In this Book

  • Free Trade & Uneven Development: North American Apparel Industry After Nafta
  • Book
  • edited by Gary Gereffi, David Spener and Jennifer Bair
  • 2009
  • Published by: Temple University Press
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summary
This volume addresses many of the complex issues raised by North American integration through the lens of one of the largest and most global industries in the region: textiles and apparel. In part, this is a story of winners and losers in the globalization process, especially if one focuses on jobs lost and jobs gained in different countries and communities within North America, defined here as: Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. However, it would be a mistake to view the industry solely in these zerosum terms. The North American apparel industry is an excellent illustration of larger trends in the global economy, in which regional divisions of labor appear to be one of the most stable and effective responses to globalization.The contributors to this volume are an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars who have all done detailed fieldwork at the firm and factory levels in one or more countries of North America. Taken together the essays offer theoretical and methodological innovations built around the intersection of the global commodity chains and industrial districts literatures, as well as innovative approaches to studying the impact of cross-national, interfirm networks in terms of production and trade issues, and local development outcomes for workers and communities.

Table of Contents

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  1. Cover
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  1. Frontmatter
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  1. Contents
  2. pp. v-vi
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  1. List of Tables and Figures
  2. pp. vii-ix
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  1. Acknowledgments [Includes Map Image]
  2. pp. xi-xii
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  1. Part I: Analytical Overview
  1. 1. Introduction: The Apparel Industry and North American Economic Integration
  2. pp. 3-22
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  1. 2. NAFTA and the Apparel Commodity Chain: Corporate Strategies, Interfirm Networks, and Industrial Upgrading
  2. pp. 23-50
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  1. Part II: The Changing Face of the Apparel Industry in the United States
  1. 3. Subcontracting Networks int he New York City Garment Industry: Changing Characteristics in a Global Era
  2. pp. 53-73
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  1. 4. The Impact of North American Economic Integration on the Los Angeles Apparel Industry
  2. pp. 74-99
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  1. 5. The New Sweatshops in the United States: How New, How Real, How Many, and Why?
  2. pp. 100-122
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  1. 6. Labor's Reponse to Global Production
  2. pp. 123-135
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  1. Part III: The U.S.-Mexico Border Region
  1. 7. The Unraveling Seam: NAFTA and the Decline of the Apparel Industry in El Paso, Texas
  2. pp. 139-160
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  1. 8. TexMex: Linkages in a a Binational Garment District: The Garment Industries in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez
  2. pp. 161-180
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  1. 9. Commodity Chains and Industrial Organization in the Apparel Industry in Monterrey and Ciudad Juarez
  2. pp. 181-199
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  1. Part IV: Interior Mexico
  1. 10. Torreon: The New Blue Jeans Capital of the World
  2. pp. 203-223
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  1. 11. Learning and the Limits of Foreign Partners as Teachers
  2. pp. 224-245
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  1. 12. Knitting the Networks Between Mexican Producers and the U.S. Market
  2. pp. 246-265
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  1. 13. Fragmented Markets, Elaborate Chains: The Retail Distribution of Imported Clothing in Mexico
  2. pp. 266-284
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  1. Part V: Central America and the Caribbean
  1. 14. When Does Apparel Become a Peril? On the Nature of Industrialization in the Caribbean Basin
  2. pp. 287-307
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  1. 15. Can the Dominican Republic's Export-Processing Zones Survive NAFTA?
  2. pp. 308-323
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  1. Part VI: Conclusion
  1. 16. NAFTA and Uneven Development in the North American Apparel Industry
  2. pp. 327-340
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  1. About the Contributors
  2. pp. 341-342
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  1. Index
  2. pp. 343-356
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