Corporate harm and embedded labour exploitation in agri-food supply networks

Published date01 January 2020
Date01 January 2020
DOI10.1177/1477370819874416
Subject MatterArticles
https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370819874416
European Journal of Criminology
2020, Vol. 17(1) 70 –85
© The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/1477370819874416
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Corporate harm and
embedded labour exploitation
in agri-food supply networks
Jon Davies
Tel Aviv University, Israel
Abstract
Harm facilitated by corporations has received increased attention in recent years. However,
corporate crime and harm remain under-researched themes in relation to labour exploitation, in
both theoretical and empirical terms. The purpose of this article is to argue that, in the context of
agricultural and food supply networks, harmful labour practices result from structural problems
associated with the demand for products. Although individual employers and businesses have a
role in facilitating these harmful practices, these practices also emerge from otherwise legitimate
agri-food supply network dynamics, such as subcontracted labour, which results in fragmented
responsibility. Therefore, labour practices have significant implications for the nature, organization
and control of corporate harms, whereby harmful consequences become normalized, accepted
and embedded in agri-food supply network practices. Criminological analyses of food production
and contemporary markets more widely can begin to address the systemic challenges of harmful
labour practices, in both domestic and global supply networks.
Keywords
Agri-food supply networks, corporate crime, labour exploitation, harm, organizational deviance
Introduction
A significant body of research focuses on labour exploitation in local, national and
global supply networks (Barrientos, 2013; LeBaron et al., 2018; Potter and Hamilton,
2014). As argued by Scott (2017), research on exploitation has traditionally focused on
individual perpetrators and criminal networks, which tend to be associated with the
most brutal forms of mistreatment. The question that guides this article is ‘how do the
dynamics of some food supply networks result in harmful labour practices?’ On this
basis, its core argument is that practices are routinized, embedded and normalized
within otherwise legitimate agri-food supply business processes – which highlights the
importance of legitimate actors. In order to understand these harms, it is essential to
Corresponding author:
Jon Davies, Buchmann Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University, PO Box 39040, Tel Aviv, 6997801, Israel.
Email: davies@mail.tau.ac.il
874416EUC0010.1177/1477370819874416European Journal of CriminologyDavies
research-article2019
Article
Davies 71
foreground the underlying structural dynamics and system dysfunctions within supply
chains – here referred to as ‘networks’. To some extent, the research agenda already
emphasizes the role of legitimate business and supply networks in facilitating labour
exploitation (Barrientos, 2013; LeBaron, 2015). However, little attention has been
given to the notion of harm in relation to labour exploitation (Davies, 2018; Davies and
Ollus, 2019; Scott, 2017). Making these links allows for a more rigorous analysis of
embedded exploitation, since many practices are neither reported nor criminalized, so
are not formally labelled as crimes. A harm approach provides the basis for a wider
range of exploitative practices to be considered, which as a spectrum extends from the
most severe cases typically associated with criminal law, such as human trafficking and
forced labour (FRA, 2015), to other ‘routine’ abuses that are neither reported nor crimi-
nalized. It also provides a chance for criminology to assert its relevance amid concerns
that it neglects ambiguous areas where the lines between legal, immoral, illegal and
criminal behaviour are not clear cut (Passas, 2005; Reiman, 1998), including the exploi-
tation spectrum. With this spectrum in mind, it is important to consider how and why
these practices occur, which begins to focus attention away from individual perpetrators
towards labour markets and their supply networks.
The article is structured as follows. First, existing research on harmful labour
practices within agri-food supply networks is reviewed; followed by a summary of the
methods adopted for the current research, which consisted of a qualitative case study
in the UK agri-food industry. Secondly, the empirical contributions are discussed, by
analyzing the role of product and labour supply networks that emphasize structural
explanations for harm. A stronger focus on structural as well as individual factors will
help to provide a more nuanced analysis that problematizes the notions of intent and
individual responsibility. Rather than providing a full empirical explanation for the
concept of harm and corporate behaviour, the intention here is to be explorative of a
specific UK industry as a reference point for broader concerns around low-paid work.
Given that many poor workplace and supply network practices are neither criminalized
nor subject to investigation, a ‘harm’ lens provides the basis to incorporate such prac-
tices into the scope of study while acknowledging their controversial nature.
Theoretical approaches of harm and labour exploitation
Previous work has discussed the notion of labour exploitation (Alvesalo et al., 2014),
which does not have a universally accepted definition (OSCE, 2018). Criminal codes
tend to define ‘severe exploitation’ in the forms of human trafficking and forced labour
(FRA, 2015), such as the UK’s Modern Slavery Act 2015. ‘Less severe’ or non-criminal-
ized exploitation may be implicitly codified by civil law as breaches of employment
contracts or tax regulations. In broader sociological terms, labour exploitation may be
seen as a standard aspect of work and so occurs beyond criminal-legal frameworks
entirely, especially if framed from a Marxist perspective (Brass, 2015). Others have
coined terms such as ‘lawful but awful’ business practices (Passas, 2005), which theo-
retically move some exploitation beyond the confines of legal definitions. These per-
spectives link with the idea of labour exploitation as a spectrum, ranging from ‘decent
work’ to severe exploitation, with numerous grey areas in-between. Such sociological

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