Neethi P.
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- June 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199463626
- eISBN:
- 9780199086863
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199463626.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
This book concerns the broad theme of globalization and labour, particularly female labour, and applies the ‘labour geography’ approach to examine contemporary forms of labour control, conflict, and ...
More
This book concerns the broad theme of globalization and labour, particularly female labour, and applies the ‘labour geography’ approach to examine contemporary forms of labour control, conflict, and response under a globalization regime in Kerala state in India, through four diverse in-depth empirical case studies set in this state. This book concentrates on the transforming nature of work under capitalism, and has three interrelated aims: (a) to identify the myriad forms of globalization, as against casting it as a monolith; (b) to perceive workers as active social agents rather than as passive subjects; and (c) to reflect on local discourses of globalization and related issues. Kerala has been chosen as the setting because the state’s labour scenario has dramatically changed, especially in the second half of the twentieth century. While constructing a collage of certain contemporary trends in Kerala’s labour market, this book moves away from the approaches prescribed by economic orthodoxy and borrows from sociological, anthropological, and partly from ethnographic approaches. A geographic perspective allows us to appreciate local variability and uneven development in the labour market, and to chart the complex landscape in which contemporary workers live, work, and struggle. The four distinct, theoretically-driven case studies also help in bringing out the role played by various seemingly unlikely actors in the labour market. Questioning global stereotypes, the book argues that labour becomes actively involved in the very process of globalization and the expansion of capital.Less
This book concerns the broad theme of globalization and labour, particularly female labour, and applies the ‘labour geography’ approach to examine contemporary forms of labour control, conflict, and response under a globalization regime in Kerala state in India, through four diverse in-depth empirical case studies set in this state. This book concentrates on the transforming nature of work under capitalism, and has three interrelated aims: (a) to identify the myriad forms of globalization, as against casting it as a monolith; (b) to perceive workers as active social agents rather than as passive subjects; and (c) to reflect on local discourses of globalization and related issues. Kerala has been chosen as the setting because the state’s labour scenario has dramatically changed, especially in the second half of the twentieth century. While constructing a collage of certain contemporary trends in Kerala’s labour market, this book moves away from the approaches prescribed by economic orthodoxy and borrows from sociological, anthropological, and partly from ethnographic approaches. A geographic perspective allows us to appreciate local variability and uneven development in the labour market, and to chart the complex landscape in which contemporary workers live, work, and struggle. The four distinct, theoretically-driven case studies also help in bringing out the role played by various seemingly unlikely actors in the labour market. Questioning global stereotypes, the book argues that labour becomes actively involved in the very process of globalization and the expansion of capital.
Neethi P.
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- June 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199463626
- eISBN:
- 9780199086863
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199463626.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
This chapter begins with a discussion and vast review of the broad conceptual themes—these include an engagement with ‘globalization and labour’ as the major thematic pillar, with a special focus on ...
More
This chapter begins with a discussion and vast review of the broad conceptual themes—these include an engagement with ‘globalization and labour’ as the major thematic pillar, with a special focus on globalization, gender, and work. The chapter then moves to the issues of workers’ agency in a capitalist landscape, presenting an alternative way of examining work and employment practices, addressing the issue of the spatiality of work and bringing geography into focus. Providing a fresh understanding to this interface by means of building geographical awareness and insights into the world of work, this chapter outlines the necessary theoretical tools in geography that assist in studying work, employment, and society. Whilst maintaining the discussion on labour geography as the core of this chapter, it also visits a few alternative frameworks eschewed in favour of this approach.Less
This chapter begins with a discussion and vast review of the broad conceptual themes—these include an engagement with ‘globalization and labour’ as the major thematic pillar, with a special focus on globalization, gender, and work. The chapter then moves to the issues of workers’ agency in a capitalist landscape, presenting an alternative way of examining work and employment practices, addressing the issue of the spatiality of work and bringing geography into focus. Providing a fresh understanding to this interface by means of building geographical awareness and insights into the world of work, this chapter outlines the necessary theoretical tools in geography that assist in studying work, employment, and society. Whilst maintaining the discussion on labour geography as the core of this chapter, it also visits a few alternative frameworks eschewed in favour of this approach.
Mohammad Amir Anwar and Mark Graham
- Published in print:
- 2022
- Published Online:
- February 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780198840800
- eISBN:
- 9780191876455
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198840800.003.0006
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
This chapter examines how African workers exercise agency in the remote gig economy. In addition to the monetary and non-monetary rewards reaped by gig workers, they face significant risks. Gig work ...
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This chapter examines how African workers exercise agency in the remote gig economy. In addition to the monetary and non-monetary rewards reaped by gig workers, they face significant risks. Gig work platforms and clients/employers exert control over labour power and labour process through the mechanisms of ratings, feedback, user profile registrations, and algorithmic surveillance, thus constraining workers’ autonomy and bargaining power. In fact, opportunities for worker action in the gig economy are apparently fewer than in so-called ‘Fordist’ workplaces. Remote gig workers are expected to have fewer opportunities to exert their agency. Further, in comparison to European workers, African workers have less state welfare support to fall back on, which can also limit their agency. Drawing from a rich labour geography tradition, this chapter reformulates the notions of ‘resistance’, ‘resilience’, and ‘reworking’ as everyday practices of agency, best understood as ‘hidden transcripts’ of the gig economy.Less
This chapter examines how African workers exercise agency in the remote gig economy. In addition to the monetary and non-monetary rewards reaped by gig workers, they face significant risks. Gig work platforms and clients/employers exert control over labour power and labour process through the mechanisms of ratings, feedback, user profile registrations, and algorithmic surveillance, thus constraining workers’ autonomy and bargaining power. In fact, opportunities for worker action in the gig economy are apparently fewer than in so-called ‘Fordist’ workplaces. Remote gig workers are expected to have fewer opportunities to exert their agency. Further, in comparison to European workers, African workers have less state welfare support to fall back on, which can also limit their agency. Drawing from a rich labour geography tradition, this chapter reformulates the notions of ‘resistance’, ‘resilience’, and ‘reworking’ as everyday practices of agency, best understood as ‘hidden transcripts’ of the gig economy.
Neethi P.
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- June 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199463626
- eISBN:
- 9780199086863
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199463626.003.0007
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
The concluding chapter starts with a conceptual reprise and then moves on to the insights from this journey, by holding a detailed discussion on the aspects of labour control and labour responses ...
More
The concluding chapter starts with a conceptual reprise and then moves on to the insights from this journey, by holding a detailed discussion on the aspects of labour control and labour responses based on the cases. This chapter and this book concludes with a presentation of the limitations of the labour geography framework and some of the major contributions of this book in order to enrich and expand the contours of this framework, and its application to the Indian industrial-relations approach (the application of which is only at an initial stage in Indian academic discussions). In addition, though there has been a vast body of national and international work on Kerala’s labour, due to the state’s peculiarities, this piece of research probably one of the initial attempts to study this workforce and its experiences through a labour geography lens.Less
The concluding chapter starts with a conceptual reprise and then moves on to the insights from this journey, by holding a detailed discussion on the aspects of labour control and labour responses based on the cases. This chapter and this book concludes with a presentation of the limitations of the labour geography framework and some of the major contributions of this book in order to enrich and expand the contours of this framework, and its application to the Indian industrial-relations approach (the application of which is only at an initial stage in Indian academic discussions). In addition, though there has been a vast body of national and international work on Kerala’s labour, due to the state’s peculiarities, this piece of research probably one of the initial attempts to study this workforce and its experiences through a labour geography lens.
Neethi P.
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- June 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199463626
- eISBN:
- 9780199086863
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199463626.003.0003
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
This chapter enquires into the working lives of women, apparel park workers, in two firms in an export promotion industrial park in southern Kerala, and examines how these workers organized around a ...
More
This chapter enquires into the working lives of women, apparel park workers, in two firms in an export promotion industrial park in southern Kerala, and examines how these workers organized around a very local set of concerns and formed their own association. Supported by the labour geography framework, this chapter analyses how spatial practices of labour shape the economic geography of capitalism, by looking into a model not at a global but at a very local scale of organization and showing its effectiveness while confronting social actors organized at global or extra-local scales. Questioning global stereotypes on economic responses to globalization, I argue that labour becomes actively involved in the very process of globalization and the expansion of capital.Less
This chapter enquires into the working lives of women, apparel park workers, in two firms in an export promotion industrial park in southern Kerala, and examines how these workers organized around a very local set of concerns and formed their own association. Supported by the labour geography framework, this chapter analyses how spatial practices of labour shape the economic geography of capitalism, by looking into a model not at a global but at a very local scale of organization and showing its effectiveness while confronting social actors organized at global or extra-local scales. Questioning global stereotypes on economic responses to globalization, I argue that labour becomes actively involved in the very process of globalization and the expansion of capital.
