The Political Economy of Work in the Global South

Part of the Critical Perspectives on Work and Employment series, this edited collection brings together contributions from leading international scholars to initiate an important dialogue between labour process analysis and scholarship on work in the Global South. This book characterises the forms of work and labour process that characterise globalising capitalism today and addresses core analytical concerns within Labour Process Theory and research on work in the South. It explores how a wide range of production relations in the Global South, ranging from formal to informal employment and self-employment, are embedded in wider social relations of gender, caste, religion and ethnicity, and are related to wider patterns of commodification and resistance. Drawing on cutting-edge research, the book's chapters consider a diverse range of working situations, covering migrant workers in the Middle East, commercial surrogacy work in India and cooperative garment workers in Argentina. In offering a novel reading of the political economy of work in the Global South and shedding light on lesser-considered fields of work and worker organization, this volume will provide new insights for making sense of the changing world of work for students, scholars, labour activists and practitioners alike.

Anita Hammer is a Senior Lecturer in Comparative and International Human Resource Management at De Montfort University, UK. A Sociologist of work and employment, she researches on the political economy of work in the Global South, in particular India and the Middle East. Her research examines the role of the informal economy, social reproduction and skills in structuring work and employment in multinational firms and in new industrializing/investment regions. Anita has published in leading journals, including Work, Employment and Society and Industrial Relations Journal. She is a research collaborator with Euro-Canadian network on Globalisation and Work, CRIMT, based at University of Montreal, Canada, and a research collaborator on their SSHRC partnership project 'Institutional Experimentation for Better Work', a 7-year project with 19 University partners across the world for 2017-2024. Adam Fishwick is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies and Public Policy at De Montfort University. His research focuses on the relationship between the changing nature of work, workers' movements and the political economy of development in Latin America. He is also interested in alternative forms of social and economic organization in the region and beyond. Adam has published work in leading journals, including Geoforum and Development and Change and co-edited a recent volume entitled Austerity and Working-Class Resistance: Survival, Disruption and Creation in Hard Times.

Introduction: labour process analysis and work in the Global South: a dialogue Section 1: Informal and Precarious Work, Social Relations and Class 1. Local labour control regimes, reproduction zones, and the politics of classes in labour in South India -Jonathan Pattenden 2. The politics of precarity in post-crisi Argentina: precarious work, informality and union strategies in the Northern Gran Buenos Aires-Rodolfo Elbert 3. Decentering the workplace: labour, urban dispossession and trade union organisation amongst garment workers in Argentina -Diego Velázquez Orellana. 4. Industrial agglomeration and union resources mobilization: a comparison between Antofagasta enclave and Los Lagos cluster, Chile Section 2: Production, Reproduction and Social Reproduction 5. Labour control regimes and social reproduction: some reflections on the strengths and weaknesses of an evolving framework-Elena Baglioni and Alessandra Mezzadri 6. The mother-workers of India: reproductive labour and women's autonomy in commercial surrogacy-Madhusree Jana 7. "But what if they don't renew my contract?": Cambodian garment workers, social reproduction and the gendered dull compulsion of economic relations Section 3: State, Capital and Labour Interactions 8. Embedding Saudi Capitalism at the Workplace 9. Business industrial strategy: restructuring and outsourcing in the Ternium Siderar (Grupe Techint) Steelworks, San Nicolás, Argentina (1990-2017) Julia Strada 10. for the recognition of domestic workers' rights: the controversies associated with regulatory reforms in Argentina, Chile and Paraguay-Lorena Poblete 11. Work and Employment in the times of automation and artificial intelligence: the Indian case- Suparna Karmakar and Anita Hammer Section 4: Linking North and South 12. Restrictions and resistance in the postcolonial periphery: labour power and skilled migrant workers in the United Kingdom- Chibuzo Ejiogu.