1. The Political Economy of Borderlands: migration, environmental sustainability and the responsible conduct of developing-country firms in Southeast Asia.
- Author
-
Pangsapa, Piyasuda and Smith, Mark
- Subjects
INVESTMENTS ,ECONOMIC activity ,DEVELOPING countries ,INTERNATIONAL business enterprises ,DEREGULATION - Abstract
Borderland zones in Southeast Asia have become sites of increased economic investment for developing-country firms, intra-regional and transnational corporations. As a result of deregulation, these investment opportunities have led to the exploitation of natural and human resources in an unsustainable and unjust way. This paper argues that the flows of people and natural resources across borders are intimately connected and this has been politically facilitated by the acceptance of the porosity of territorial boundaries by all governments in the region; political complicity, the neglect of human rights, the desire to attract domestic and transnational investment as part of national development projects, and the imperative to export environmentally degrading development projects by the Thai government into neighboring countries (where political mobilization on environmental issues is much less effective). Conveyed through a series of cases studies (on resource extraction, dam and reservoir construction, and working conditions in apparel companies), this paper will explore the extent to which developing-country companies comply with the codes of conduct on corporate responsibility (dealing with human rights, labor standards and environmental sustainability) that are beginning to be established in the governance of the global supply chain. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2007