Anthropologists and ethnographers examine the global garment industry's impact on workers' well-being The 2013 collapse of Rana Plaza, an eight-story garment factory in Savar, Bangladesh, killed over a thousand workers and injured hundreds more. This disaster exposed the brutal labor conditions of the global garment industry and revealed its ......
In The Business of Sustainability in Fashion, Iva Jestratijevic has written a book that should be on the reading list of every fashion student, educator, and consumer of fashion. It is unique in its focus on critical and creative thinking surrounding corporate and consumer sustainability while succinctly illustrating how interdependent the ......
The textile manufacturing industry (NAICS 313) has played an important role in the history of the United States (US) and continues to be a major industrial employer, not only in the US, but also around the world. Textiles are mainly considered a component part of the supply chain, with end uses ranging from apparel to home textiles to industrial ......
The Antebellum South's Love-Hate Affair with New York City
Focusing on the crucial period of 1820 to 1860, Grand Emporium, Mercantile Monster examines the strong economic bonds between the antebellum plantation South and the burgeoning city of New York that resulted from the highly lucrative trade in cotton. In this richly detailed work of literary and cultural history, Ritchie Devon Watson Jr. charts how ......
In the summer of 1925, Enid Justin--daughter of H. J. Justin, founder of legendary Justin Boots--announced to her family that she was going to start her own boot company in her hometown of Nocona, Texas. The announcement shocked her family, who prophesied failure and begged her to reconsider, but thirty-one-year-old Enid's mind was made up. What ......
In 1933 an Englishman leased a derelict British cavalry barracks in co. Kildare from the Irish government to build a rope factory. When war came in 1939 Ireland remained neutral and faced both German invasion and a British trade embargo. Desperate measures were needed to ensure that Irish farmers never ran out of twine to gather the harvest.
connectivity and logistics to sustain Bangladesh's success
The erosion of its competitiveness is raising concerns about the sustainability of Bangladesh's growth model based on exports of ready-made garments. To safeguard its comparative advantage in ready-made garments and diversify its exports basket, Bangladesh needs to increase its competitiveness. Improving logistics performance is an important lever ......
The EU has threatened to suspend Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP) status for Myanmar, under which the country's exports can enter Europe without any tariffs or quotas. The official reason cited by the EU is a growing concern over human rights violations and issues around labour rights in Myanmar. If this threat were to be carried out, the ......
apparel employment, trade, and economic development in South Asia
South Asia is in the midst of a demographic transition. For the next three decades, the growth of the region's working age population will far outpace the growth of dependents. Close to one million individuals will enter the workforce every month. This large, economically active population can increase the region's capacity to save and make ......