Fancy Footwork: The Effects of Globalization in the Vietnamese Footwear Industry (2009)

Undergraduate: Auburn Skakle

Faculty Advisor: Thomas Oatley
Department: Biology

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Controversies concerning globalization and its effects on global labor rights are at the center of many modern economic debates. Therefore, the question of how participation in production for global markets (globalization) affects the conditions of workers in lower and middle class income countries arises. Due to the difficulty of examining the effects of globalization because the concept is extremely broad, I will focus on the impacts of globalization on workers in Vietnam, specifically the footwear industry beyond 1975, post Vietnam War. Also, to further assist my research, I will investigate the role of the Nike Corporation in Vietnam. Nike is a company that has come to exemplify both the positive and negative repercussions involved with globalization. I hypothesize that globalization coupled with Non-Governmental Organization’s (NGO’s) will increase worker’s rights among the footwear industry in Vietnam. The theory that generates the hypothesis stems from belief that NGO’s work together with globalization to improve worker standards by supplying information concerning unsatisfactory working conditions, boycotting, reinforcing negative incentives, and tarnishing the brand or corporation.