Research & Impact Associate, SPERI, Department of Politics & IR, University of Sheffield
This series, inspired by a SPERI workshop in June 2024, explores the intersections between economy and the exercise of organised violence.
A pesar de los compromisos nacionales y de la industria para proteger la libertad de asociación en el sector bananero costarricense, un trabajo de campo reciente sugiere que los derechos colectivos siguen siendo precarios debido a las presiones por reducción de costes de la cadena de suministro global, que, a su vez, están combinadas con las conflictivas relaciones laborales locales.
Despite industry and national commitments to protect Freedom of Association in the Costa Rican banana sector, recent fieldwork suggests collective rights remain precarious due to cost-cutting pressures of the global supply chain combined with conflictual local industrial relations.
Online spaces are designed for fast content consumption, rather than meaningful political debate, which can fuel social conflict. This blog is the second in the series The Political Economy of Conflict by members of SPERI's Doctoral Researcher Network.
Veganism offers a deep critique of contemporary food systems, but is susceptible to corporate co-optation that may reduce its transformative potential.
This new blog series by members of SPERI’s Doctoral Researcher Network explores how a political economy analysis can help to explain experiences in our everyday lives.
While activist coalitions have forced the end of state-sanctioned forced labour in Uzbekistan, the rise of the private sector and continued undermining of political and social rights may mean exploitation in the cotton sector persists.
We need to extend critiques of undervalued labour beyond those that we see as having ‘social value’ in order to engender improvements in the material value of labour globally. This blog is Part 3 of the series ‘Studying an uncertain future‘ written by members of SPERI’s Doctoral Researcher Network.
A new generation of political economists, drawn from SPERI’s Doctoral Researcher Network reflect on what their work tells us about where the world may be going in the next ten years.
Commodities are often represented to consumers based on corporate promises of social responsibility. But with little evidence of positive impact on the ground for workers, is ethical consumption really a move in the right direction?