TY - JOUR
T1 - Institutional work within the boundaries of multi-stakeholder initiatives:
T2 - the relational agency of implementing partners and women cotton-pickers in practice change
AU - Linneberg, Mai Skjøtt
AU - Hassan, Ahmad
AU - Bjerregaard, Toke
PY - 2025/2/15
Y1 - 2025/2/15
N2 - In Pakistan, cotton is picked by women who witness first-hand the social and environmental challenges of the global textile industry, which the BCI, a multi-stakeholder initiative (MSI), aims to mitigate. Scholars have yet to investigate the ability of MSIs to achieve change as experienced by the cotton-pickers themselves. This article offers an original perspective on how relational agency is exerted between an MSI, implementing partners and cotton-pickers, through the mutually interacting work of creating boundaries around an institutional space. This helps explain how, in an otherwise highly restrictive context, women’s agency is leveraged. Based on 40 qualitative interviews with the BCI cotton-pickers and their implementing partners, the study finds that, through institutional work, cotton-pickers have upgraded their working practices. However, the MSI’s impact depends on its ability to maintain its boundary and corresponding practices. By implication, the women’s poverty continues to be a highly significant limitation on the improvements to their lives.
AB - In Pakistan, cotton is picked by women who witness first-hand the social and environmental challenges of the global textile industry, which the BCI, a multi-stakeholder initiative (MSI), aims to mitigate. Scholars have yet to investigate the ability of MSIs to achieve change as experienced by the cotton-pickers themselves. This article offers an original perspective on how relational agency is exerted between an MSI, implementing partners and cotton-pickers, through the mutually interacting work of creating boundaries around an institutional space. This helps explain how, in an otherwise highly restrictive context, women’s agency is leveraged. Based on 40 qualitative interviews with the BCI cotton-pickers and their implementing partners, the study finds that, through institutional work, cotton-pickers have upgraded their working practices. However, the MSI’s impact depends on its ability to maintain its boundary and corresponding practices. By implication, the women’s poverty continues to be a highly significant limitation on the improvements to their lives.
KW - Pakistan
KW - boundary organization
KW - global production networks, boundary organization, multi-stakeholder initiatives, women workers, Pakistan.
KW - institutional work
KW - multi-stakeholder initiatives
KW - women workers
KW - Boundary organization
KW - global production networks
KW - sustainability
KW - social sustainability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85188432263&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0143831X241237968
DO - 10.1177/0143831X241237968
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0143-831X
VL - 46
SP - 256
EP - 286
JO - Economic and Industrial Democracy
JF - Economic and Industrial Democracy
IS - 1
ER -