Labour and globalisation: complexity and transformation

Abstract

As a matter of balance of the contributions joined in the Dossier, this final word draws a comprehensive picture of the issues discussed by the authors and raises some questions pointing to a possible agenda for current labor studies. First, it sparks reflections going in the sense of discussing the actual meaning of what is to be considered either “normal” or “healthy” after Covid-19 crisis. Then it addresses such discussion to the world of work with interesting consequences, asking what is actually “normal” in labor relations. In the same vein, it reminds us the role of the so-called “essential workers” during the sanitary crisis: a lot of invisible realities which are now becoming visible. On the other side, the author call attention to imminent economic crisis, affecting jobs and companies. Similarly, he warns about the worsening of the working conditions under a post-Covid world: no “return to normal” is envisioned without shaking important structures of the already-known world. One of those pillars is the North-South divide: according to the author, that divide is loosing because the neat two-worlds mapping is blurred today – we find informality on both “worlds”, as well as either digital economy and inequalites are present North and South, so clear-cut differences may tend to disappear. The author finally proceeds to make a short comment about every of the contributions to the dossier, pointing out what is crucial and distinctive in each of them.

Scaling Up? On the Possibilities and Limits of Transnational Labour Organising in Globalised Production

“…states or lead firms) to intervene or influence behaviours of employers or authorities (Merk 2009). Research reveals a banal but cogent truth: success cannot be achieved without local organising but is strongest if organising is multi-scalar (Munck 2021;Schmalz et al 2021). Hence, transnational activism should not be seen as a panacea but as an opportunity structure which can potentially provide local actors with additional sources of power (McCallum 2013;Zajak et al 2017).…”

“…As Munck (2021) argues, there has been an opposition set up in labour studies between "old" and "new" social movements. "Old" social movements, here defined as union-centred alliances, are deemed bureaucratic and stale, top-down, largely located in the global North and focusing on the state and the local level, whereas "new" movements, here defined as NOLAs and TANs, are seen as democratic and vibrant, bottom-up and global, focusing on the broader civil society and including and emerging from the global South.…”