New Hope or False Dawn?

This article maps the complex and fast-changing terrain of voluntary corporate codes of conduct, self-regulatory measures increasingly adopted by firms as a response to concerns about working conditions in global production chains. It considers their origins, their potentials and weaknesses, and finally their implications for the restructuring of social policy in a globalizing world. Despite there being considerably more rhetoric about codes than good practice, the processes through which codes have been developed has brought positive impacts in terms of highlighting the needs and voices of hitherto excluded groups of workers (women export workers, homeworkers, casual workers) in social policy and labour regulation debates.