Migrant labour as space: Rhythmanalysing the agri-food industry

Abstract

The UK agri-food industry is heavily dependent on migrant labour and, as result, the position and experiences of migrant workers have remained topics of research interest for over a decade. To date, a prolific body of research in the organisation studies literature has addressed the subordinate and exploited position of migrants against a backdrop of precarious terms and conditions of work. Studies have also extolled the scope for worker mobility and resistance, as well as explored the intersectional and non-reductive complexity of migrant life. Although offering valuable insights, these literatures present a disembedded portrayal of the agri-food industry, studying its regulatory provisions, everyday routines and work patterns in abstraction from the spaces within which they occur. Existing research has failed to recognise these processes as modes of space production, in line with Henri Lefebvre’s trialectic framework. This issue of Organization enables us to bring empirical and theoretical insights into this often neglected area, pertaining both to the study of migrant labour spaces and the identification of the rhythms through which these spaces are produced. Accordingly, our study combines Rudolf Laban’s ‘ontology of rhythm’ and Henri Lefebvre’s ‘rhythmanalysis’ methodology. Aided by our own positionality as former agri-food workers, we show how regulating, connecting and ‘dressage’ rhythms intersect agri-food space in a process of relational and multifaceted ‘ordering’, rather than static order. We contribute to the organisation studies literature by conceptualising the missing, spatial dimension in the agri-food migrant industry and demonstrating the value of rhythmanalysis as an underutilised methodology for its continued study.

Gender Diversity and Resilience in Firms During COVID-19 Pandemic

“…From the standpoint of gender studies, these issues do not seem to attract the attention of scholars, who are mainly focused on analyzing issues related to policies for the inclusion of women in agriculture (Agar & Manolchev, 2020;Camarero, 2017;De Castro et al, 2017;Hoang, 2020;Lovgren et al, 2020;Palladino, 2020) and observing gender diversity in terms of financial performance (García-Sánchez et al, 2021;Hernández Ortiz et al, 2020;Tleubayev et al, 2020). In addition, there are no qualitative studies aimed at analyzing sustainable innovation and technology from a managerial point of view.…”

“…However, what is written in these general perspectives it is not observed from the gender studies' point of view. Although in the literature many contributions deal with regulatory aspects to encourage the employment of women in agriculture (Agar & Manolchev, 2020;Camarero, 2017;De Castro et al, 2017;Hoang, 2020;Knight, 2013;Lovgren et al, 2020;Palladino, 2020;Soma et al, 2021) only a few have analyzed the role of women within farms. For instance, de Castro et al ( 2020) examining the business strategies involved in the devaluation of agricultural work, highlights that women are involved in more de-skilled jobs than men.…”

The necropolitics of neoliberal state response to the Covid-19 pandemic in India

“…Walkerdine (2006) points out that workers experience precariousness due to neoliberal discourses of choice, enterprise, and calls for people to understand themselves as self-made subjects. Migrant workers are particularly vulnerable as they are trapped in “low-pay, low-skill, secondary market segments, which are likely to cause insecurity, harm and overarching alienation” (Agar and Manolchev, 2020: 252).…”

Investigating the political economy of the territory: The contradictory responses of organisations to spatial inequality

“…These researchers have gone beyond the boundaries of the workplace to explore the performance of everyday activities, from ‘non-representational’ (Beyes and Steyaert, 2012) perspectives that have contributed to MOS by expanding analysis beyond fixed boundaries. These efforts include, for example, organisational studies of mobility and nomadic spaces (Agar and Manolchev, 2020; Daskalaki, 2014), debates on the evolution of borders and the reordering of spaces (De Molli et al, 2020; Munro, 2016) and the liminality of multiple belonging in individual responses to flows of deterritorialization/reterritorialization (Maréchal et al, 2013; Paquette and Lacassagne, 2013). Non-representational studies have widened the field and enriched the analysis of space as emergent and complex.…”