2003 Events

Globalizing the Brazilian Garment Industry: Korean and Bolivian Sweatshops in São Paulo

Simone Buechler
New York University

As cheap imports flood the Brazilian market indirectly or directly from Asia, clothing factories in São Paulo, Brazil have either outsourced much of their production to sweatshops or homeworkers, closed or left for cheaper regions of Brazil or the world. As global economic forces mix with national and local forces, the labor market has become more precarious. One of the outcomes has been the growth of Korean owned sweatshops using Bolivian unregistered workers. This talk will explore the relationship between these two immigrant groups in São Paulo, as well as the connection between global economic change and sweatshop production.

Simone Buechler is a faculty fellow\assistant professor in the Metropolitan Studies Program at New York University. Her research interests include: globalization and cities, labor market restructuring, women and economic restructuring, Brazil, social movements, squatter settlements, and urban planning. She has conducted extensive research on low-income women and urban labor market restructuring in São Paulo, Brazil. She received a Ph.D. in May 2002 from the Urban Planning Department at Columbia University, a Master’s degree in Regional Planning from Cornell University, and a B.A. from Brown University. She was a consultant for the National Academy of Sciences on the informal sector in São Paulo. Her publications include the articles, “Daring to Dream: Social Actors Fighting for Labor Rights.” in New Approaches to Social Reform in Brazil. Bildner Center, CUNY; "The Degradation of Work in the Global Economy: Low Income Women and the Precarious Labor Market in São Paulo, Brazil." in Saskia Sassen and Peter Marcotullio (eds). Global Sustainable Development, Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems. UNESCO; “The Growth of the Informal Sector in São Paulo, Brazil.” in Selected Papers of the Panel on Urban Population Dynamics. forthcoming on website, National Academy of Science; and “Financing Small-scale Enterprises in Bolivia.” co-authored with Hans, Judith-Maria, and Stephanie Buechler in The Third Wave of Modernization in Latin America edited by Lynn Phillips, Jaguar Books on Latin America No. 16. Wilmington: Scholarly Resources Inc. 1998. Before returning to get her Ph.D. she worked at the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

When: Monday, March 3 at 5:00 P.M.
Where: Room 9206
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue
(Between 34th and 35th Street)

To reserve, send e-mail to brazilproject@gc.cuny.edu or leave message at (212) 817-2096