Major transformations in the organisation of labour are having a profound effect on the moral character of the labour-capital contract. Using two small case studies undertaken in Singapore as a starting point, this article reflects on the moral economies of supply chain capitalism. Detailing examples of the human impacts of down-sourcing risk through ‘flexible’ modes of transnational employment, it analyses the strategies whereby firms and governments distance themselves from these consequences. Precarious forms of employment based on pyramid subcontracting arrangements allow a disruption of the moral relation (however tenuous) that is present in traditional face-to-face employment arrangements. The article explores four strategies of moral detachment on the part of the employers, contractors and brokers in the supply chain.

Keywords

J61Foreign workers Singaporeglobalisationhuman rightsIndian foreign workers low-paid workersmigrant labourmigrationneo-liberalismprecarious workracismsupply chainvulnerable workers
Type
Articles
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 24 , Issue 3: Symposium – Precarious work: Economic, sociological and political perspectives , September 2013 , pp. 433 - 455
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2013

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