Donia Human Rights Center Lecture. Grassroots Perspectives on Business & Human Rights: Insights from "Tethered Fates"

Global supply chains link consumers, brands, manufacturers, workers, and local community members as “stakeholders” with significantly different levels of risk and benefit. When harm occurs in the course of business activity, prevailing approaches to stakeholder consultation are typically driven by companies, without significant input from people at the grassroots level. This talk reveals where stakeholder consultation is taking place globally; how the process unfolds at the community level; and what types of innovation might be possible but are currently missed by “top-down” approaches to consultation. Hertel’s talk features analysis of quantitative data from over 7,000 companies worldwide; she finds extractive companies across all regions tend to consult more heavily than light manufacturing companies, and corporations determine the mode, scope and content of the practice regardless of sector or region. The talk also features original interview data from paired case studies in two manufacturing towns in the Dominican Republic where collegiate apparel is produced. Hertel reveals local peoples’ insights on the limits of existing approaches to stakeholder dialogue along with their ideas for how better to diagnose problems, predict future challenges, and forge solutions to ongoing violations of economic rights.

Co-sponsor: U-M President’s Advisory Committee on Labor Standards and Human Rights.

Shareen Hertel is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Connecticut, jointly appointed with the university’s Human Rights Institute. Drawing on 20 years of policy work with United Nations agencies, foundations, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the United States, Latin America and South Asia, her scholarship focuses on economic rights, social movements, and global supply chains. Hertel is Editor of The Journal of Human Rights; co-editor of the Routledge International Studies Intensives book series; and serves on the editorial boards of Human Rights Review and Human Rights and Human Welfare. Her published work includes Tethered Fates: Companies, Communities and Rights at Stake (Oxford University Press 2019); Activists Beyond Borders: Conflict & Change Among Transnational Activists (Cornell University Press, 2006); Economic Rights: Conceptual, Measurement & Policy Issues (Cambridge University Press 2007 with Lanse Minkler); Human Rights in the United States: Beyond Exceptionalism (Cambridge University Press, 2011 with Kathryn Libal); along with multiple articles and book chapters. Hertel holds a doctorate in Political Science (2003), Master’s degrees in Political Science (1999) and International Affairs (1992) all from Columbia University, as well as a BA in International Relations (1988) from The College of Wooster.

If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation to attend this event, please reach out to us at umichhumanrights@umich.edu at least 2 weeks in advance of this event. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.