Abstract
The changing patterns of employment in the modern economy have contributed to the accelerated growth of homeworking, and it has become a standard part of many supply chains in the process of decentralization of the production process in the twenty-first century. Home-work is often characterized by the lack of social protection and poverty, and it occurs in both developed and developing economies, but outside the formal employment and social protection system. Highly competitive global production processes often involve homeworkers at the end of supply chains as a cost-cutting strategy. Exploitation of homeworkers is thus linked with the international market and predatory practices of multinational companies. Homeworkers’ choices are largely shaped or constrained by gender roles, relations within the families and by the regional context. Therefore, the broader social context gains relevance in the interpretation of the persistence of homework. The major aim of this chapter is to conduct a systematic review of relevant literature on informal industrial homework to identify major themes and issues in existing research streams.
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Notes
- 1.
Review that aims to comprehensively identify all relevant studies to answer a particular question, and assesses the validity (or “soundness”) of each study taking this into account when reaching conclusions (Petticrew & Roberts, 2006).
- 2.
Existing data suggests that approximately 5 percent of labour force in Northern countries is comprised of homeworkers with exception of Australia having 20 percent of homeworkers (Felstead et al., 2000). Data from developing countries is even patchier but estimated figures reveal that there are some 8 million in the Philippines, 20 million in China, and 30 million homeworkers in India (Freeman, 2003).
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Naz, F., Bögenhold, D. (2020). Homeworkers in Global Supply Chains: Issues and Controversies. In: Unheard Voices. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54363-1_3
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