Poverty and the production of world politics : unprotected workers in the global political economy / edited by Matt Davies and Magnus Ryner.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Davies, Matt, 1960-

Ryner, Magnus, 1965-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Labor--Social aspects.

Labor.

Poverty--Economic aspects.

Poverty.

International economic relations.

Economic policy.

Physical Description:

xiv, 306 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke [England] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Summary:

The RAND Corporation, the World Bank, cosmopolitan liberals, trade unionists and anti-globalization movements all agree that global poverty and 'the underclass' constitute essential dimensions of world politics. Yet, systematic analyses of how the 'global poor' intervene in world politics are scarce. Revisiting Cox and Harrod's conception of 'unprotected workers', this book critically examines prevailing assumptions about the sources of conflicts often associated with the global poor. By focusing specifically on the relations between work and the power relations in societal and global arenas, Poverty and the Production of World Politics links together debates about migration, human rights, the feminization and flexibilization of labour markets, and the rise of the 'informal economy' in innovative and provocative ways. It does so theoretically through a critical engagement with mainstream International Relations as well as Marxism, feminism and post-colonial theory. It does so empirically through explorations of the rise of millennialism; prostitution and the sex industry; the politics of the interstices of gender, labour and migration in Southern Africa and Latin America; and contemporary trade union politics.

Contents:

Unprotected work and world politics in international studies 4

1 Invisible Subject(s): Work and Workers in the Global Political Economy / Louise Amoore 14

Global restructuring and invisibility 15

Making visible? Perspectives on work and globalization 17

Globalization and the everyday practices of work 22

Contradictions at work 23

Divisions at work 26

Politics at work 33

2 The Global Poor and Global Politics: Neomaterialism and the Sources of Political Action / Jeffrey Harrod 38

Neomaterialism: restoring work and production to contemporary analysis 40

The global poor/ unprotected workers/ underclass in world politics 53

Conclusion: connecting to world politics 59

3 Workers of the World...: The 'Economic Corporate Moment' of Contemporary World Politics / Magnus Ryner 62

Patterns of social relations of production: a theoretical defence 64

The economic corporate moment of the contemporary world order 70

4 The Public Spheres of Unprotected Workers / Matt Davies 89

Of ghosts and laying ghosts to rest: how do subjects make themselves? 91

Counterpublic spheres and unprotected workers 95

The household in the global political economy 98

The movement of women between subordinate patterns of social relations of production 103

Do household workers have public spheres? 105

5 Prostitution and Globalization: Notes on a Feminist Debate / Silvia Federici 113

Out of the shadows: from prostitute to sex worker - the prostitutes' rights movement of the 1970s 116

The debt crisis, structural adjustment and the globalization of sex work 120

The feminist debate on prostitution and sex trafficking 128

Conclusion: reframing the debate 133

6 Migration and Unprotected Work in Southern Africa: The Case of the Mining Sector / Michael Niemann 137

Social spaces and everyday life in IR 138

The spaces of social relations of production 140

Land and cattle: absolute space and the production of historical space 141

Gold and diamonds: the emergence of abstract space 144

The end of apartheid and the consolidation of abstract space 148

7 The Working Poor: Labour Market Reform and Unprotected Workers in the South African Retail Sector / Marlea Clarke 154

Segmentation, power and the unprotected worker 156

The history of unprotected and non-standard work in South Africa 160

The growth of unprotected work: casualization, externalization and informalization 165

Unprotected work in the South African retail sector 167

Union politics and strategies 173

8 The Condition of Hegemony and Labour Militancy: The Restructuring of Gender and Production Patterns in Mexico / Teresa Healy 178

The condition of hegemony 181

Passive revolution and crisis in Mexico 183

Social relations of production in Mexico's passive revolution and crisis 188

9 Globalizing Social Justice All the Way Down? Agents, Subjects, Objects and Phantoms in International Labour Politics / Dimitris Stevis, Terry Boswell 204

Historical structuralism and hegemony from below 205

A brief historical outline: towards less invisibility? 212

Findings and conclusions 219

10 Power, Production and World Order Revisited: Some Preliminary Conclusions / Matt Davies, Magnus Ryner 223

Unprotected work and the ontology of transnational relations 225

Unprotected work and subject formation 229

Subject formation and the organization and mobilization of unprotected workers 232

Implications for political society and transnational power politics 236

Suggestions for future research 238.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 244-268) and index.

ISBN:

1403996970

OCLC:

64511362

Publisher Number:

9781403996978 (hbk.)

Online:

Publisher description