This book covers various case studies that cross-compare dichotomies of welfare and economic gains in economies of the global south and how they impact citizens as workers. It reflects on how the reorganization of the developmental state is different than in the past (before the pandemic and lockdown) and how it responds to global challenges while also dealing with limited resources and an unregulated informal economy. It investigates whether the developmental state model in late industrializing economies is still an effective development strategy in terms of governance, institution building, industrial policy, and welfare in the post- pandemic recovery efforts. Using the cases of Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, and Brazil, the authors look at how COVID-19 has significantly affected worker conditions and safety hazards, as well as the ability to hold local managers and global companies accountable for upholding national occupational health standards in such conditions. The authors bring together the voices of workers, activists, and health officials to discuss the conditions of possibility for ensuring occupational health standards. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, such a discussion, in fact, becomes one about ensuring life over death. weiterlesen