Handbook of Research on the Global Political Economy of Work

This ground-breaking Handbook broadens empirical and theoretical understandings of work, work relations, and workers. It advances a global, intersectional labour studies agenda, laying the foundations for the politically emancipatory project of decolonising the political economy of work.Moving beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries, this Handbook provides a comprehensive account of the relations between different forms of work, exploitation, class configuration and worker resistance. With insights from global experts across the social sciences, it examines changes in technology, geographies of production, and the dynamics of the global capitalist political economy to map modern configurations of work. Using ongoing empirical qualitative research, contributors explore key issues such as capital accumulation, migration, digital work, trade unionism and reproductive labour. There is a particular focus on perspectives from the Global South, with in-depth analyses of class and work in countries and regional economic blocs used to explore the dynamics between the local and the global.Providing an authoritative overview of traditional and current debates, this Handbook will be an essential resource for students and researchers of political economy, industrial relations and the sociology of work, critical management studies, social movement studies, and development.

‘A book that debates from theory and history, to sociology and politics of labour. Essential!’, ‘A much needed and comprehensive restatement of a Marxist critique of political economy. The Handbook skilfully combines labour and class to analyze work, exploitation, social reproduction, workers’ resistance, and many other pressing issues in the contemporary global economy.’, ‘This is a much needed Handbook that adds value to the growing literature on the global political economy of work. Its strength lies in the collection of works that, using critical perspectives, puts labor at the center of various interdisciplinary analyses. Offering a comprehensive view—theoretically, geographically, and in terms of work sectors—this bookcollection challenges Eurocentrism in labor studies and highlights how the workings of the world economy can have significant negative impacts on the peoples in the Global South.’, ‘It is rare to find such a stimulating and thorough going collection of intellectually rigorous, empirically grounded and accessible contributions to our understanding of the range and depth of challenges facing us in the political economy of work in the 21st century. This is quite simply an essential set of readings for students, researchers and practitioners alike – an invaluable and exceptional text.’, ‘The Handbook of Research on the Global Political Economy of Work offers the most pervasive and up-to-date companion to understanding the contemporary ontology of labour exploitation and emancipatory struggles alongside global value chains and new technological developments. By foregrounding social reproductive work, commodified reproduction and class in interplay with sex, gender, age, race and ethnicity, the Handbook is second to none in taking Marxist theorization to the next level.’

Edited by Maurizio Atzeni, Researcher, Centro de Investigaciones Laborales, CEIL/CONICET, Argentina and Professor, Facultad de Economia y Negocios, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile, Dario Azzellini, Professor Doctoral Program in Development Studies, Autonomous University of Zacatecas, Mexico, Alessandra Mezzadri, Reader in Global Development and Political Economy, SOAS, University of London, UK, Phoebe Moore, Professor of Management and the Futures of Work, University of Essex, UK and Senior Policy Researcher, International Labour Organization, Geneva, Switzerland and Ursula Apitzsch, Professor of Political Science and Sociology, Goethe-University, Frankfurt, Germany