Social Sustainability
Social Upgrading
Improvement in workers' rights, wages and wellbeing as firms and regions move up global value chains — which economic upgrading does not guarantee.
Definition
Social upgrading is the process of improvement in the rights and entitlements of workers as social actors, and in the quality of their employment — wages, security, conditions, voice — within global value chains. Developed in the global value chain literature (Barrientos, Gereffi and others), it is deliberately distinguished from economic upgrading: firms and countries can capture more value while workers' conditions stagnate or worsen, so social upgrading must be pursued through standards, bargaining, regulation and purchasing practices.
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