The Promise and Limits of Private Power

Richard Locke is the Howard Swearer Director of the Watson Institute for International Studies and Professor of Political Science at Brown University. He is professor on leave in the MIT Political Science Department.

Locke's current research is focused on improving labor and environmental conditions in global supply chains. Working with leading firms like Nike, Coca Cola, Apple, and HP, Locke and his students have been showing how corporate profitability and sustainable business practices can be reconciled. Locke has published five books – most recently The Promise & Limits of Private Power, Cambridge University Press (2013), based on his research on labor standards in global supply chains; Production in the Innovation Economy, with Rachel Wellhausen, The MIT Press (2013); Working in America with Paul Osterman, Thomas Kochan, and Michael Piore, The MIT Press (2001); Employment Relations in a Changing World Economy with Thomas Kochan, Michael Piore, The MIT Press (1995); and Remaking the Italian Economy, Cornell University Press (1995), as well as numerous articles on economic development, labor relations, and corporate responsibility.