The role of Turkish textile industry from a post fordist point of view in international division of labor and its functioning mechanisms

ABSTRACT This study aims to give a brief description of Turkish apparel industry especially by focusing on its market structure and production process. At the end of my analysis I claim that Turkish apparel industry is a frontier in respect to reflect post-fordist mode of production. This claim is shown by the flexibility of production(flexibility of labor, of quality, of quantity, of products...) and subcontracting mechanisms between core and periphery companies. One more point is that; the rules and regulations of supra-national institutions such as GATT, WTO and EU are more important for apparel industry than macro regulations of nation states. So, Turkish apparel industry is directly dependent to the global economy. Ethnographic account is based on the field work that was conducted in Avcılar, Çağlayan, Merter and Bağcılar between October 2001 and May 2002. This field work involves observations and interviews with managers of producer companies( from marketing and production departments), officials from ITKIB( Istanbul Textile and Apparel Exporter's Union) TGSD( Turkish Apparel Industry Union). Keywords : Apparel Industry, Textile, Post-Fordism, New International Division of Labor