Webbläsaren som du använder stöds inte av denna webbplats. Alla versioner av Internet Explorer stöds inte längre, av oss eller Microsoft (läs mer här: * https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Var god och använd en modern webbläsare för att ta del av denna webbplats, som t.ex. nyaste versioner av Edge, Chrome, Firefox eller Safari osv.

Porträtt av Ellen Hillbom. Foto.

Ellen Hillbom

Studierektor för forskarutbildningen, Ekonomisk-historiska institutionen, Professor

Porträtt av Ellen Hillbom. Foto.

Labour-intensive Garment-based Industrialization with Social Sustainability? The Case of Mauritius

Författare

  • Linn Ternsjö
  • Ellen Hillbom

Summary, in English

We address the social sustainability dimension of labor-intensive industrialization (LII) and manufacturing activities and apply it to the analysis of Mauritius, a regional forerunner in textile and garment production. While the country is commonly seen as an African success story, we do not evaluate its trajectory against traditional economic theory on achieving sustained growth. Instead, we analyze the LII component based on garment manufacturing from the early 1970s onwards against criteria of social sustainability. We investigate the specific interplay between the development of social policy and the establishment and transformation of the garment manufacturing sector. Further, we follow changes in workers’ conditions in the manufacturing sector over time. Based on primary and secondary data and building on new developmentalist research, we examine the fulfilment of basic needs, employment levels, and the quality of jobs applying inclusiveness as a cross-cutting theme. Moreover, we address social policy’s role in tackling problems of inequitable outcomes from industrialization. We contribute a more nuanced understanding of Mauritius’ industrial history by highlighting its mixed outcomes, with some periods working more toward properties and outcomes of social sustainability than others. Finally, we provide some lessons for global South countries currently forming their industrialization strategies pertaining to trade-offs between sectoral change and social sustainability, and we hypothesize about the future of Mauritius’ textile and garment industry.

Avdelning/ar

  • Ekonomisk-historiska institutionen
  • Ekonomisk utveckling i det globala Syd

Publiceringsår

2025-03-24

Språk

Engelska

Sidor

696-716

Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie

Competition & Change

Volym

29

Avvikelse

5

Dokumenttyp

Artikel i tidskrift

Förlag

SAGE Publications

Ämne

  • Economic History

Nyckelord

  • social sustainability
  • labour-intensive industrialization
  • manufacturing
  • Mauritius

Aktiv

Published

Projekt

  • Sustainable development in Small Island Developing States

ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt

  • ISSN: 1024-5294