Clothing Europe: Comparative Perspectives on Trade Liberalization and Production Networks in the New European Clothing Industry • October 15-16, 2004

On October 15-16th 2004, the Center for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, the Center for European Studies and the European Union Center, and the University Center for International Studies hosted an international workshop and conference on the European clothing industry. The workshop and conference brought together researchers studying trade liberalization and production networks in the global clothing industry with policy makers and other stakeholders from government, NGOs, and industry, to explore the changing patterns of production and trade in Central and Eastern Europe, and the roles played by national and EU institutions and markets in these changes as the industry adjusts to EU accession and the completion of the integration of clothing into the WTO on January 1, 2005.

The workshop and conference was organized around four key issues related to industrial and regional restructuring in the clothing industry, and focused regionally on the EU accession states of Central and Eastern Europe. Participants paid particular attention to the ways in which locally and regionally specific institutions, legacies, and norms make a difference in how the post-socialist European clothing industry is being inserted into pan-European and global production networks. The conference also developed comparative perspectives on these issues with presentations and papers on the consequences of liberalization and industrial change for the North Carolina (and U.S.) textiles and clothing industry, in order to better understand the comparative dimensions of change in the clothing industry and to compare lessons for communities at various sites in the apparel production chain. See full conference outline: Word | PDF

Organized by John Pickles (UNC), Meenu Tewari (UNC), Gary Gereffi (Duke), Adrian Smith (Queen Mary College, University of London)