Blood Bricks: Examining the Climate Change-Modern Slavery Nexus in the Cambodian Construction Industry
Lead Research Organisation:
Royal Holloway University of London
Department Name: Geography
Abstract
'Climate change and slavery: the perfect storm?' - this was the prescient headline of The Guardian (2013) which called for more international conversation on the links between these urgent threats to environmental and human security. This study forwards this call by examining the inter-linkages between climate change, different axes of structural inequality (e.g. gender, age), and vulnerability to trafficking into modern slavery. The project asks who is most at the 'receiving end' of climate change, is most likely to enter into modern slavery, and who has fewer capabilities and resources than others to adapt to climate change in alternative ways?
The research is based in Cambodia, the world's second most climate vulnerable country in 2014. This status derives not only from the heightened climate risks its faces in the form of floods and droughts, but also the lack of capacity to adapt and respond. Eighty percent of the population lives in rural areas with limited knowledge, infrastructure and opportunities; and more than 70 percent rely on agriculture that is heavily sensitive to climate change (UNDP 2014). In 2016, Cambodia also recorded the third highest proportion of modern slaves per capita in the world. Under these compelling set of circumstances then, the project focuses on the Cambodian construction industry as a means to examine how climate change facilitates trafficking into modern slavery and ongoing livelihoods within it.
UK and Cambodian scholars will undertake challenging research that aims to combine qualitative interviews with construction industry informants and victims of modern slavery working in brick-kilns and construction sites; agro-ecological profiling, a quantitative household survey, and interviews in brick-kiln sender villages; and analysis of longitudinal secondary data (Cambodia Socio-Economic Study 2014). Findings will improve understanding of the 'deadly dance' of environmental destruction and modern slavery.
The research is based in Cambodia, the world's second most climate vulnerable country in 2014. This status derives not only from the heightened climate risks its faces in the form of floods and droughts, but also the lack of capacity to adapt and respond. Eighty percent of the population lives in rural areas with limited knowledge, infrastructure and opportunities; and more than 70 percent rely on agriculture that is heavily sensitive to climate change (UNDP 2014). In 2016, Cambodia also recorded the third highest proportion of modern slaves per capita in the world. Under these compelling set of circumstances then, the project focuses on the Cambodian construction industry as a means to examine how climate change facilitates trafficking into modern slavery and ongoing livelihoods within it.
UK and Cambodian scholars will undertake challenging research that aims to combine qualitative interviews with construction industry informants and victims of modern slavery working in brick-kilns and construction sites; agro-ecological profiling, a quantitative household survey, and interviews in brick-kiln sender villages; and analysis of longitudinal secondary data (Cambodia Socio-Economic Study 2014). Findings will improve understanding of the 'deadly dance' of environmental destruction and modern slavery.
Planned Impact
From the International Labour Organization's (ILO) '50 for freedom' global campaign, to the creation of the UK Office of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner (IASC), modern slavery has risen sharply up the international development agenda since 2015. Over a longer timespan, climate change has been described as 'the defining challenge of our age' (Goklany 2009). In this global context, the study looks to benefit debt-bonded brick labourers in Cambodia through more in-depth understanding of their lives and conditions to inform policy.
Policymakers: The research will provide a methodological tool and evidence base for the targeting of policies and interventions to those individuals and communities found most vulnerable to climate-triggered modern slavery. Our infographic report is a key mechanism to accessibly communicate our findings and policy recommendations.
NGOs and INGOs in Cambodia: The project will support their research and advocacy capacity through a methodology focused training workshop; regional 'blood brick' advocacy workshop; exhibition and online photo album which will support media uptake and act as an advocacy tool.
Construction clients and multinationals in Cambodia: Three experimental impact-oriented events will raise awareness of 'blood bricks' in the construction industry, and will aid understanding of the interests and incentives that might encourage these influential stakeholders to behave and act differently in their future support towards 'clean bricks'. Our research will contribute to initial work in academia on what businesses and partnerships can do to combat modern slavery.
The Office of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner: The research and network building via the mailing list, co-hosted academic event in London and regional advocacy workshop in Phnom Penh, will aid fulfilling of its 2015-2017 Strategic Plan.
Policymakers: The research will provide a methodological tool and evidence base for the targeting of policies and interventions to those individuals and communities found most vulnerable to climate-triggered modern slavery. Our infographic report is a key mechanism to accessibly communicate our findings and policy recommendations.
NGOs and INGOs in Cambodia: The project will support their research and advocacy capacity through a methodology focused training workshop; regional 'blood brick' advocacy workshop; exhibition and online photo album which will support media uptake and act as an advocacy tool.
Construction clients and multinationals in Cambodia: Three experimental impact-oriented events will raise awareness of 'blood bricks' in the construction industry, and will aid understanding of the interests and incentives that might encourage these influential stakeholders to behave and act differently in their future support towards 'clean bricks'. Our research will contribute to initial work in academia on what businesses and partnerships can do to combat modern slavery.
The Office of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner: The research and network building via the mailing list, co-hosted academic event in London and regional advocacy workshop in Phnom Penh, will aid fulfilling of its 2015-2017 Strategic Plan.
Publications
Parsons L
(2019)
Mobilising hydrosocial power: Climate perception, migration and the small scale geography of water in Cambodia
in Political Geography
Natarajan N
(2022)
Credit, land and survival work in rural Cambodia: Rethinking rural autonomy through a feminist lens
in Journal of Agrarian Change
Natarajan N
(2021)
Beyond the Wage - Ordinary Work in Diverse Economies
Natarajan N
(2021)
Challenging the financial inclusion-decent work nexus: evidence from Cambodia's over-indebted internal migrants
in Global Public Policy and Governance
Natarajan N
(2019)
Climate change adaptation and precarity across the rural-urban divide in Cambodia: Towards a 'climate precarity' approach
in Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space
Jamieson W
(2021)
Global Urbanism - Knowledge, Power and the City
Crang P
(2020)
Discardscapes of fashion: commodity biography, patch geographies, and preconsumer garment waste in Cambodia
in Social & Cultural Geography
Brown D
(2019)
Modern slavery, environmental degradation and climate change: Fisheries, field, forests and factories
in Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space
Brickell K
(2019)
Exhibition - Blood Bricks: Untold Stories of Modern Slavery and Climate Change from Cambodia
in Environment and Planning D: Society & Space (e-version)
| Title | Photo exhibition: 'Blood Bricks, Untold Stories of Modern Slavery and Climate Change from Cambodia' |
| Description | In collaboration with photographer Thomas Cristofoletti who was part of the original grant proposal, we exhibited a series of photographs taken by Thomas of the different research sites of our project, from skyscrapers in Phnom Penh, to brick kilns on its peripheries, to three rural villages with high levels of migration to kilns. The exhibition put these photographs together with captions that we developed that told our research story of modern slavery and climate change, and also a large infographic at the end of the gallery to show how all the complex elements came together. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Impact | The exhibition was held for three weeks at the Building Centre in central London, and received 21,000 visitors in this period. The Exhibition included a feedback board at the end, and we received strong feedback across the board, with visitors praising the exhibition's ability to represent a complex story through visual media in particular. We also held a series of events, including our report launch, a day looking at the use of creative methods in social sciences, and another on research on bricks from various disciplines, and included visits to the exhibition as part of these events. |
| Description | Our research on 'blood bricks' in Cambodia reveals more than just the vertical aspirations of a business elite built on modern slavery; rather it also foregrounds stories of climate change. Phnom Penh is being built not only on the foundation of blood bricks, but also climate change as a key driver of debt and entry into modern slavery in brick kilns. Moving from the city, to the brick kiln, and finally back to the rural villages once called home, our research traced how urban 'development' is built on unsustainable levels of debt taken on by rural families struggling to farm in one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world. In trying to repay loans taken on to cope with the destructive impacts of climate change on agrarian production, families from rural villages across Cambodia are forced to leave their homes to live and work in brick kilns from which they may never escape. Furthermore, our research evidences how buildings in Phnom Penh found to contain bricks made by debt-bonded labourers are entangled in global circuits of capital accumulation. The research traces investment profiles of eight Phnom Penh buildings constructed using 'blood bricks', and finds British, US, Norwegian, Singaporean and Cambodian capital investment in the buildings, highlighting the link between global economic growth and debt bondage in Cambodia. As such, the research opens up important questions around the costs of economic growth. Whilst construction sector growth and foreign direct investment in Cambodia are lauded my multilateral institutions and western governments alike, we ask here: whose lives are being sacrificed to facilitate this economic and physical ascent? The research used a 'translocal' methodology to trace how debt-bondage in Phnom Penh brick kilns is very much entangled with rural development issues, specifically the impacts of climate change combined with a pernicious microfinance sector affecting rural smallholder farmers in Cambodia. This methodology was multi-sited and multi-scalar, in linking the urban-rural story in Cambodia to a broader picture of global capital through tracing investment profiles of buildings in Phnom Penh that are made using 'blood bricks'. This approach therefore uncovers the complex entanglements of rural and urban poverty in national and global growth. Research also linked research findings to policy across scales, as the next section details. This has led to collaborations and partnerships with a range of academic and non-academic partners. In sum, the research demonstrates the structural factors that facilitate debt bondage, from the impacts of climate change; absence of state support for agriculture and rural development; lack of social protection or affordable and accessible health services; the largely unregulated microfinance sector; corruption and weak rule of law; and finally, the operations and ethics of global corporate companies from construction to fashion. The path of exploitation faced by brick-makers is exacerbated by climate change but is also rooted in poverty, inequality, and Cambodia's neoliberal turn. The research also develops policy recommendations which are being developed in Cambodia, UK, and globally. |
| Exploitation Route | We hope that our research will open up space for dialogue and further research to support better understanding and effective action on these complex root causes of exploitative labour practices. To this end, our research offers important recommendations to address the root causes of modern slavery in Cambodian brick kilns which are available in our project report. We also provide recommendations specific to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the United Kingdom's Modern Slavery Act 2015. The SDGs included for the first time in Goal 8, entitled 'Decent Work and Economic Growth', a call to eradicate 'modern slavery'. Yet this sub-target - 8.7 - comes after a first sub-target - 8.1 - which is explicitly pro-growth, and another, which highlights 'access to financial services' as a key vehicle of growth-led development (UN 2015a). As such, we argue that the drive to eradicate modern slavery is embedded within a specific conception of how this labour relation is linked to the wider economy. We take this argument forward both within and outside academia. On the former, we have a paper under review with the journal World Development which makes this argument, and this is a key journal in the field of global development in academia. Beyond this, we made this argument in-person whilst delivering briefings to UNDP, UN Women, UNHCR, and other UN agencies whilst in Cambodia. In the UK, we have been undertaking work to strengthen the Modern Slavery Act, through a Home Affairs Select Committee Submission and through working with Garden Court barrister's Chambers. We hope that evidence from our research will contribute to a case highlighting the weakness of the current act in prosecuting British companies with modern slavery in overseas supply chains. Finally we have also developed strong in-country recommendations around the regulation of microfinance and improving wages and working conditions for brick workers, and have worked with several in-country partners ranging from the human rights organisation LICADHO to the US Embassy Labour officer in order to develop advocacy strategies. These arguments are also reflected academically in various articles, most notably the papers submitted to the journals Antipode and Environment and Planning E. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Construction,Environment,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy,Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| URL | https://www.projectbloodbricks.org/publications |
| Description | Context: Cambodia's capital city, Phnom Penh, has experienced an incredibly fast construction boom.Building projects demand bricks in large quantities, and there is a profitable domestic brick production industry supplying them. But the bricks are cheap and the labour is even cheaper; the research workers are typically paid a piece rate of approximately US$0.007 per brick. In fact, this industry relies upon a multigenerational workforce of adults and children trapped in debt bondage - the most prevalent form of modern slavery in the world. Research enabled by the ESRC-DFID Joint Fund for Poverty Alleviation Research on 'Blood Bricks' focuses on Cambodian brick kilns to examine how a high vulnerability to climate change can facilitate trafficking into new industries and greater susceptibility to modern slavery. The challenge: Cambodia has repeatedly been named one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world. As a country heavily reliant on agriculture, a combination of flooding and foreign investment in both the construction and garment industries has seen many workers leave farming to take up jobs in factories or construction sites. Low levels of regulation in these industries has resulted in multigenerational families of adults and children from rural villages working in hazardous factories on the outskirts of the country's capital city. In many cases, unable to pay back a local money lender, the family's loan was transferred to a brick kiln owner, upon which time they became bonded labourers in the factory in order to pay off the debt. Due to the low rate of pay, families are often unable to earn back the amount 'owed'. The impact: For its impact, the project won Times Higher Education 2020 "Research Project of the Year: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences" and was submitted as a REF2021 Impact Case Study. The research has strengthened awareness of the connections between climate change and severe forms of labour exploitation. Specifically, it has contributed to a deepening understanding of how climate change has exacerbated vulnerability in rural areas, in a context where millions of rural farmers across the global South are leaving agriculture and moving to urban work, particularly to more vulnerable forms of urban work. Furthermore, the research has offered policy recommendations to a number of actors, including the Royal Government of Cambodia, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and the UK government with regards to the Modern Slavery Act 2015. The research report's findings (Brickell et al. 2018) and exhibition content have been communicated by a wide range of national and global media outlets, including BBC World News (TV), ABC News (TV), the Guardian (online), The Independent (online), the Thomson Reuters Foundation (online), Al Jazeera (online), the South China Morning Post (print/online), The Conversation (online), Southeast Asia Globe (print/online), and The Phnom Penh Post (online). In total, 30+ news articles have been written about the research. The Blood Bricks data has been used and further investigated via a Greenpeace investigation in 2022 and featured as a case study in a You Tube Original for COP26 in 2021. We launched the findings in Cambodia in January 2019, inviting key government stakeholders and civil society to the British Embassy in Phnom Penh. We also presented a UN Learning Seminar hosted by UNDP, and provided in-person research briefings to local NGOs, the Swedish International Development Agency, International Trade Union Confederation, Brick Workers Trade Union of Cambodia, Legal Support for Women and Children, Solidarity Centre, Save the Children, and International Justice Mission. This led to coverage in national newspapers that led to national policy changes, a survey conducted with an NGO that evidenced the scale of debt bondage in the brick sector nationally, and changes to US trafficking policy. On a global scale, Urmila Bhoola, the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, including its causes and consequences, has commented, 'I congratulate the team on this ground-breaking report and I have no doubt that it will contribute significantly to improvements in the life of the people who are currently working in brick production in slavery-like conditions.' The project report has further attracted interest from organisations working in a range of areas. The team have contributed to, and been cited in, a report submitted to the UN's review of the UK's compliance with the UN Convention against Torture, led by the anti-torture organisation REDRESS. Finally, the team secured extra funding from the UK Global Challenges Research Fund (via RHUL) to return to Cambodia and undertake further research around the issue of air quality in kilns where garment offcuts from global fashion brands are being burned. In terms of the UK, the project report's findings speak to the inefficacy of the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 in tackling instances of modern slavery in UK supply chains overseas. In addition to the recommendations made in the research report around suggested improvements to the legislation, the project team submitted evidence to a Home Affairs Select Committee call in September 2018 which reviewed the Modern Slavery Act. The team are currently working with a barrister's chambers to take the project findings further through legal action. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Construction,Environment,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy,Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Blood Bricks report citation: Delta 8.7 website |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| URL | https://delta87.org/2018/10/blood-bricks-report-shows-connection-climate-change-modern-slavery-cambo... |
| Description | Blood Bricks report citation: Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner website |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| URL | https://www.antislaverycommissioner.co.uk/resources |
| Description | Blood Bricks report citation: United Nations Action for Cooperation Against Trafficking in Persons website |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| URL | http://un-act.org/publication/blood-bricks-untold-stories-modern-slavery |
| Description | Briefing on Microfinance held at Cambodian Resource Development Institute |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | We presented our research findings around the detrimental impacts of unregulated microfinance upon rural smallholder farming families to a group of academics and finance industry representatives, including a senior representative from the National Bank of Cambodia. We did so alongside Professor Milford Batemen, who talked about the macro-context of microfinance in East Asia. As a result of the seminar, the National Bank of Cambodia representative expressed some surprise at our findings, and has since remained in touch with Professor Bateman to think more closely about options to further regulate microfinance in Cambodia. We were also able to talk closely with Professor Batemen about developing our insights, and he is a Co-Investigator on our proposed GCRF bid, overseeing regulation of microfinance across both country contexts we will look at, India and Cambodia. |
| Description | Briefing to Cambodian Human Rights Organisation LICADHO |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | We discussed our research findings with LICADHO who have also worked on the issue of labour rights in brick kilns in Cambodia for over a decade. They advised us to contact the US embassy and other actors working on pushing sanctions against the Cambodian government due to human rights abuses, and present our findings to them in order to contribute to this process. They put us in touch with the US embassy and this led us on a fruitful path towards further advocacy. |
| Description | Briefing to Garden Court Chambers barrister |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | We gave a research briefing to a barrister at Garden Court Chambers who leads on issues of trafficking, in order to see what scope there is to take our evidence forward as a means of addressing perceived gaps in the Act's current provisions around prosecuting British companies found to be using trafficked labour in overseas supply chains. The Barrister now has a fully-dedicated Pupil looking through our evidence to see if there is scope to build a case to expose the weaknesses of the Modern Slavery Act. |
| Description | Briefing to Inclusive Development International, NGO |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | We discussed how best to disseminate research findings from our work around the construction firms, both Cambodian and overseas, that we discovered to have been investing in 8 buildings in Phnom Penh found to be constructed using bricks made by debt-bonded labourers. We developed a long-term strategy which involved softer measures first, so quietly approaching investors, and then longer-term measures of seeking media coverage of the links. This is ongoing work for the rest of this year. |
| Description | Briefing to Swedish International Development Agency and Swedish Embassy |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | We delivered a briefing outlining findings and policy recommendations to the whole in-country team of SIDA and the Swedish embassy. Attendees reported to us that they did not know about debt bondage in the brick sector prior to our briefing, and we discussed concrete paths ahead in terms of advocacy. This included asking SIDA to hold and event and perhaps discuss running a programme in the future about the need for regulation in the microfinance sector. Discussions about taking these ideas forward continue. |
| Description | Briefing to UN Women |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | We discussed the gender-based aspects of our findings, and developed future plans to collaborate on a research project (which we are applying for now through GCRF) to better untangle the gender-based aspects of the climate change-modern slavery nexus, focusing on debt in particular. UN Women are a project partner on the grant we are currently putting together. |
| Description | Briefing to United Nations country staffer |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Briefing to representative from Fairsew garment company |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | We met with a representative from Fairsew, an ethical garment manufacturing company in Cambodia, to discuss the wider problem of garment waste that our findings touched upon. The representative invited us to exhibit photographs from our research as part of an annual ethical fashion week in Phnom Penh. She reported that she hadn't been aware of the scale of the issue prior to our meeting, and we are still in touch in thinking about waste management in the future. |
| Description | Briefing to representative of Solidarity Centre Cambodia |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | We met with representatives from Solidarity Centre who work on issues of workers' rights worldwide and have an in-country office in Cambodia. They have put us in touch with several trade unions that should be representing brick workers in Cambodia and are unable to do so due to the difficulty of organising workers from isolated kilns. As such, we are continuing these meetings, with a view to working with unions to highlight the difficulties of freedom of association the brick sector as a means of highlighting human rights abuses in the country. |
| Description | Briefing to senior representatives from USAID, US State Dept, and US Embassy in Cambodia |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | We met with senior officials from USAID, the US State Department and the US Embassy in Cambodia in order to think about how we could use our evidence in order to apply pressure on the Cambodian government to improve working conditions for brick workers. This includes the possibility of USAID programming in the future. We remain in touch with the embassy to see how our evidence may be taken forward. |
| Description | Briefing to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Continued engagement with Urmila Bhoola, UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary forms of Slavery, including its Causes and Consequences |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | The UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary forms of Slavery, including its Causes and Consequences, Urmila Bhoola, read our research report and wrote a foreword for it, where she stated, 'I congratulate the team on this ground-breaking report and I have no doubt that it will contribute significantly to improvements in the life of the people who are currently working in brick production in slavery-like conditions.' We continued to maintain regular email correspondence about the slavery issues in Cambodia, and she has recently requested a country visit to Cambodia to follow-up on the potential human rights infarctions around contemporary forms of slavery that may be occurring in-country. |
| Description | Impact Initiative Brief: "THE CLIMATE CHANGE- MODERN SLAVERY NEXUS IN CAMBODIA" |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| URL | https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitstream/handle/123456789/14207/ResearchImpact_BloodBricks_Elec... |
| Description | Impact on activities of Hope for Justice in pursuing impact of the Blood Bricks study in Cambodia and the UK |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Hope for Justice contacted the project team about taking forward impact-focused work which they have capacity for. They have agreed to dedicate time to press the UK companies with garments found on the dump site and in brick kilns; to collectively design a 'better kiln' model which they will then seek funding for as a pilot case; and to try and organise a meeting for us with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Ministry of Labour in Cambodia. |
| URL | https://hopeforjustice.org |
| Description | Invited briefing to the Brick Development Association, March 2019 |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Discussion and advice given on CE brick certification problem that does not include labour practices; discussed future collaborative funding; donation possibility for projects in Cambodia; and their invitation to take us around a UK brick factory. |
| URL | https://www.brick.org.uk |
| Description | Invited briefing: Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and Home Office learning event 'Evidence Dialogues on Modern Slavery and Vulnerability to Climate Change'. |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| URL | https://www.projectbloodbricks.org/blog/2020/10/5/blood-bricks-video-talk-to-the-fcdo |
| Description | Meeting with Better Factories Cambodia |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | We met with Better Factories Cambodia, part of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), to discuss expanding the ILO's scope into the construction sector, and also getting advice from them about how they were able to develop such a robust regulatory framework for the garment sector and garment workers. We continue to follow-up on loads that they gave us from this meeting. |
| Description | Meeting with labour representative from US embassy |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | We met with a representative from the US embassy who is interested in using our findings to strengthen a potential case against the Cambodian government regarding the existence of labour abuses which go against the Goods and Services Provision trade agreement between USA and Cambodia. This is ongoing work, as the US embassy rep is helping to put us in touch with government officials in the Labour Ministry to think about shorter-term improvements to brick workers' lives such as introducing the minimum wage, and longer-term improvements that will strengthen regulation; such as US sanctions. |
| Description | Meetings with Chris Kelly, BAFTA-nominated film director for Channel 4 "Blood Bricks" programme(s) |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Meetings in 2019 with Chris Kelly, BAFTA-nominated film director to plan his pitch to Channel 4 for documentary based on the Blood Bricks study. Currently through to final commissioning rounds with Channel 4, for two documentaries, one for Dispatches, the other for Unreported World. |
| Description | Newspaper article: The Guardian, "How climate change forces farmers into slavery in Cambodia's brick kilns - in pictures" by Hannah Summers and Thomas Cristofoletti (our project photographer) |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| URL | https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2018/oct/18/how-climate-change-forces-farmers... |
| Description | Newspaper article: The Phnom Penh Post, "Ministry to probe child labour", by Mech Dara |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | The newspaper article reports that "The Ministry of Labour says it will investigate the claims of a Royal Holloway, University of London research team's report alleging modern slavery in Cambodia's brick kilns, said Minister of Labour Ith Sam Heng". This shows direct research impact on the Cambodian government. |
| URL | https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ministry-probe-child-labour |
| Description | Ongoing engagement with Her Majesty's Ambassador to Cambodia, Tina Redshaw |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Her Majesty's Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia, Tina Redshaw, wrote a foreword to our research report, where she stated, 'I welcome the valuable contribution this study makes to greater understanding of certain aspects of our diplomatic mission in Cambodia including education, human rights and good governance, climate change, modern slavery and child protection'. She subsequently invited us to launch our research report at her residence in Phnom Penh. As part of this event, Ms Redshaw gave an opening address at this event where she praised our research objectives, and stated the British Government's continued commitment to tackling modern slavery. |
| Description | Presentation to Politokoffee activists |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | We delivered a talk on our research findings to a group of young and engaged Cambodian activists, who are students and young campaigners on issues of democracy and social justice. The presentation led to fruitful conversations around how we can further lobby the government, including around including brick workers in the recent expansion of the minimum wage act in Cambodia. We went on to pursue this strategy. |
| Description | Report launch at British Embassy, Phnom Penh |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | We launched our full project report at a reception held at the British Embassy in Phnom Penh, which included a presentation of findings. Attendees included heads of local NGOs such as Oxfam and Care International, various UN agencies, and other ambassadors including the EU ambassador. We were able to arrange follow-up meetings with several people to follow advocacy enquires through this event, and also received feedback from in-country NGOs that they had not known about debt bondage in Cambodia's brick sector prior to our event. |
| Description | Representative from Green Shoots Foundation |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Representative from Outland Denim garment company |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | We met with a representative of Outland Denim, an ethical fashion company based in Cambodia, to discuss our research findings and offer advice around the issues of garment waste and modern slavery in their supply chain. The company had read our work and asked to meet with us, and fed back to us that the meeting vastly improved their understanding of both issues, particularly modern slavery, where they have been 'rescuing' former debt-bonded workers to be employees in their factory and not understood the scale of the problem or its drivers. |
| Description | United Nations Cambodia Learning Seminar |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | We delivered an hour-long learning seminar presentation of our research findings to representatives from all UN agencies working in Cambodia. This led to a high level of feedback from staffers that reported that they did not know about debt bondage in the brick sector prior to our presentation. It also led to further discussions with several agencies on different aspects of advocacy. For example, the Country Director of UNDP followed-up to approach some of the Cambodian elites found to be investors of buildings identified to have bricks made using debt-bonded labour, and talk to them about our research. These are all ongoing strands of advocacy that we are continuing to follow-up with. |
| Description | Written evidence submission and citation in REDRESS UK Implementation of the UN Convention against Torture review |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in systematic reviews |
| Description | Written submission to Home Affairs Committee Modern slavery inquiry, 2018 |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| URL | http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/home-affairs-commit... |
| Description | www.projectbloodbricks.org website |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Our website has received considerable interest and is evidenced by the analytics for the last year: Number of page views: 12k Unique visitors: 5k We have an active Twitter account Blood_Bricks which has 500+ followers. |
| URL | http://www.projectbloodbricks.org |
| Description | GCRF follow-on funding "Discarded: Improving Corporate Social Responsibility on Pre-Consumer Garment Waste in Cambodia " |
| Amount | £10,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Royal Holloway, University of London |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2018 |
| End | 07/2019 |
| Description | GCRF follow-on funding "Toxic Fashion: Embodied Geographies of Air, Garment Burning, and Exposure in Cambodia" |
| Amount | £6,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Royal Holloway, University of London |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2018 |
| End | 07/2019 |
| Description | GCRF follow-on funding for "Blood Bricks: Examining the Climate Change-Modern Slavery Nexus in the Cambodian Construction Industry" |
| Amount | £10,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Royal Holloway, University of London |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2018 |
| End | 07/2019 |
| Description | NA |
| Amount | £7,500 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Freedom Fund UK |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2021 |
| Description | The Next Frontier of Climate Policy: Joining the Dots of Bricks, Trade and Embodied Emissions from Cambodia and Bangladesh to the UK |
| Amount | £123,347 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ES/T016051/1 |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2020 |
| End | 06/2021 |
| Description | Collaboration with legal practitioners |
| Organisation | Garden Court Chambers |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Initiation of relationship and provision of evidence |
| Collaborator Contribution | Pro bono legal representation in UN compliant based on research findings. |
| Impact | NA. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | 'Data and Research Keynote': Responsible & Ethical Leadership for Global Construction Supply Chains Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | 'Data and Research Keynote': Responsible & Ethical Leadership for Global Construction Supply Chains Conference. An industry conference for 400+ senior construction sector professionals at AVIVA, London. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.bregroup.com/conferences/responsible-ethical-leadership/ |
| Description | 5th Global Conference on Economic Geography, Cologne |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Presented the paper "Living Below Zero: Being and Belonging in the Indentured Components of GPNs.' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Association of Southeast Asian Studies UK Conference, September, 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Convened a panel entitled "Beyond Water Terror: Everyday Life, Labour and Mobility amidst Southeast Asia's Changing Hydrology". Presented a paper entitled "The Spatial Politics of Water in Cambodia: Marginality, Precarity, Power". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | BBC World News Impact interview by Nithya Natarajan and Laurie Parsons |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Nithya Natarajan and Laurie Parsons were interviews by Yalda Hakim for the BBC World News 'Impact' programme, where they spoke about Blood Bricks as part of a segment on debt bondage in the Cambodian brick sector; based on the findings from the Blood Bricks project. The programme reached 99 million reviewers worldwide according to reported statistics from the programme's producers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Blog, Asia Dialogue, "Between the Devil and the IPCC: Cultural constraints to achieving 1.5°C warming" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Review of the IPCC report. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://theasiadialogue.com/2018/12/10/between-the-devil-and-the-ipcc-cultural-constraints-to-achievi... |
| Description | Blog: A Meeting of Kingdoms: Showcasing the Depth and Diversity of UK Research on Cambodia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Blog on bringing together UK-based experts working on Cambodia for the first time. The related event, hosted by Royal Holloway, University of London provided space for the researchers to present their findings, share their stories and learn from each other. At this critical time in Cambodian politics, the discussion fostered a community of scholars for future advice, support, and collaboration, encompassing topics as diverse as music, geopolitics, and education in the Kingdom. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.projectbloodbricks.org/blog/2018/4/19/a-meeting-of-kingdoms-showcasing-the-depth-and-div... |
| Description | Blog: From Blood Diamonds to Blood Bricks |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | The evocative term 'blood diamonds' has long been lodged in popular consciousness. Referring to the unrefined gems used by warlords and dictators to fund conflicts and power struggles, but the appeal of these 'dirty little stones', which have drawn both celebrities and cinema into their orbit, extends far beyond their value. The term fascinates, above all, for its linkage of high glamour and celebrity to the abject violence of war in the developing world; a dustily gleaming rejoinder to the idea of violence as separate from luxury, and the Western from the developing world. In referring to blood bricks, the blog sets out how we are trying to capture this objectified sense of geopolitical injustice, but also to extend it beyond the luxurious and the unusual to the mundane and the everyday. We therefore use 'blood bricks' as a neologism to capture the overlapping and compounding vulnerabilities of environmental fragility and the precarious bodies and livelihoods of labourers in the industry's brick-kilns and aim, in doing so, to show that something as simple as a brick can tell a complex, but highly specific, story about exploitation. Blood bricks are less iconic than blood diamonds yet, for this very reason, their significance should not be underestimated. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.projectbloodbricks.org/blog/2017/7/19/blood-bricks-on-the-intersection-of-climate-change... |
| Description | Blog: Futures at Work "BROADENING THE HORIZONS OF 'WORK': SMALL FARMS AND BRICK KILNS IN CAMBODIA" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Published in Futures of Work - a blog offering radical and critical thinking on ongoing and emerging issues associated with work and employment. Powered by Bristol University Press in collaboration with a multidisciplinary editorial team at the University of Bristol, the blog is produced in association with the Faculty Research Group for Perspectives on Work and the ESRC World of Work PhD and ECR Network. Hosting long-form opinion pieces, debates and thought-provoking podcasts, this blog is a space for wide ranging debate on the multiple possible futures of work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://futuresofwork.co.uk/2018/11/19/broadening-the-horizons-of-work-small-farms-and-brick-kilns-i... |
| Description | Blog: Making Connections: Modern Slavery, Environmental Destruction and Climate Change |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Blog interrogating how environmental change, manifested as climate change, resource depletion or ecological catastrophe, is interlinked with the rise of precarious, informal work across much of the Global South today. Connected to working of the same title. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.projectbloodbricks.org/blog/2018/4/22/making-connections-modern-slavery-environmental-de... |
| Description | Blog: Open Democracy: "There is no race to the bottom" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Building on the ESRC-DFID funded study, the blog argues that there is so much labour competition and prices are already so low that workers become "surplus populations." |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.freedomunited.org/news/opinion-there-is-no-race-to-the-bottom/ |
| Description | Blog: The Climate-Change Modern Slavery Nexus: Why Study Cambodia? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Blog setting out the research study. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.projectbloodbricks.org/blog/2017/7/19/blood-bricks-on-the-intersection-of-climate-change... |
| Description | Blog: The Conversation "Slavery is real and the West profits from it - Cambodia's construction boom highlights how" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Blog highlighting modern slavery as a fundamentally structural issue, deeply enmeshed in systems of global commerce and growth. The blog was republished in the Independent newspaper after featuring in The Conversation. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/cambodia-modern-slavery-construction-forced-child-labour-poverty-asia-a8630126.html |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://theconversation.com/slavery-is-real-and-the-west-profits-from-it-cambodias-construction-boom... |
| Description | Blood Bricks leads to Greenpeace investigation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | An Unearthed investigation has revealed how off-cuts from Cambodian factories supplying major brands are being used to fuel brick kilns - exposing workers to toxic fumes. This new investigation took place after the practice was first revealed in the Blood Bricks research and its project report published in 2018. Dr Laurie Parsons, co-investigator on the Blood Bricks project spoke to the Unearthed team about the findings: "The burning of acrylic garments, especially when combined with plastic bags, hangers, rubber and other waste as occurs in Cambodia, releases plastic microfibres and other toxic chemicals into the immediate environment which compromise the health of workers and neighbours on a short and long term basis. The human impacts, in particular, are substantially worse than burning wood and have been highlighted in a recent UK parliamentary report as a major problem in the industry," Unearthed is Greenpeace UK's award-winning journalism project. For more information on the Blood Bricks findings, read our blog on this issue, report and open access journal article published on 'Discardscapes of fashion: Commodity biography, patch geographies, and preconsumer garment waste in Cambodia'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6SxkAkZy2I&t=3s |
| Description | Briefing given to Tonle, a sustainable fashion company in Cambodia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Briefing to Tonle, a sustainable fashion company using garment scraps for their clothes. They did not know where their scraps came from and learned more about this through our briefing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://tonle.com |
| Description | Business & Human Rights Centre story: "Cambodia: Blood Bricks project looks into modern slavery & debt bondage in the brick-making industry; labour ministry commits to investigate" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The Story follows the developments of the Blood Bricks project. Updates were linked below it as they arose. The Business & Human Rights Centre have actively taken on contacting international stakeholders implicated in bricks made by debt-bonded labourers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/cambodia-blood-bricks-project-looks-into-modern-slavery-debt... |
| Description | Business Green article - 'Sickening': Textile waste from top global brands found burned in toxic kilns in Cambodia. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Blood bricks data on garment burning in Media |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4054438/sickening-textile-waste-global-brands-burned-toxic-kilns-... |
| Description | Conference organisation and presentations: Debt, Freedom, and Development: Insights from Asia (National University of Singapore, Singapore) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Academic conference we organised with the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, bringing together scholars working on debt in Asia; a growing concern given rising levels of household indebtedness, the expansion of Microfinance, the growing importance of debt in migration systems, and the increasing use of debt as a means of profit through financialisation. The 'Blood Bricks' team gave two presentations, "Blood Bricks: Debt-bondage, Carceral Geographies and the (Im)Mobile Lives of Brick-Kiln Laborers in Cambodia" and "The perils of financial inclusion and growth for the poor: modern slavery as 'adverse incorporation' into Cambodia's economy". A special issue proposal has been submitted to Geoforum. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.projectbloodbricks.org/events/2018/7/26/debt-freedom-and-development-insights-from-asia |
| Description | Conference organisation: Global Challenges' Creative Turn: A workshop exploring the possibilities and practicalities of creative research methods and practices in the Global South (University of London, UK) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | One of the goals of the UK's Global Challenges Research Fund is to stimulate cross-research council research practices that see social scientists collaborating with arts and humanities researchers, and bringing methods and practices from the arts and humanities to bear on urgent problems in the Global South. Yet for many social scientists - from Geographers to Development Scholars - the possibilities but also the challenges of using arts and humanities, and specifically creative research methods and practices are not always clear. In the workshop a series of activities, talks, and panels aimed to address this. This workshop introduced a series of examples of the 'Creative Turn' in Global South research and use these to explore the possibilities of these research practices; the challenges and pitfalls that researchers might face; as well as some of the practicalities of applying for and doing this kind of research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.projectbloodbricks.org/events/2018/7/2/global-challenges-creative-turn-a-workshop-explor... |
| Description | Conference organisation: Lives in Brick: Bodies, Justice, Power (University of London, UK) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Academic conference focused on bricks as a vibrant form of infrastructure which mediates and organises life. Speakers from UK, USA, Czech Republic, and Australia. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.projectbloodbricks.org/events/2018/10/24/lives-in-brick-bodies-justice-power |
| Description | Conference organisation: Modern Slavery, Environmental Destruction, and Climate Change: A Scoping Workshop (University of London, UK) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In this exploratory workshop our aim was to interrogate how environmental change, manifested as climate change, resource depletion or ecological catastrophe, is interlinked with the rise of precarious, informal work across much of the Global South today. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.projectbloodbricks.org/events/2018/6/6/modern-slavery-environmental-destruction-and-clim... |
| Description | Daily Mail - Toxic pollution shame of high street brands over burning of offcuts as Next and Clarks are accused in fashion waste scandal |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Blood bricks data on garment burning in Media |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11089971/Toxic-pollution-shame-high-street-brands-including... |
| Description | FCDO and Home Office talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Prof Brickell delivered an invited to talk to the FCDO and Home Office at their learning event 'Evidence dialogues on Modern Slavery and Vulnerability to Climate Change' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Greenpeace - Cambodia workers pay the price of Fast Fashion's supply chain waste problem |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Supporters |
| Results and Impact | Blood bricks data on garment burning in Media |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/55134/cambodia-workers-pay-the-price-of-fast-fashions... |
| Description | Invited seminar give at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester, February 2019 (audio-recorded by ABC Australia) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Seminar given on "Blood Bricks: Untold Stories of Modern Slavery and Climate Change from Cambodia". Recorded by ABC Australia as a podcast. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://blog.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/gdi-lecture-blood-bricks-katherine-brickell/ |
| Description | Invited seminar, Centre on Labour and Global Production, Queen Mary University of London, 21 March 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Talk given on "Indecent work and economic growth in SDG 8: The perils of financial inclusion and growth among unfree brick workers in Cambodia". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | LSE Urban Salon "Revisiting Displacement in Urban Studies", invited presentation given on "Cambodia's vertical ascent: Viewpoints on urban displacement from Phnom Penh" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk challenging conventional work on urban displacement. Several follow up emails from PGR students to meet up. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/seac-and-urban-salon-workshop-revisiting-displacement-in-urban-studie... |
| Description | Launch of Blood Bricks Report in London at Blood Bricks Exhibition, Building Centre |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | The launch of the project report, entitled 'Blood Bricks: Untold Stories of Modern Slavery and Climate Change from Cambodia' at our photo exhibition of the same name, which was also launched that night. The report launch included representatives from academia, third sector organisations and media. It included a presentation by Principle Investigator, Professor Katherine Brickell, and a foreword by Bill Longhurst, the former British Ambassador to Cambodia. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Live Television Interview with ABC Australia by Laurie Parsons |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Dr Laurie Parsons appeared a live television broadcast for ABC News Australia, where he talked about research findings and policy recommendations for the Blood Bricks Project. The video received just under 5,000 views on twitter alone. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Magazine publication, Clay Technology magazine, "BONDED TO UNETHICAL BRICKS" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Ellis Davies reported on the unethical manufacture of bricks, and the effect of bonded labour on the industry. The magazine article was based on our 'Blood Bricks' study and led to our invitation to brief the Brick Development Association. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.iom3.org/clay-technology-magazine |
| Description | Newspaper article: The Independent, "Cambodia's construction boom is a display of how the west profits from modern slavery" by Laurie Parsons, November 2018 (2018) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Laurie Parsons wrote an article for the Independent newspaper which links profits in Europe and the US in investment firms to debt-bonded labour in Cambodia's brick sector. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.independent.co.uk/author/laurie-parsons |
| Description | Plenary speaker at ESRC-DFID Power of Partnership Workshop, Delhi, from 3rd to 5th of December 2018. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Plenary speaker at ESRC-DFID Power of Partnership Workshop, Delhi, from 3rd to 5th of December 2018. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation at 8TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE IN POLITICAL ECONOMY (IIPPE) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Talk given on "Land, migration and debt: deagrarianisation and the aspiration to 'return to the land' in Cambodia". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://iippe.org/8th-annual-conference-in-political-economy/ |
| Description | Presentation at Sustainability and Development Conference, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, MI, USA, November 9-11, 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Gave talk on "Modern Slavery and the Growth Imperative in Cambodian Construction: Towards a Critique of Contradictions in Sustainable Development Goal 8". Invited to submit journal article to World Development; a multi-disciplinary monthly journal of development studies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://seas.umich.edu/events/06_22_2018/sustainability_and_development_conference |
| Description | Presentation at The Post-Wage Economy: Re-theorising 'work' across the global North-South divide, workshop at Queen Mary University of London. 28-29 June 2018. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presentation given on "Constructing 'informality': towards a more articulated notion of 'informal' and 'unfree' labour". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.qmul.ac.uk/geog/events/events/the-post-wage-economy-re-theorising-work-across-the-global... |
| Description | Presentation given at "Migrations and New Mobilities in Southeast Asia" conference, The Center for Southeast Asia Studies at UC Berkeley and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, USA April 27-28, 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation given on "Blood Bricks: Debt-bondage, carceral geographies and the (im)mobile lives of brick-kiln laborers in Cambodia" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/sseas.html?event_ID=112850&date=2018-04-27 |
| Description | Presented at the NCCR - On the Move Workshop on "Exploring the Imagination- Mobility Nexus: From Imaginaries to Imagining on the Move", from the 18th to the 19th of May 2018 at the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Presented at the NCCR - On the Move Workshop on "Exploring the Imagination- Mobility Nexus: From Imaginaries to Imagining on the Move", from the 18th to the 19th of May 2018 at the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presented at the TransRe "Adaptation in Motion" workshop in Bonn, from the 5th to the 7th of September 2018. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Presented at the TransRe "Adaptation in Motion" workshop in Bonn, from the 5th to the 7th of September 2018. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Press Release, photo gallery and media engagement |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | In order to facilitate media coverage across print, broadcast and online media, we developed press releases that covered different aspects of our research project, around the construction sector, climate change, and modern slavery, and sent these through Royal Holloway's press team out to numerous media outlets in the UK and overseas. As a result of these activities, we received significant global coverage of our research, as follows: (the most high-profile are listed as separate items under 'Impact'): Phys.org (22/10/18) Modern slavery and climate change are in a vicious cycle of degradation, according to experts. By Charlotte Anscombe; Phnom Penh Post (18/10/18) Trapped in debt bondage. By Mech Dara; Construction property.com (17/10/18) Blood-bricks: Booming construction in Cambodia built on modern day slavery. By Cambodia Construction Association; Fifth Estate (17/10/18) Oxygen files - Thatcher, US data, fracking, Ningaloo Reef and blood bricks; BoingBoing (17/10/18) Slaves - including children - make the bricks for Cambodia's housing bubble; Al Jazeera (16/10/18) Cambodia's high-rises, slavery and climate change. By Marta Kazstelan and Kanika Chhit; ABC News (16/10/18) 'Blood bricks': How climate change is trapping Cambodians in modern slavery. By Holly Robertson (this article received 50,000 views with an average reader time of 2 minutes 48 seconds); Thompson Reuters Foundation (16/10/18) Cambodian construction boom built on 'blood bricks' and slavery: report. By Jared Ferrie; ASEAN Economist (16/10/18) Study exposes Cambodia's brick 'slaves'. By Taylor Macdonald; News.com.au (16/10/18) Poor exploited in Cambodia building boom. By Jared Ferrie; The South China Morning Post (16/10/18) Cambodia's construction industry is booming - but its built on 'blood bricks' and modern slavery. Thompson Reuters Foundation; The Taipei Times (16/10/18) Cambodia boom driven by 'modern-day' slavery. Thompson Reuters Foundation; The Straights Times (16/10/18) Cambodia construction boom built on 'blood bricks' and slavery: Report. Thompson Reuters Foundation; Malay Mail (16/10/18) Cambodia construction boom built on 'blood bricks' and slavery, report reveals; The ASEAN Post (06/01/19) Cambodia's farmers fight debt bondage; The Globe Post (03/01/19) Impoverished by drought, Cambodia's farmers face debt slavery. By Staff writer; Bangkok Post (02/01/19 ) Bricked in by poverty, Cambodia's farmers fight debt bondage. By AFP; Southeast Asia Globe (12/11/18 ) Cambodia's building blocks: How climate change drives debt bondage in booming brick industry. By Janelle Retka and Leng Len with photography by Thomas Cristofoletti; Khmer Times (24/10/18) Spotlight on child labour prevention. By Mom Kunthear; Sight Magazine (16/10/18) Cambodia construction boom built on "blood bricks" and slavery - report. By Jared Ferrie. Please see our website under 'media' for a continually-updated list, there were 35 overall as of 12.03.2019. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Project blog: Lives in Brick: Bodies, Justice, Power |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Project blog engaging academic audiences |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.projectbloodbricks.org/blog/2018/10/4/lives-in-brick-bodies-justice-power |
| Description | Royal Geographical Society, August 2018. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Convened a panel entitled "Geographies of Labour in a Changing Climate" at RGS-IBG 2018 in Cardiff, sponsored by the Climate Change Research Group and the Geographies of Justice Research Group. Presented a paper entitled "Blood, Sweat and Arrears: Debt, Exploitative Labour, and the Embodiment of Climate Change". Additionally chaired a panel entitled "Geographies of Income, Labour and Poverty" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | The Guardian (18/10/18) How climate change forces farmers into slavery in Cambodia's brick kilns - in pictures. By Hannah Summers and Thomas Cristofelleti. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Thomas Cristofoletti co-produced a photo essay with a Guardian journalist for the newspaper's online content which reproduced key images and narratives from the Blood Bricks photo exhibition. This came out in the week of the report launch and so ensured strong coverage of both the research and images to a wide audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2018/oct/18/how-climate-change-forces-farmers... |
| Description | Workshop and film showing organisation: Cambodia Scholar Workshop + Screening of 'A Cambodian Spring' (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | In this workshop we brought together academic researchers who are undertaking research on Cambodia. Our aims for the day were to facilitate rapid learning about this work; provide space for discussion at a critical time in Cambodian politics; and foster a community of scholars for future advice, support, and collaboration. The day-long workshop concluded with a screening of the award-winning film A Cambodian Spring and a Q & A with its director Chris Kelly. We were honoured that the Venerable Luon Sovath joined us for the event and film Q & A from Cambodia. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.projectbloodbricks.org/events/2018/2/13/cambodia-scholar-workshop-screening-of-a-cambodi... |
| Description | You Tube Original - How The Climate Crisis Affects Us All | Seat At The Table |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Case study of blood bricks in Cambodia for COP26 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx_P3q8w6VA |
| Description | www.projectbloodbricks.org website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Our website has received considerable interest and is evidenced by the analytics for the last year: there were 12k page views and 5k unique visitors. We have an active Twitter account Blood_Bricks which has 500+ followers |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019 |
| URL | http://www.projectbloodbricks.org |