Illicit labour: Unveiling the dark sides of the global photovoltaic industry

Introduction

illicitLABOUR pioneers a study of the linkages between climate change mitigation and illicit economies and the resulting implications for ecological governance. This comparative and interdisciplinary project goes beyond the current state-of-the-art research in three significant ways.

Research Innovations

1. Investigation of Production Networks
   By investigating global photovoltaic industry production networks, it reveals the dark sides of the green energy sector in three geographical sites (China, Ghana, and India).

2. Theoretical Perspectives
   It advances new theoretical perspectives on risk, vulnerability, and mitigation, considering the interplay between the green energy sector and the illicit economy.

3. Cultural Political Ecology Framework
   It attempts a transformative breakthrough by developing a ‘cultural political ecology’ framework that brings cultural economy and political ecology together, pushing labour studies frontiers forward.

Core Research Questions

The research will focus on several core questions:

• How do we explain the economic, political, and cultural processes linking illicit labour and ecological governance?
• Which illicit labour regimes in mining and manufacturing processes sustain solar panel production?
• How do informal energy markets work?
• What are the social and environmental challenges raised by end-of-life photovoltaic modules?
• How can we understand the illicit-ecology nexus in light of these processes?
• How can this analysis reveal new ways to provide clean and affordable energy for all?

Context and Relevance

Climate change mitigation and illicit labour are two major challenges of modern times, whose interconnection poses growing concerns for society, such as energy insecurity, toxic waste production, and labour exploitation. Yet this relationship has surprisingly received limited systemic attention in labour studies to date.

Through an analysis of the global photovoltaic industry, a major climate change mitigation sector, illicitLABOUR casts light on those neglected actors, practices, and processes that operate in the shadow of sustainable development.