Politics of Trade and Global Production

POLI71182 Politics of Trade and Global Production 15 Semester 2 Postgraduate Taught Level 7 Silke Trommer Unit coordinator Eleanor Gore Unit coordinator Politics 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Masters/Integrated Masters P4 ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 7.5 This course provides a critical introduction to the politics of global trade and global production. It explores the changing rules and practices involved in attempts to govern economic exchange in the global economy. The course does so through exploring four sectors of global trade and production explicitly - manufacturing, agriculture, care chains, and digital economy. It also uses key sites of contestation around global trade and production as the empirical examples to explore contemporary questions about the subject: international organisations, international production networks, geo-economics/weaponized interdependence, sustainability (labour, environment, human rights), development and intersectional inequality. It reviews literatures on global trade and production within the fields of inquiry of IPE of Trade and IPE of Global Production (including GVC/GPN approaches and labour regimes analysis), incorporating a range of different theoretical perspectives and traditions. These include economic nationalism, institutionalism, geopolitics, historical materialism, feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, post-colonialism, environmental politics, Foucauldian lenses, and more.  Outline:   Week 1: How is global trade and production organized and who benefits?  Week 2: Manufacturing: From GATT to WTO to Trump Tariffs    Week 3: Manufacturing: Global Value Chains or Global Poverty Chains?   Week 4: Agriculture: From Tradification of Food Security/Sustainability to Green Trade  Week 5: Agriculture: Race, labour regimes, and contemporary food production  Week 6: Care Economy: From Service Trade to Trading on Social Reproduction  Week 7: Care Economy: Global (re)production and caring labour  Week 8: Digital Economy: From Governing Trade to Governing Code  Week 9: Digital Economy: Labour, governance, and contemporary GVCs  Week 10: Do we Need to Reform Global Trade and Production? How?  This course provides a critical introduction to the politics of global trade and global production. It explores the changing rules and practices involved in attempts to govern economic exchange in the global economy. The course does so through exploring four sectors of global trade and production explicitly - manufacturing, agriculture, care chains, and digital economy. It also uses key sites of contestation around global trade and production as the empirical examples to explore contemporary questions about the subject: international organisations, international production networks, geo-economics/weaponized interdependence, sustainability (labour, environment, human rights), development and intersectional inequality. It reviews literatures on global trade and production within the fields of inquiry of IPE of Trade and IPE of Global Production (including GVC/GPN approaches and labour regimes analysis), incorporating a range of different theoretical perspectives and traditions. These include economic nationalism, institutionalism, geopolitics, historical materialism, feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, post-colonialism, environmental politics, Foucauldian lenses, and more.  Outline:   Week 1: How is global trade and production organized and who benefits?  Week 2: Manufacturing: From GATT to WTO to Trump Tariffs    Week 3: Manufacturing: Global Value Chains or Global Poverty Chains?   Week 4: Agriculture: From Tradification of Food Security/Sustainability to Green Trade  Week 5: Agriculture: Race, labour regimes, and contemporary food production  Week 6: Care Economy: From Service Trade to Trading on Social Reproduction  Week 7: Care Economy: Global (re)production and caring labour  Week 8: Digital Economy: From Governing Trade to Governing Code  Week 9: Digital Economy: Labour, governance, and contemporary GVCs  Week 10: Do we Need to Reform Global Trade and Production? How?  This course provides a critical introduction to the politics of global trade and global production. It explores the changing rules and practices involved in attempts to govern economic exchange in the global economy. The course does so through exploring four sectors of global trade and production explicitly - manufacturing, agriculture, care chains, and digital economy. It also uses key sites of contestation around global trade and production as the empirical examples to explore contemporary questions about the subject: international organisations, international production networks, geo-economics/weaponized interdependence, sustainability (labour, environment, human rights), development and intersectional inequality. It reviews literatures on global trade and production within the fields of inquiry of IPE of Trade and IPE of Global Production (including Global Value Chains/Global Production Networks approaches and labour regimes analysis), incorporating a range of different theoretical perspectives and traditions. These include economic nationalism, institutionalism, geopolitics, historical materialism, racial capitalism, feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, post-colonialism, environmental politics, Foucauldian lenses, and more.  Demonstrate advanced knowledge and critical understanding of the evolving rules, practices, and challenges in global trade and production, with reference to manufacturing, agriculture, care economy, digital economy, the environment, labour relations, development, gender relations, intersectional inequality and human security (geo-economics/weaponised interdependence) (Assessed by exam and presentation). Critically analyse and compare major theoretical perspectives—including economic nationalism, institutionalism, geopolitics, historical materialism, feminism, queer theory, post-colonialism, racial capitalism and environmental politics approaches—in relation to contemporary global trade and production (Assessed by exam and presentation).  Synthesize and critically evaluate complex scholarly arguments and empirical evidence to construct well-supported positions on key issues in global trade and production. (Assessed by exam and presentation). Critically interpret and assess challenging texts and complex arguments in the field of trade and global production. (Assessed by exam and presentation).  Apply relevant theoretical frameworks and conceptual tools to analyse real-world case studies the politics of trade and global production, demonstrating the ability to connect theory with practice. (Assessed by exam and presentation). Demonstrate digital literacy by effectively using academic databases, digital platforms, and presentation tools to research, organise, and communicate findings to diverse audiences. (Assessed by presentation). Apply relevant theoretical frameworks and conceptual tools to analyse real-world case studies the politics of trade and global production, demonstrating the ability to connect theory with practice. (Assessed by exam and presentation). Demonstrate digital literacy by effectively using academic databases, digital platforms, and presentation tools to research, organise, and communicate findings to diverse audiences. (Assessed by presentation). Communicate complex ideas clearly and persuasively in both written and oral formats, adapting style and content for academic and non-academic audiences. (Assessed by exam and presentation). Collaborate effectively in diverse teams, demonstrating intercultural awareness, respect for differing perspectives, and the ability to contribute constructively to shared goals. (Assessed by presentation).  Week 1: How is global trade and production organized and who benefits?  Week 2: Manufacturing: From GATT to WTO to Trump Tariffs    Week 3: Manufacturing: Global Value Chains or Global Poverty Chains?   Week 4: Agriculture: From Tradification of Food Security/Sustainability to Green Trade  Week 5: Agriculture: Race, labour regimes, and contemporary food production  Week 6: Care Economy: From Service Trade to Trading on Social Reproduction  Week 7: Care Economy: Global (re)production and caring labour  Week 8: Digital Economy: From Governing Trade to Governing Code  Week 9: Digital Economy: Labour, governance, and contemporary GVCs  Week 10: Do we Need to Reform Global Trade and Production? How?  20 hours total.  10 x 2-hour seminars.  The course works through each sector (manufacturing, agriculture, care chains, digital) through the IPE of trade lens in one week and through the IPE of global production lens in the following week. Specific contemporary debates (around the role of international cooperation, pathways to sustainability, to development and inclusiveness, labour regimes) will provide focal points of each session that will structure conversations and enable students to bring the varying scholarly traditions together. E-learning will be integrated throughout the module using Canvas VLE, as well as the use of digital library resources.   1 Written exam 60% 7 Oral assessment/presentation 40% Y Azmeh, S., C. Foster, and J. Echavarri. "The international trade regime and the quest for free digital trade." International Studies Review 22.3 (2020): 671-692.  Baglioni, E. (2022). The making of cheap labour across production and reproduc-  tion: Control and resistance in the Senegalese horticultural value chain. Work,  Employment and Society, 36(3), 445–464. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017021  999569  Baglioni, E., Campling, L., Coe, N. M., & Smith, A. (Eds.) (2022). Labour regimes  and global production. Agenda Publishing.  Bair, J., & Werner, M. (2011). The place of disarticulations: Global commodity production in La Laguna, Mexico. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 43(5), 998–1015. https://doi.org/10.1068/a43404  Bair, J. (2022). Gendered labour regimes in global production. In E. Baglioni, L.  Campling, N. M. Coe, & A. Smith (Eds.), Labour regimes and global production  (pp. 27–44). Agenda Publishing  Barbu, M. et al. (2018) "The trade-labour nexus: Global value chains and labour provisions in European Union free trade agreements." Global Labour Journal 9(3), pp. 258-280.  Barrientos, S. (2019). Gender and work in global value chains: Capturing the  gains?. Cambridge University Press.   Barrientos, S. and Smith, S. (2007), ‘Do Workers Benefit from Ethical Trade? Assessing Codes of Labour Practice in Global Production Systems’, Third World Quarterly, 28 (4), pp. 713-29  Bieler, A. and A. Morton (2016). "Uneven and Combined Development and Unequal Exchange: The Second Wind of Neoliberal ‘Free Trade'?." Free Trade and Transnational Labour. London: Routledge. 35-45  Burri, M. "Towards a new treaty on digital trade." Journal of World Trade 55.1 (2021).  Chander, A. “Artificial intelligence and trade”. In Burri M. ed. Big Data and Global Trade Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2021: 115-127.  Charnovitz, S. (2010) “The Supervision of Health and Biosafety Regulation by World Trade Rules”, Tulane Environmental Law Journal 13(2), p.271-302.  Clapp, J. and R. Wilkinson (2010). Global Governance, Poverty and Inequality. Routledge.  Chodor, T. (2019) ‘The Rise and Fall and Rise of the Trans-Pacific Partnership: 21st Century Trade Politics through a New Constitutionalist Lens’, Review of International Political Economy 26(2), pp. 232-255.  Elias, J. and Gunawardana, S. (eds.) (2013) The Global Political Economy of the Household in Asia (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan)  Gereffi, G., Humphrey, J., & Sturgeon, T. (2005). The governance of global value chains. Review of International Political Economy, 12(1), 78–104. https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290500049805  Gore, E. (2024) ‘Global Production and Unfree Labour’, in Ravenhill, J. and E. Hannah (eds), Global Political Economy. Oxford University Press.  Gonzalez, C.G. (2001),‘Beyond Eco-Imperialism: An Environmental Justice Critique of Free Trade’, Denver University Law Review, 78 (4), pp. 979-1016.  Granger C. and J.-M. Siroen (2006) "Core labour standards in trade agreements: From multilateralism to bilateralism." Journal of World Trade 40(5), pp. 813-836.  Hannah, E., A. Roberts and S. Trommer (2021) “Gender in Global Trade: Transforming or Reproducing Trade Orthodoxy”, Review of International Political Economy, 29(4): 1368-1393.  Harrison, J. et al (2019) "Governing labour standards through free trade agreements: Limits of the European Union's trade and sustainable development chapters." JCMS: Journal of common market studies 57.2: 260-277  Helleiner, E. "Silences of Bretton Woods: gender inequality, racial discrimination and environmental degradation." Review of International Political Economy 30.5 (2023): 1701-1722.  Jones, E. "Digital disruption: artificial intelligence and international trade policy." Oxfo Seminars 20 0 130