This volume addresses many of the complex issues raised by North American integration through the lens of one of the largest and most global industries in the region: textiles and apparel. In part, this is a story of winners and losers in the globalization process, especially if one focuses on jobs lost and jobs gained in different countries and communities within North America, defined here as: Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. However, it would be a mistake to view the industry solely in these zerosum terms. The North American apparel industry is an excellent illustration of larger trends in the global economy, in which regional divisions of labor appear to be one of the most stable and effective responses to globalization.The contributors to this volume are an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars who have all done detailed fieldwork at the firm and factory levels in one or more countries of North America. Taken together the essays offer theoretical and methodological innovations built around the intersection of the global commodity chains and industrial districts literatures, as well as innovative approaches to studying the impact of cross-national, interfirm networks in terms of production and trade issues, and local development outcomes for workers and communities.

Gary Gereffi is Director of the Markets and Management Studies Program at Duke University. He is the co-editor of Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism (with Miguel Korzeniewicz) and Manufacturing Miracles: Paths of Industrialization in Latin America and East Asia (with Donald L. Wyman).David Spener is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He is the co-editor (with Kathleen Staudt) of The U.S.-Mexico Border: Transcending Divisions, Contesting Identities.Jennifer Bair is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Yale University.Contributors: Araceli Almaraz, Edna Bonachich, Jorge Carrillo, Clemente Ruiz Durán, Alfredo Hualde, Judi A. Kessler, Martha Martínez, Dale T. Mathews, Jorge Mendoza, Michael Mortimore, Florence Palpacuer, Enrique Dussel Peters, Michael J. Piore, Fernando Pozos Ponce, Robert J.S. Ross, Robert van Dooren, Ulrik Vangstrup, and the editors.

List of Tables and FiguresPart I: Analytical Overview1. Introduction: The Apparel Industry and North American Economic Integration – David Spener, Gary Gereffi, and Jennifer Bair2 . NAFTA and the Apparel Commodity Chain: Corporate Strategies, Interfirm Networks, and Industrial Upgrading – Jennifer Bair and Gary GereffiPart II: The Changing Face of the Apparel Industry in the United States3. Subcontracting Networks in the New York Garment Industry: Changing Characteristics in a Global Era – Florence Palpacuer4. The Impact of North American Economic Integration on the Los Angeles Garment Industry – Judi A. Kessler5. The New Sweatshops in the United States: How New, How Real, How Many, and Why? – Robert J. S. Ross6. Labor's Response to Global Production – Edna BonacichPart III: The U.S.-Mexico Border Region7. The Unraveling Seam: NAFTA and the Decline of the Apparel Industry in El Paso, Texas – David Spener8. Tex Mex: Linkages in a Binational Garment District? The Garment Industries in El Paso and Ciudad Juárez – Robert van Dooren9. Commodity Chains and Industrial Organization in the Apparel Industry in Monterrey and Ciudad Juárez – Jorge Carrillo, Alfredo Hualde, and Araceli AlmarazPart IV: Interior Mexico10. Torreón: The New Blue Jeans Capital of the World – Gary Gereffi, Martha Martínez, and Jennifer Bair11. Learning and the Limits of Foreign Partners as Teachers – Enrique Dussel Peters, Clemente Ruiz Durán, and Michael J. Piore12. Knitting the Networks Between Mexican Producers and the U.S. Market – Ulrik Vangstrup13. Fragmented Markets, Elaborate Chains: The Retail Distribution of Imported Clothing in Mexico – Jorge Mendoza, Fernando Pozos Ponce, and David SpenerPart V: Central American and the Caribbean14. When Does Apparel Become a Peril? On the Nature of Industrialization in the Caribbean Basin – Michael Mortimore15. Can the Dominican Republic's Export-Processing Zones Survive NAFTA? – Dale T. MathewsPart VI: Conclusion16. NAFTA and Uneven Development in the North American Apparel Industry – Jennifer Bair, David Spener, and Gary GereffiAbout the ContributorsIndex