The Role of Labour Standards in Development: From theory to sustainable practice?
Tonia Novitz and David Mangan
Abstract
This book examines the multi-faceted ways in which labour standards can play a role in the achievement of development. A variety of critical perspectives are presented here, with contributions from a number of different disciplines, including law, politics, and economics. The book begins by considering potential theoretical connections between work and development, acknowledging controversy over how the latter should be approached, interpreted, and rendered ‘sustainable’. The remainder of the collection is devoted to an analysis of the part that protection of labour standards can play in devel ... More
This book examines the multi-faceted ways in which labour standards can play a role in the achievement of development. A variety of critical perspectives are presented here, with contributions from a number of different disciplines, including law, politics, and economics. The book begins by considering potential theoretical connections between work and development, acknowledging controversy over how the latter should be approached, interpreted, and rendered ‘sustainable’. The remainder of the collection is devoted to an analysis of the part that protection of labour standards can play in developmental terms, with reference to concrete issues: anti-discrimination, child labour, trade relations, and social dialogue. The book's final chapter reflects on how theory has been and could be put into practice. The theme that transcends all the contributions to this collection is that of human agency. The authors are not merely interested in the realisation of an individual person's ‘functioning’ in society (which development will assist), but also with the ways that people can be engaged in the very process of defining what development aims should and can be. They do not wish to see economic, social, and environmental development objectives as being determined by technical experts and implemented according to their prescriptions. Rather, they consider development in procedural as well as substantive terms, and in participatory as well as material terms.
Keywords:
labour standards,
anti-discrimination,
child labour,
trade relations,
social dialogue,
human agency,
development,
law,
politics,
economics
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2011 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780197264911 |
| Published to British Academy Scholarship Online: January 2013 |
DOI:10.5871/bacad/9780197264911.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Tonia Novitz, editor
Professor of Labour Law, University of Bristol
David Mangan, editor
Lecturer in the Law of Obligations, University of Leicester
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