Professor Jean Jenkins

Professor of Employment Relations

My teaching, research and writing is concerned with employment relations in the global economy. I focus mainly on labour rights, collective representation and conditions of work and working time in low paid employment, with a specialism in the international garment sector. A commitment to social justice in work and employment informs my teaching and research.

2024

Jenkins, J., Blakely, H., Davies, R. and Huxley, K. 2024. The quest for cleaner clothes: using more systematic data collection to promote worker organising and advocacy in the international garment sector. In: Laroche, M. and Murray, G. eds. Experimenting for union renewal: challenges, illustrations and lessons. Brussels: etui., pp. 119-126.
Zaman, S. and Jenkins, J. 2024. Creating a local managerial regime in global context: The case of the Bangladesh ready‐made garment sector. Industrial Relations Journal (10.1111/irj.12443)

2021

Bennett, S. T., Hammer, N. and Jenkins, J. 2021. Rights without remedy: the disconnection of labour across multiple scales and domains. Work in the Global Economy 1(1-2), pp. 75-93. (10.1332/273241721X16286068772666)
Jenkins, J. 2021. Private regulation of labor standards in global supply chains: problems, progress, and prospects [Book Review]. British Journal of Industrial Relations 59(3), pp. 972-973. (10.1111/bjir.12630)
Morris, J., Jenkins, J. and Donaghey, J. 2021. Uneven development, uneven response: the relentless search for meaningful regulation of GVCs. British Journal of Industrial Relations 59(1), pp. 3-24. (10.1111/bjir.12573)

2020

Jenkins, J. 2020. Struggle in the garment sector. Theory and Struggle 121, pp. 68-77. (10.3828/ts.2020.9)

2019

Pandeli, J., Marinetto, M. and Jenkins, J. 2019. Captive in cycles of invisibility? Prisoners' work for the private sector. Work, Employment and Society 33(4), pp. 596-612. (10.1177/0950017018777712)
Jenkins, J. 2019. Tim Bartley. Rules without rights: Land, labor, and private authority in the global economy [Book Review]. Journal of World-Systems Research 25(1), pp. 214-220. (10.5195/jwsr.2019.916)
Jenkins, J. 2019. Siddharth Kara modern slavery: a global perspective New York: Columbia University Press, 2017. 342pp. [Book review]. Organization Studies 40(1), pp. 147-149. (10.1177/0170840618789389)

2017

Jenkins, J. 2017. Hands not wanted: closure, and the moral economy of protest, Treorchy, South Wales. Historical Studies in Industrial Relations 38(1), pp. 1-36. (10.3828/hsir.2017.38.1)
Jenkins, J. and Blyton, P. 2017. In debt to the time-bank: the manipulation of working time in Indian garment factories and 'working dead horse'. Work, Employment and Society 31(1), pp. 90-105. (10.1177/0950017016664679)

2015

Jenkins, J. 2015. The significance of grass-roots organizing in the garment and electrical value chains of Southern Indias. In: Newsome, K. et al. eds. Putting Labour in its Place: Labour Process Analysis and Global Value Chains.. Critical Perspectives on Work and Employment Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 195-212.

2013

Blyton, P. R. and Jenkins, J. 2013. Mobilising protest: insights from two factory closures. British Journal of Industrial Relations 51(4), pp. 733-753. (10.1111/j.1467-8543.2012.00906.x)
Jenkins, J. 2013. Organizing 'spaces of hope': union formation by Indian garment workers. British Journal of Industrial Relations 51(3), pp. 623-643. (10.1111/j.1467-8543.2012.00917.x)

2012

Jenkins, J. 2012. Union Formation by Female Garment Workers in India: Moving Forward in Unity. Presented at: 16th World Congress of ILERA (IIRA) World Congress 2012, Philadelphia, PA, USA, 2-5 July 2012.
Blyton, P. R. and Jenkins, J. 2012. Mobilizing resistance: the Burberry workers' campaign against factory closure. Sociological Review 60(1), pp. 25-45. (10.1111/j.1467-954X.2011.02043.x)
Blyton, P. R. and Jenkins, J. 2012. Life after Burberry: shifting experiences of work and non-work life following redundancy. Work, Employment and Society 26(1), pp. 26-41. (10.1177/0950017011426306)

2011

Jenkins, J. 2011. Patient Organising for Small Victories: Union formation among Indian Garment Workers. Presented at: British Journal of Industrial Relations (BJIR): 50th Anniversary Conference, London School of Economics, London, UK, 13 December 2011.
Blyton, P. R. and Jenkins, J. 2011. The Local Workplace. Presented at: 7th International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.
Blyton, P. R. and Jenkins, J. 2011. Working all hours: the part-time poverty trap. Project Report. [Online]. Bevan Foundation. Available at: http://www.bevanfoundation.org/publications/working-all-hours-the-part-time-poverty-trap/

2010

Jenkins, J. 2010. Courage, knowledge and the power of organisation. Presented at: Annual International Labour Process Conference, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA, 15-17 March, 2010.
Jenkins, J. and Turnbull, P. 2010. Can workers of the world unite? Globalization and the employment relationship. In: Blyton, P. R., Heery, E. J. and Turnbull, P. J. eds. Reassessing the Employment Relationship. Management, work and organisations Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 195-224.
Blyton, P. R. and Jenkins, J. 2010. Ways of life after redundancy: anatomy of a community following factory closure. In: Blyton, P. R. et al. eds. Ways of Living: Work, Community and Lifestyle Choice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 202-219.
Blyton, P. R. and Jenkins, J. 2010. Ways of life after redundancy: anatomy of a community following factory closure. In: Blyton, P. R. et al. eds. Ways of Living: Work, Community and Lifestyle Choice. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 202-222.

2009

Blyton, P. and Jenkins, J. 2009. Changed work, changed lives?. Presented at: 15th World Congress of the International Industrial Relations Association (IIRA), Sydney, Australia, 24-27 August 2009.
Blyton, P. and Jenkins, J. 2009. End of the campaign. Presented at: BUIRA Annual Conference, Cardiff, UK, 2-4 July, 2009.
Jenkins, J. 2009. Power, resistance and hegemony in multinational companies (MNCs): an investigation of the impact of organizational, market based and societal resources on local actors' ability to shape transnational social spaces in Germany and the UK. Presented at: Employment Research Unit (ERU) Conference, Cardiff, 3-4 September 2009.

2008

Jenkins, J. 2008. Pressurised partnership: a case of perishable compromise in contested terrain. New Technology, Work and Employment 23(3), pp. 167-180. (10.1111/j.1468-005X.2008.00211.x)
Blyton, P. R. and Jenkins, J. 2008. Works Councils. In: Blyton, P. R. et al. eds. The SAGE Handbook of Industrial Relations. London: Sage, pp. 346-357.
Jenkins, J. and Blyton, P. R. 2008. Works councils. In: Blyton, P. R. ed. The Sage handbook of industrial relations. Sage, pp. 346-357.
Blyton, P. R. and Jenkins, J. 2008. Key concepts in work. SAGE Key Concepts series. Sage.

2007

Jenkins, J. 2007. Gambling partners? The risky outcomes of workplace partnerships. Work Employment & Society 21(4), pp. 635-652. (10.1177/0950017007082874)
Jenkins, J. 2007. Work-life imbalance: the case of annualised hours. Presented at: 8th European Congress of the International Industrial Relations Association (IIRA), Manchester, U.K., 3-6 September 2007.

2006

Jenkins, J. 2006. 'Robust' partnership: processes and outcomes. Presented at: British Universities Industrial Relations Association (BUIRA) Annual Conference, Galway, Ireland, 28-30 June 2006.
Jenkins, J. 2006. Partnership and perish. Presented at: 24th Annual Labour Process Conference, London, UK, 10-12 April 2006.

2003

Jenkins, J. 2003. 'On the shopfloor' with clothing workers in the 1990s. Employee Relations 25(2), pp. 168-181. (10.1108/01425450310456460)

2002

Jenkins, J. 2002. Global market pressures in a regional context: experiences from field research in the industrial region of South Wales, UK. In: Geppert, M., Matten, D. and Williams, K. eds. Challenges for European Management in a Global Context: Experiences from Britain and Germany. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 215-238.

2001

Jenkins, J. 2001. The eradication of leisure. New Technology Work and Employment 16(2), pp. 118-129. (10.1111/1468-005X.00081)

Research interests

Industrial relations in the international clothing sector
Work-life integration and decent work
Union-management partnership

PhD supervision research interests

Labour conditions in the international clothing sector, labour rights in global supply chains, organising strategies and trade unionism, precarious work.

Teaching commitments

Current Teaching:

I currently teach on the MSc International Management programme and am module leader for Globalisation and the Management of Labour.

Past Teaching Commitments:

Past teaching commitments have involved, lecturing on Employment Relations and International Human Resource Management at undergraduate level and International Business Environment at postgraduate level.

Supervision:

I supervise postgraduate and doctoral students in the field of employment relations and HRM, with a particular focus on labour conditions, organisation and labour rights in the international setting.

Jean Jenkins is a co-director of WISERD and Professor of Employment Relations at Cardiff Business School. Her research and teaching is mainly concerned with labour rights, social justice and industrial relations in global supply chains, with a particular focus on the international garment sector. She is an Associate of Labour Behind the Label and the Clean Clothes Campaign and has contributed to a range of practitioner reports in collaboration with trade unions as well as academic books and journal publications in her field.

I am currently supervising doctoral students researching in the following areas:

Chinese HRM

Industrialisation and Trade Policies in Vietnam

Contact Details

JenkinsJ1@cardiff.ac.uk
+44 29208 75338
Aberconway Building, Room D28, Colum Road, Cathays, Cardiff, CF10 3EU

Cardiff researchers contribute to new book exploring union renewal