The growth of intra‐regional trade in the Global South begs the question of whether frameworks developed for the study of North–South global value chains can be used to study labour standards in emerging South–South networks. Critical of the structuralist approaches characterizing the literature, in this article I tackle the question of how formal and informal institutions interact to shape labour standards in South–South regional value chains. This is achieved in two stages. In the first part of the article, I build on Habermas's theory of communicative action to frame labour standards as the outcome of agents’ interactions within and across firms, politico‐administrative institutions and workers’ private and public spheres. Drawing on this framework, in the second part of the article I compare labour standards across the Kenya handbag and footwear sectors. While, in the former, interaction across informal institutions favoured an inclusive and consensual debate between workers and employers; in the latter, an overwhelming process of marketization and bureaucratization failed to provide an interactive space for workers’ concerns to be voiced and negotiated.

中文翻译：

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重新思考南南区域价值链中的劳工标准治理

全球南方区域内贸易的增长引起了一个问题，即为研究南北全球价值链而开发的框架是否可以用于研究新兴南南网络中的劳工标准。对表征文献特征的结构主义方法的批判，在本文中，我将探讨以下问题：正式和非正式机构如何相互作用以塑造南南区域价值链中的劳工标准。这是分两个阶段实现的。在本文的第一部分中，我以哈贝马斯的交往行动理论为基础，将劳工标准构建为代理人在公司，政治行政机构以及工人的私人和公共领域内部和之间相互作用的结果。利用这个框架，在文章的第二部分，我比较了肯尼亚手袋和鞋类行业的劳工标准。在前者中，非正式机构之间的互动有利于工人和雇主之间的包容性和共识性辩论。在后者中，压倒性的市场化和官僚化进程未能为表达和谈判工人的关切提供互动空间。