Work

The Politics of Relocation: Gender, Nationality, and Value in a Mexican Maquiladora

Year: 1999

Type: article

Abstract: In this paper, I combine a Marxist critique of the labor theory of value with poststructuralist feminist theories of subjectivity to illustrate how the decision to transfer a manufacturing operation out of Mexico revolves around the culturally constructed meanings of identity internal to the firm. I attempt to illustrate how the managers of a maquiladora establish patterns for designating national and sex differences among their employees to support an argument that the production of valuable commodities is a social process interwoven with the social construction of differential values in people. And I endeavor to show how these complicated processes for identifying value in things, and in the people who make them, have an impact upon the internal structure of the firm. The paper is based upon several months of ethnographic research conducted in a multinational maquiladora located in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.

Source: Environment and Planning A Economy and Space

DOI: 10.1068/a311601

Author: M W Wright

Institution: University of Georgia

Language: English

Topic: Global trade, sustainability, and social impact

Subfield: Strategy and Management

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Decent work and economic growth, Gender equality, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,900