Export Processing Zones / Special Economic Zones

Publication Date: 01/01/2018

Pages: 1-7

DOI: 10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea2290

Abstract:

Export processing zones and special economic zones have become the dominant way for postcolonial nations to attract and regulate manufacturing industries. From their beginnings in Puerto Rico in the late 1940s, the zones have spread across the globe so that today they host most textiles, garments, consumer electronics industries, and increasingly heavier manufacturing, tourism, and financial services. This entry gives an overview of anthropology's past and present research on the zones, with particular focus on unequal exchange relations in the global economy, gendered exploitation in world-market factories, and the zones as emblems of neoliberalism.

Source: Scopus