ABSTRACT
The language of “modern slavery” performs important conceptual work that frames human trafficking as a contemporary formation tied to a past activity. This chapter examines what such analogizing obscures, focusing specifically on the ways the language of “modern slavery” works to center calls for better supply chain politics. Arguing that the focus on supply chains too narrowly conceives of labor, this chapter links the infrastructures of NGO economies to the economic premises assumed in supply chain politics, which obscure the ways wealth accumulation extracts human vitalities unevenly.
