Garments without Guilt? Global Labour Justice and Ethical Codes in Sri Lankan Apparels

Please join us for a conversation about Professor Ruwanpura's book, published by Cambridge University Press in 2022, with the author and Tansy E. Hoskins, journalist and author of The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion (Pluto Press, 2021).

Professor Dina Siddiqui (NYU) describes Garments without Guilt as a book that "comes at a critical moment in the history of global garment production, with the utility of ethical corporate codes under renewed scrutiny in a pandemic-ravaged industry. Ruwanpura argues that ethical codes do not simply travel to places, to be either vernacularized or forcibly imposed. Instead, global lexicons of ethicality are given meaning through their interpellation into ‘local’ mores and social/ethnic hierarchies. Outcomes are contingent on always shifting and contentious political terrains, including militarization and ethnic pacification in this instance, and corresponding spaces for contestation. Through fine-grained ethnographic and historical analysis, Ruwanpura argues that Sri Lanka’s ‘success’ in implementing global governance regimes arises from its strong history of labor mobilization – including labor’s ability to negotiate with the state and push back against tropes of sacrificing for factory, family and nation. Garments without Guilt is a significant and valuable addition to the scholarship on the global garment industry."

8th November 2023, Wednesday, 12pm-1:00pm GMT, Online

Register here.