Confronting Bias in NGO Research on Modern Slavery

2018 ◽  
pp. 94-110
Author(s):  
Samuel Okyere
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Conceptual Frameworks ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Comprehensive Data ◽  
Critical Reflexivity ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Forced Labour

This Chapter explores the extent to which efforts to attain more reliable, comprehensive data and knowledge on forced labour could be impeded by a lack of critical reflexivity in the use of mainstream conventional definitional and conceptual frameworks. Drawing on textual and discourse analysis of dissemination materials from a study of forced labour, the Chapter makes three key contributions. First, it argues that uncritical reliance on mainstream discourses reinforces their dominance and forecloses alternative conceptualisations, interpretations and understandings of the nature, causes and effects of forced labour. Second, the absence of critical reflexivity gives rise to methodological issues that adversely affect research validity, reliability and quality. Third, crucial empirical findings could be distorted or ignored where they contradict conventional discourses, interpretations and frameworks adopted for the research.

Understanding the Global Business of Forced Labour: An Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Genevieve LeBaron
Keyword(s):  
Global Economy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Global Business ◽  
Labour Exploitation ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
Rights Issue

This introductory Chapter provides an overview of the political, methodological, and ethical challenges of researching forced labour in the global economy tackled in this Volume. It argues that in spite of these challenges, researchers are pioneering fresh approaches to understanding the business of forced labour that are anchored in strong empirical methods, rather than outdated theoretical propositions or sensationalist newspaper headlines. This burgeoning and interdisciplinary body of research challenges conventional narratives about the nature and role of modern slavery. It reveals that rather than an individualised, randomly occurring human rights issue caused by the moral shortcomings and greed of unscrupulous employers, severe labour exploitation is a coherent and predictable feature of many sectors and regions within the global political economy. The methodological reflections contained within this Volume offer a resource for academics and practitioners seeking to understand forced labour, the factors that shape vulnerability to this phenomenon, and the variegated mechanisms through which businesses systemically profit from labour exploitation.

scholarly journals Utilising ‘modern slave’ narratives in social policy research

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-49
Author(s):  
Coretta Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Secondary Analysis ◽  
Slave Narratives ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Labour Exploitation ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Narrative Interview ◽  
Forced Labour

Modern slavery has received somewhat limited attention in social policy. Partially responding to this gap, while acknowledging the contested nature of the term ‘modern slavery’, this article makes the case for the primary and secondary analysis of ‘slave narratives’ which provide experiential and agential accounts by those directly harmed by forced labour, coerced sex work and other forms of exploitation. Analysis of a narrative interview with Sean, a (citizen-)victim of forced labour proved under s.71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, demonstrates the multifaceted nature of labour exploitation and its multiple, severe and long-lasting harms. That the form and structure of Sean’s narrative of forced labour resembles those used in the abolitionist cause against antebellum slavery points to a certain timeless essence to forced labour exploitation. The article concludes with implications for intervention.

Who is vulnerable? Adult social care and modern slavery

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Craig ◽  
Stephen Clay
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Care Needs ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
History Of ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The 2015 Modern Slavery Act focusses attention forms of modern slavery (human trafficking and forced labour), within the UK. The contemporaneous 2014 Care Act, identifies modern slavery as a new form of risk within adult social care, listing forms of abuse and vulnerability. However, it does not consider whether those providing care may themselves be vulnerable to forms of modern slavery. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The authors describe the history of the development of modern slavery legislation in the UK, outline key provisions of the Care Act, illustrated with real-life cases. The analysis suggests that adult social care – characterised by informality, fragmentation and vulnerability – is one where instances of modern slavery may be more common than considered to date. Findings The data collected, though relatively modest, suggests that a thorough investigation should be undertaken into the possibility of modern slavery taking place within the realm of adult social care. Research limitations/implications Data have been collected through a snowball process, rolling out a survey to relevant groups of individual and organisations. A more rigorous investigation is required to examine the extent of modern slavery within adult social care. Practical implications The training of those responsible for the regulation/management of adult social care needs to ensure that they are fully equipped to understand the nature of modern slavery and how to identify its symptoms and victims. Social implications There is also a need for heightened awareness of those close to people being cared for that they may also identify the symptoms of modern slavery. Originality/value This area has not been explored to date.

Researching Forced Labour in the Global Economy

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
World Cup ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Vested Interests ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
To Come

By most accounts, forced labour, human trafficking, and modern slavery are thriving in the global economy. Recent media reports — including the discovery of widespread trafficking in Thailand's shrimp industry, forced labour in global tea and cocoa supply chains, and the devastating deaths of workers constructing stadiums for Qatar's World Cup— have brought once hidden exploitation into the mainstream spotlight. As public concern about forced labour has escalated, governments around the world have begun to enact legislation to combat it in global production. Yet, in spite of soaring media and policy attention, reliable research on the business of forced labour remains difficult to come by. Forced labour is notoriously challenging to investigate, given that it is illegal, and powerful corporations and governments are reluctant to grant academics access to their workers and supply chains. Given the risk associated with researching the business of forced labour, until very recently, few scholars even attempted to collect hard or systematic data. Instead, academics have often had little choice but to rely on poor quality second-hand data, frequently generated by activists and businesses with vested interests in portraying the problem in a certain light. As a result, the evidence base on contemporary forced labour is both dangerously thin and riddled with bias. Researching Forced Labour in the Global Economy gathers an interdisciplinary group of leading scholars to tackle this problem. It provides the first, comprehensive scholarly account of forced labour's role in the contemporary global economy and reflections on the methodologies used to generate this research.

Bewertungen sprachlichen Handelns und good practice in der Angewandten Gesprächsforschung

2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-98
Author(s):  
Gisela Brünner ◽  
Ina Pick
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Interest ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Communicative Practices ◽  
Methodological Approaches

AbstractThe article focuses on methodological issues of practice-oriented discourse research and suggests several methodological approaches to assess conversational practice. It makes an argument for the relevance of assessing conversational practice and for why aspects of good practice should be included more systematically in the analyses by way of considering objectives in the examined practice domains. We provide examples of different institutional fields (mostly doctor-patient and lawyer-client interaction) and discuss how actual communicative practices can be assessed with methods of discourse analysis. We thus aim to expand the methodological spectrum of conversation research by including matters of immediate social interest and aspects that are relevant for practitioners.

scholarly journals (Re)Conceptualising Unfree Labour: Local Labour Control Regimes and Constraints on Workers' Freedoms

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Judy Fudge
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
Multifaceted Approach ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Local Labour ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
Labour Power ◽  
Control Regime

Disputes over the meaning of human trafficking, forced labour and modern slavery have both provoked and coincided with a reinvigorated debate in academic and policy literatures about how to conceptualise unfree labour. This article traces the contours of the debate over free and unfree labour, identifying its key stakes as the debate has developed and paying particular attention to recent interventions. It begins by identifying a problem common to both canonical liberal and Marxian approaches to the free/unfree labour distinction, which is to fetishise the labour market. It then discusses the consensus that is emerging across disciplines and in leading international organisations that labour unfreedom in contemporary capitalism is best conceptualised as a continuum rather than a binary, highlighting recent disciplinary-specific contributions. It argues that the metaphor of a continuum of labour unfreedom obscures more than it illuminates. Drawing upon the growing body of literature that advocates a multifaceted approach to labour unfreedom, this article argues that a robust concept of local labour control regime does a much better job of capturing the complex mix of consent and coercion involved in extracting value from labour power than the idea of a continuum of labour unfreedom.  KEY WORDS: unfree labour; migration; capitalism; exploitation; labour control

scholarly journals Złożoność versus nieograniczoność – czy istnieją granice lingwistyki, interpretacji lingwistycznej, czyli określonego dyskursu naukowego?

2019 ◽  
Vol LXXV (75) ◽  
pp. 127-139
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Rzeszutko-Iwan
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Conceptual Frameworks ◽  
French School ◽  
The World ◽  
Linguistic Activity

Complexity vs. limitlessness – are there limits to linguistics, linguistic interpretation, i.e. limits to a specific academic discourse? Summary: This article attempts to answer the question whether there are limits to linguistics, to linguistic interpretation, i.e. limits to a specific academic discourse? The understanding of the term "discourse" adopted in this study is a reference to the theory of culture put forward by Fleischer and Labocha, in which discourse appears to be a cultural category. The adopted understanding of this concept also makes reference to the French School of Discourse Analysis. The concept of discourse is thus identified with the area of human socio-linguistic activity. In order to answer the title question the author of the article identifies three dimensions of academic discourse: cognitive (intellectual), biological and technological. In their context, the author refers to the problem of the limits of linguistics, limits of linguistic interpretation, i.e. the limits of a specific academic discourse. The multiparadigmatism of science, i.e. the multiplicity of research methods and conceptual frameworks describing the vision of the world, the variability of theories, and, therefore, the fact that academic discourse is a cyclical, emergent process with an open outcome, indicate, be it with undeniable limitations, the lack of limits of linguistics and the lack of limits of linguistic interpretation. Streszczenie: Celem artykułu jest próba odpowiedzi na pytanie: czy istnieją granice lingwistyki, granice interpretacji lingwistycznej, czyli określonego dyskursu naukowego? Przyjęte rozumienie dyskursu stanowi odwołanie do teorii kultury, gdzie jawi się ono jako kategoria kulturowa. Odsyła również do francuskiej Szkoły Analizy Dyskursu. Dyskurs zostaje tym samym utożsamiony z dziedziną ludzkiej aktywności społeczno-językowej. Aby odpowiedzieć na postawione pytanie autorka artykułu wyróżnia trzy wymiary dyskursu: poznawczy (intelektualny), biologiczny i technologiczny. W ich kontekście odnosi się do zagadnienia granic lingwistyki, interpretacji lingwistycznej, czyli określonego dyskursu naukowego. Wieloparadygmatyczność nauki jako takiej, tzn. wielość metod badawczych i ram pojęciowych opisujących wizję świata, zmienność teorii, a zatem fakt, iż dyskurs naukowy jest cyklicznym, emergentnym procesem o otwartym wyniku wskazuje, przy niepodważalnych ograniczeniach, na brak granic lingwistyki i interpretacji lingwistycznej.

scholarly journals Where to Look for Change?

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-107
Author(s):  
Vera Pavlou
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
Significant Growth ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Migration Law ◽  
Corrective Lens ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

Abstract Once an overlooked theme in legal scholarship, the legal treatment of migrant domestic workers has recently seen a significant growth of scholarly interest. In European legal scholarship, much of the focus has been on severe forms of exploitation such as slavery, forced labour and trafficking. While extreme abuses of migrant domestic workers certainly do take place in Europe, they are only part of the story. This article critiques the turn to modern slavery and trafficking as the dominant frame for analysing migrant domestic workers’ vulnerability in Europe and proposes a corrective lens. I argue that it is instead more useful, and potentially more deeply transformative, to comparatively examine the role of national labour and migration law regimes in the regulation of migrant domestic workers, as well as, the role of eu law in constructing and challenging these regimes.

The UK’s approach to tackling modern slavery in a European context

2019 ◽  
pp. 243-260
Author(s):  
Klara Skrivankova
Keyword(s):  
Human Beings ◽  
Legal Cases ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
European Context ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Fit For Purpose ◽  
Trafficking In Human Beings ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
The Uk ◽  
International Aspects

This chapter discusses a transnational response to trafficking in human beings, with reference mainly to some key media stories and legal cases that have been influential in understandings and legal definitions of forced labour/modern slavery. In doing so, it places the UK response to date firmly within a European context. The chapter focuses three responses to trafficking. First, the need for law enforcement cooperation to deal with the criminal aspects of trafficking in both countries of origin and countries of destination. Second, the need for developing international understanding of trafficking to ensure that national and international aspects of the rule of law itself are fit for purpose where it relates to international norms and standards. Third, the need for extra-territorial legislation to deal with slavery and forced labour carried out by citizens, including corporate citizens, in third countries.

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