Abstract
The book provides a unique angle by highlighting inexplicit, relatively less well-known and non-technological perceptions of globalisation. The various dimensions of globalisation have been explored by examining the popular perceptions of globalisation that accelerated the transformation of capital across national boundaries since the 1980s. In this context, Pani and Singh make a sincere effort to examine the transformation of the women workers and offer a detailed understanding of the institutions and processes outside the workplace that these women encounter.
The exploration is based on the field study methods; the life of women workers in Bangalore’s garment export industry is closely surveyed to reveal the multiple boundaries of dress, village and workplace as a part of their daily life. Negotiating these boundaries comprise an integral part of coping with globalisation for the women workers. This book attempts to address the question regarding the dynamics beyond the boundaries of the ‘command and control centre view’ of globalisation that influence the path adopted by this process. To go about this justifiably, the authors employed stratified cluster sampling method. By taking random samples from these stratified categories, 811 workers were interviewed at their respective workplaces through a structured questionnaire and open-ended discussions. Since the information collected went beyond the workers to their families and households as well, the authors indirectly acquired information about 5,466 individuals. This evidence was critically analysed to illustrate a worker in Bangalore home and the multiple identities of a woman she cultivates. The authors go beyond standard data analysis and paint a vivid picture of the women’s workers’ lives by actually putting themselves in the position of the people being studied.
A noticeable limitation of the book is the excerpts of too many characters, which are obtained from interviews, with most of them remaining unexplored. The reader would have been able to relate to the lives of women workers better if the testimonies of selected workers were presented and methodically elaborated. The authors subsequently justify their choice of Bangalore’s garment export industry as a medium of presenting the non-technological perceptions of globalisation by stating that it is an apt example of globalisation leading to the feminisation of the workforce with women workers accounting for 84 per cent of all its workers.
The role of women as a daughter, wife and mother are separately described to shed light on the multiple roles played by them. In the course of studying the diversity that characterises the women working in Bangalore’s garment export industry, the authors could not ignore the overwhelming influence and dominance of the family. The decision regarding whether the women were allowed to work in factories or not invariably lay with their families. The establishment of this dominance of families over the next generation vested itself in several ways, including the transfer of aspirations. The women workers were willing to make significant sacrifices for the sake of their children’s bright future. The authors opine that this becomes quite evident when the situation is examined in the light of Pierre Bourdieu extending the concept of capital to ‘cultural capital’ and ‘social capital’ in addition to material capital.
In the depiction of various roles played by women workers, the authors are vigilant not to overlook the issues of gender relations within the family. Incontestable evidence of male dominance in the household was found, including domestic violence and undue male influence on the activities of the female members of the family. However, the societal norms that the family sets are also being continually negotiated, with women often challenging male domination, especially as they grow older.
Subsequently, the authors describe the transformation of a woman into a worker in Bangalore’s garment export industry. The decision to migrate from the village to the city was based on three factors, namely, the opportunities available in the city, the requirements of marriage and other family commitments, and crises in the village that imposed severe restrictions on women’s day-to-day lives. The women’s families facilitated their process of migration into the city. In the course of interviews with women workers, it was found that they did not pursue their first job for very long, implying a high attrition rate. The authors emphasised the non-economic factors that forced women to change jobs to highlight the fact that the challenges faced by a woman as a worker in Bangalore’s garment export industry cannot be understood in isolation. The dual responsibility of women has to be taken into account, with their role as workers typically being in addition to their responsibilities.
The authors express the extended family as a distinct strength in the process of migration, viewing it as another example of Bourdieu’s concept of social capital. Assets provided by a family to its migrant members were not confined to the connections prevalent in social capital, but also included elements of cultural capital. The term ‘migration capital’ is used by the authors to refer to an empirical finding that past family migration experience increases an individual’s proclivity to migrate. The authors also present a detailed study of the wages of the women workers across various zones in Karnataka.
A positive impact of globalisation was observed in the norm as the buyers’ representatives had to ensure that the prescribed working hours were not exceeded. However, the ambiance of the assembly line workplace often turned out to be intimidating to new recruits. The compensation for coping with the feeling of estrangement was meted out in terms of current salary as well as a reasonable chance of promotion. Social and cultural factors played a major role in determining the degree of congestion a household was willing to accept with Muslim houses being more congested than Hindu and Christian ones. The issues pertaining to ‘collective household’ and ‘collective family’ are closely examined by the authors in an attempt to identify the role that the family plays in the phenomenon of globalisation.
The authors’ journey, alongside women workers from their home to the workplace, has made it evident that the globalisation has been unable to create a world with no boundaries. Their experience demonstrates that negotiations taking place beyond factory confines influence the course of globalisation significantly. Even as globalisation overcomes national boundaries, the multi-dimensional barriers it raises are not insignificant. The support that workers need to reach the global workplace depends not only on the government but also on social institutions like the family. Thus, the authors definitively make their point that a holistic view of globalisation will necessarily have to accommodate the negotiations of women factory workers outside their workplace and the local social institutions that make them possible, in contrast to the economic aspects which have hitherto hogged the limelight.