Prentice Just Compensation accepted version.pdf (152.51 kB)
Just compensation? The price of death and injury after the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse
The 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building in Dhaka, Bangladesh was the most deadly disaster in garment manufacturing history, with at least 1,134 people killed and hundreds injured. In 2015, injured workers and the families of those killed received compensation from global apparel brands through a $30 million voluntary initiative known as the Rana Plaza Arrangement. Overseen by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Rana Plaza Arrangement awarded payments to survivors using a pricing formula developed by a diverse team of ‘stakeholders’ that included labour groups, multinational apparel companies, representatives of the Bangladesh government and local employers, and ILO actuaries. This article draws from anthropological scholarship on the ‘just price’ to explore how a formula for pricing death and injury became both the means and form of a fragile political settlement in the wake of a shocking and widely publicised industrial disaster. By unpacking the complicated ‘ethics of a formula’ (Ballestero 2015), I demonstrate how the project of creating a just price involves not two sets of values (ethical and financial) but rather multiple, competing values. This article argues for recognition of the persistence and power of these competing values, showing how they variously strengthen and undermine the claim that justice was served by the Rana Plaza Arrangement. This analysis reveals the deficiencies of counterposing ‘morality’ and ‘economy’ in the study of price by reflecting upon all elements of price as situated within political economy and history.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
Research in Economic AnthropologyISSN
0190-1281Publisher
EmeraldExternal DOI
Volume
39Page range
157-178Department affiliated with
- Anthropology Publications
Notes
ISBN 9781787435742Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2018-11-07First Open Access (FOA) Date
2019-06-10First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2018-11-06Usage metrics
Categories
No categories selectedKeywords
Licence
Exports
RefWorks
BibTeX
Ref. manager
Endnote
DataCite
NLM
DC