 Inequality of rights: Rural industrial workers' access to the law in GuatemalaLiliana Goldín and Courtney Dowdall Economic Anthropology, 2015, vol. 2, issue 2, 278-294 Abstract: type="main" xml:id="sea212031-abs-0001"> We examine unequal access to the law among industrial workers in the export processing plants of the central highlands of Guatemala. Through qualitative interviews with 40 workers and a three-wave panel survey in four communities, we elicited perspectives on labor conditions and legal protections as perceived by workers. The workers, mostly young, indigenous women, are caught in the apparent fragmentation of transnational circuits of production through outsourcing, flexibilization strategies, and layers of removed accountability. Workers are subjected to discrimination and inequality before the law. This is facilitated by global regimes that allow corporations to create separate realms of responsibility by relying on contractors and subcontractors that renegotiate national and international laws with states. The nature of global regimes is such that new forms of activism and participation, including transnational networks of workers and consumers, are needed to provide protections and equal access to rights to a vulnerable, young, and mostly indigenous workforce. Date: 2015 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:ecanth:v:2:y:2015:i:2:p:278-294 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article More articles in Economic Anthropology from Wiley Blackwell |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.