Sustainable Production Networks: Capturing Value for Labour and Nature in a Furniture Production Network in Oaxaca, Mexico

Klooster D. and Mercado-Celis A. Sustainable production networks: capturing value for labour and nature in a furniture production network in Oaxaca, Mexico, Regional Studies. Global networks of production often challenge local development, forcing local producers to minimize returns to labour and externalize environmental costs in order to compete. This article describes an alternative approach in which communities, firms and promoters create a niche for environmentally certified wood furniture in national markets, using social and environmental upgrading to capture value for workers, communities and the environment. It calls their approach a sustainable production network (SPN) and proposes it as a contribution to development policies informed by global production network (GPN) theory, and as a goal for planners seeking institutional strategies to sustainable development in production networks.