Introduction : The Politics of Global Supply Chains

From corporate boardrooms to the butcher's paper and whiteboards of activist workshops, the phrase ‘supply chain politics' has become increasingly commonplace. It is now routine practice for major global companies to hire specialist staff responsible for ‘supply chain compliance', which involves managing human rights, labour standards and other aspects of social governance in farms and factories supplying a company's manufacturing or retail operations. Meanwhile, grassroots activists working with marginalized workers use diagrams of corporate ‘supply chains' when planning how to most effectively mobilize against transnational structures of corporate power. And consultants within the rapidly expanding industry of ‘responsible supply chain management' organize events to consult factory workers on their employers' operations, with titles such as ‘The Supply Chain Talks Back' (CSRAsia 2005). The objectives and experiences of such actors are far removed from each other, yet all recognize the importance of supply chain politics for understanding and transforming patterns of contemporary globalization