Abstract

This article explores ‘time’ as a crucial category of analysis shaping and shaped by the dynamics of exploitation and social reproduction across the global assembly line. Focusing on the Indian garment industry, the article develops a feminist political economy of time stressing the productive and reproductive temporalities of exploitation, which give rise to multiple forms of labour circulation, including early exit from industrial work. Then, the study places this early exit under the microscope, and analyses the ‘afterlife’ available to women workers outside the factory, which often involves a transition back to informal occupations. The narrative draws both on extensive knowledge of India’s garment sweatshops, and on the detailed analysis of twenty life histories of women former factory workers in Bengaluru. The investigation of the feminist political economy of time of the global assembly line developed here suggests the presence of a revolving door between industrial and informal work in the lives of the working classes. It disproves linear global industrial development narratives constructing industrial work as ‘better work’ and contributes to feminist IPE debates by illustrating how social reproduction – its rhythms, temporalities, and everyday necessities – concretely co-constitutes the world of work across the global economy.

摘要

本文将“时间”作为一个重要的分析类别进行探讨，它塑造并受全球装配线上剥削和社会再生产动态的影响。本文以印度服装业为重点，发展了一种女权主义的时间政治经济学，强调剥削的生产和再生产时间性，这导致了多种形式的劳动力循环，包括提前退出工业工作。然后，该研究将这种提前退出置于显微镜下，并分析了工厂外女工的“来世”，这通常涉及回到非正规职业的过渡。叙述借鉴了对印度服装血汗工厂的广​​泛了解，以及对班加罗尔前工厂女工的 20 条生活史的详细分析。此处对全球装配线时代的女权主义政治经济学的调查表明，在工人阶级的生活中，工业和非正规工作之间存在旋转门。它反驳了将工业工作构建为“更好的工作”的线性全球工业发展叙事，并通​​过说明社会再生产——其节奏、时间性和日常必需品——如何具体地共同构成全球经济中的工作世界，为女权主义 IPE 辩论做出了贡献。