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Abstract

This chapter explores the rise of multinational retail and sourcing chains in the context of neoliberal capitalism promoted by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and other institutions as part of the post-Washington Consensus. Focusing in particular on Wal-Mart and its operations in China, it examines the changing social relations between different types of capital along supply chains, as well as between capital and workers at different points in these chains. These changes have led to political challenges from a range of national and transnational groups and have prompted some to ask whether the adoption of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is leading to the ‘marketization of the social’ and/or ‘socialization of the market’.

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Sum, NL. (2010). Wal-Martization and CSR-ization in Developing Countries. In: Utting, P., Marques, J.C. (eds) Corporate Social Responsibility and Regulatory Governance. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230246966_3

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