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Mobilization, Strategy, And Global Apparel Production Networks: Systemic Advantages For Student Antisweatshop Activism, Dale W. Wimberley, Meredith A. Katz, John Paul Mason

Societies Without Borders

The U.S. antisweatshop movement is a major branch of Global North labor rights activism. We focus on the movement’s college student sector, which has been active and moderately effective since its 1997 birth. Using principles from social movement theory and global political economy, we examine (1) these student labor rights groups’ campus context, (2) global production networks (GPNs), and (3) how campus context and GPNs intersect to facilitate student antisweatshop activity and effectiveness in ways distinct from the non-campus U.S. movement. U.S. college campuses are places of pre-existing collective identity and dense interaction, facilitating antisweatshop mobilization. Collegiate apparel GPNs that …