Garment Workers and the Labour Issue in Development: The Case of Mauritius
(2025)- Abstract
- Manufacturing activities are highly prioritized by many low- and middle-income countries in the twentyfirst century, yet there is an urgent need for these processes to be done in a way that bring about sustainable and inclusive development. As an African forerunner that has developed manufacturing, achieved sustained growth, and undergone structural transformation, Mauritius is an interesting case to learn from and for situating issues of what we mean by development. Many researchers have pointed to the country’s establishment of export-oriented garment manufacturing as essential to Mauritius’ success. Nonetheless, we know much less about the garment industry’s impacts on labour relations, and different groups of garment workers’ social... (More)
- Manufacturing activities are highly prioritized by many low- and middle-income countries in the twentyfirst century, yet there is an urgent need for these processes to be done in a way that bring about sustainable and inclusive development. As an African forerunner that has developed manufacturing, achieved sustained growth, and undergone structural transformation, Mauritius is an interesting case to learn from and for situating issues of what we mean by development. Many researchers have pointed to the country’s establishment of export-oriented garment manufacturing as essential to Mauritius’ success. Nonetheless, we know much less about the garment industry’s impacts on labour relations, and different groups of garment workers’ social outcomes, everyday experiences and resistance, all of which inevitably change over time as an industry is restructured to stay competitive. To what extent, and in what ways,
has Mauritius’ garment manufacturing industry been socially sustainable with regards to progress on issues of employment, and work across production and social reproduction? How have capital-labour-state relations shaped these dynamics? The thesis seeks to address these overarching questions with a
particular focus on women and migrant labour.
Through multi-level and temporal analysis of the Mauritian garment manufacturing industry, informed by feminist political economy scholarship, structural development economics, and economic geography literature on labour, the thesis is comprised of four interrelated papers that contribute a nuanced and detailed understanding of the industry’s social trajectory and outcomes for its workers. It does this through qualitative and quantitative methods, combining household surveys and data from fieldwork across the industry. The quantitative data builds a rich picture of garment workers’ and work characteristics, also in relation to other sectors of the economy, whereas the qualitative data reveals more the causal role of workers’ different and shifting resources of power in these processes.
Altogether, the thesis reveals the complex social underbelly of Mauritius’ labour-intensive garment-based industrialization. While greater levels of social sustainability fundamentals and social upgrading have been achieved in some respects, they have been unevenly applied and have not happened simultaneously. Gender inequalities are persistent across the workforce, and garment manufacturing specifically. There are also overlapping inequalities between local and migrant labour. This points to ever-changing worker segmentations in Mauritius’ garment industry trajectory, which has implications not only for worker power and outcomes but also for the evolving shape of the industry at large, as firms and the government attempt to resolve the multifaceted labour issue. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/c83edf72-25f3-42de-aeba-30eb37dc14d1
- author
- Ternsjö, Linn LU
- supervisor
- opponent
-
- Associate Professor Behuria, Pritish, Manchester University
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-03-18
- type
- Thesis
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Garment manufacturing, Labour-intensive industrialization, Social sustainability, Mauritius, Worker power, Gender inequality, Migrant workers, Development
- edition
- 1
- publisher
- Lund University
- defense location
- EC3:207
- defense date
- 2025-04-25 10:15:00
- ISBN
- 978-91-989641-6-5
- 978-91-989641-7-2
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- c83edf72-25f3-42de-aeba-30eb37dc14d1
- date added to LUP
- 2025-03-27 11:19:50
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 14:58:46
@phdthesis{c83edf72-25f3-42de-aeba-30eb37dc14d1,
abstract = {{Manufacturing activities are highly prioritized by many low- and middle-income countries in the twentyfirst century, yet there is an urgent need for these processes to be done in a way that bring about sustainable and inclusive development. As an African forerunner that has developed manufacturing, achieved sustained growth, and undergone structural transformation, Mauritius is an interesting case to learn from and for situating issues of what we mean by development. Many researchers have pointed to the country’s establishment of export-oriented garment manufacturing as essential to Mauritius’ success. Nonetheless, we know much less about the garment industry’s impacts on labour relations, and different groups of garment workers’ social outcomes, everyday experiences and resistance, all of which inevitably change over time as an industry is restructured to stay competitive. To what extent, and in what ways,<br/>has Mauritius’ garment manufacturing industry been socially sustainable with regards to progress on issues of employment, and work across production and social reproduction? How have capital-labour-state relations shaped these dynamics? The thesis seeks to address these overarching questions with a<br/>particular focus on women and migrant labour.<br/><br/>Through multi-level and temporal analysis of the Mauritian garment manufacturing industry, informed by feminist political economy scholarship, structural development economics, and economic geography literature on labour, the thesis is comprised of four interrelated papers that contribute a nuanced and detailed understanding of the industry’s social trajectory and outcomes for its workers. It does this through qualitative and quantitative methods, combining household surveys and data from fieldwork across the industry. The quantitative data builds a rich picture of garment workers’ and work characteristics, also in relation to other sectors of the economy, whereas the qualitative data reveals more the causal role of workers’ different and shifting resources of power in these processes.<br/><br/>Altogether, the thesis reveals the complex social underbelly of Mauritius’ labour-intensive garment-based industrialization. While greater levels of social sustainability fundamentals and social upgrading have been achieved in some respects, they have been unevenly applied and have not happened simultaneously. Gender inequalities are persistent across the workforce, and garment manufacturing specifically. There are also overlapping inequalities between local and migrant labour. This points to ever-changing worker segmentations in Mauritius’ garment industry trajectory, which has implications not only for worker power and outcomes but also for the evolving shape of the industry at large, as firms and the government attempt to resolve the multifaceted labour issue.}},
author = {{Ternsjö, Linn}},
isbn = {{978-91-989641-6-5}},
keywords = {{Garment manufacturing; Labour-intensive industrialization; Social sustainability; Mauritius; Worker power; Gender inequality; Migrant workers; Development}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{03}},
publisher = {{Lund University}},
school = {{Lund University}},
title = {{Garment Workers and the Labour Issue in Development: The Case of Mauritius}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/212455005/Thesis_Linn_Ternsj_LUCRIS.pdf}},
year = {{2025}},
}