This Advanced Introduction examines globalization and its challenges through the perspective of workers and the labour movement. Driven by workers’ struggles, Ronaldo Munck highlights how capitalism has ‘gone global’ since 1990 and, in doing so, has become a powerful new agent for social transformation. Drawing on historical frameworks, Munck explores current debates around precarity, migration and emerging technologies, as well as the widening disparity between a doubling global working class and decreasing unionization rates.

Key Features:

Breaking new ground by linking globalization with the postcolonial paradigm, the Advanced Introduction to Global Labour is an essential resource for scholars and students of labour, trade union, globalization and postcolonial studies, as well as contemporary politics.

This Advanced Introduction examines globalization and its challenges through the perspective of workers and the labour movement. Driven by workers’ struggles, Ronaldo Munck highlights how capitalism has ‘gone global’ since 1990 and, in doing so, has become a powerful new agent for social transformation. Drawing on historical frameworks, Munck explores current debates around precarity, migration and emerging technologies, as well as the widening disparity between a doubling global working class and decreasing unionization rates.

Key Features:

Breaking new ground by linking globalization with the postcolonial paradigm, the Advanced Introduction to Global Labour is an essential resource for scholars and students of labour, trade union, globalization and postcolonial studies, as well as contemporary politics.

The overall context of this book is set by the decline of the globalization paradigm’s ability to grasp the complexity and uncertainty of the current era. It takes a new approach based on the frame of "transformation" viewed as a catalyst to understand the complex interconnected nature of the world around us from a concrete, grounded perspective. Labour or work is still what makes the world go round, and Latin America offers a unique laboratory of social transformation since the "pink tide" of the 2000s. The left it refers to is a new non-dogmatic version that does not just recycle old debates but, rather, opens up new perspectives. The book is at once global in its ambition while grounded in labour and Latin American realities. Theoretically based and empirically robust, it will enthuse the reader to pursue their own research on matters covered here.

Part I deals with several key debates around labour including the emergence of a precariat, from a standpoint that foregrounds labour agency but also the view from the South, that is, the majority world. Part II takes up various debates around contemporary Latin America from a cultural political economy perspective with an emphasis on the dynamics of social transformation. Part III explores the contributions from the broadly defined left towards an understanding of the current challenges faced by those seeking an alternative to the status quo in Latin America and beyond.

Providing a theoretically sophisticated yet readable text on key contemporary issues, this fully interdisciplinary book will find a broad audience among researchers, scholars, and advanced students of labour, Latin American and development studies, economics, sociology, and politics.

The overall context of this book is set by the decline of the globalization paradigm’s ability to grasp the complexity and uncertainty of the current era. It takes a new approach based on the frame of "transformation" viewed as a catalyst to understand the complex interconnected nature of the world around us from a concrete, grounded perspective. Labour or work is still what makes the world go round, and Latin America offers a unique laboratory of social transformation since the "pink tide" of the 2000s. The left it refers to is a new non-dogmatic version that does not just recycle old debates but, rather, opens up new perspectives. The book is at once global in its ambition while grounded in labour and Latin American realities. Theoretically based and empirically robust, it will enthuse the reader to pursue their own research on matters covered here.

Part I deals with several key debates around labour including the emergence of a precariat, from a standpoint that foregrounds labour agency but also the view from the South, that is, the majority world. Part II takes up various debates around contemporary Latin America from a cultural political economy perspective with an emphasis on the dynamics of social transformation. Part III explores the contributions from the broadly defined left towards an understanding of the current challenges faced by those seeking an alternative to the status quo in Latin America and beyond.

Providing a theoretically sophisticated yet readable text on key contemporary issues, this fully interdisciplinary book will find a broad audience among researchers, scholars, and advanced students of labour, Latin American and development studies, economics, sociology, and politics.

Globalization is undoubtedly the great overarching paradigm of our era. However, there is still little agreement on what globalization actually ‘is’ and some do not accept that it ‘is’ anything at all.

This new book addresses the contestation of globalization by the anti- or counter-globalization movement. To contest means to challenge, to call into question, to doubt, to oppose and to litigate. This study shows how globalization is ‘contestable’ in many different ways and how the counter-movements we have seen emerging over the last decade also ‘bear witness’ on behalf of an alternative human future. Ronaldo Munck presents an overarching framework that allows us to understand how globalization and its contestation are inextricably bound up with one another. This volume insightfully explores a number of case studies, including:

Globalization and Contestation will be of great interest to all students and scholars of international relations, politics and of globalization and global governance in particular.

Globalization is undoubtedly the great overarching paradigm of our era. However, there is still little agreement on what globalization actually ‘is’ and some do not accept that it ‘is’ anything at all.

This new book addresses the contestation of globalization by the anti- or counter-globalization movement. To contest means to challenge, to call into question, to doubt, to oppose and to litigate. This study shows how globalization is ‘contestable’ in many different ways and how the counter-movements we have seen emerging over the last decade also ‘bear witness’ on behalf of an alternative human future. Ronaldo Munck presents an overarching framework that allows us to understand how globalization and its contestation are inextricably bound up with one another. This volume insightfully explores a number of case studies, including:

Globalization and Contestation will be of great interest to all students and scholars of international relations, politics and of globalization and global governance in particular.

Any consideration of global migration in relation to work and citizenship must necessarily be situated in the context of the Great Recession. A whole historical chapter – that of neoliberalism – has now closed and the future can only be deemed uncertain. Migrant workers were key players during this phase of the global system, supplying cheap and flexible labour inputs when required in the rich countries. Now, with the further sustainability of the neoliberal political and economic world order in question, what will be the role of migration in terms of work patterns and what modalities of political citizenship will develop? While informalization of the relations of production and the precarization of work were once assumed to be the exception, that is no longer the case.

As for citizenship this book posits a parallel development of precarious citizenship for migrants, made increasingly vulnerable by the global economic crisis. But we are also in an era of profound social transformation, in the context of which social counter-movements emerge, which may halt the disembedding of the market from social control and its corrosive impact.

This book was published as a special issue of Globalizations.

Any consideration of global migration in relation to work and citizenship must necessarily be situated in the context of the Great Recession. A whole historical chapter – that of neoliberalism – has now closed and the future can only be deemed uncertain. Migrant workers were key players during this phase of the global system, supplying cheap and flexible labour inputs when required in the rich countries. Now, with the further sustainability of the neoliberal political and economic world order in question, what will be the role of migration in terms of work patterns and what modalities of political citizenship will develop? While informalization of the relations of production and the precarization of work were once assumed to be the exception, that is no longer the case.

As for citizenship this book posits a parallel development of precarious citizenship for migrants, made increasingly vulnerable by the global economic crisis. But we are also in an era of profound social transformation, in the context of which social counter-movements emerge, which may halt the disembedding of the market from social control and its corrosive impact.

This book was published as a special issue of Globalizations.

This Advanced Introduction examines globalization and its challenges through the perspective of workers and the labour movement. Driven by workers’ struggles, Ronaldo Munck highlights how capitalism has ‘gone global’ since 1990 and, in doing so, has become a powerful new agent for social transformation. Drawing on historical frameworks, Munck explores current debates around precarity, migration and emerging technologies, as well as the widening disparity between a doubling global working class and decreasing unionization rates.

Key Features:

Breaking new ground by linking globalization with the postcolonial paradigm, the Advanced Introduction to Global Labour is an essential resource for scholars and students of labour, trade union, globalization and postcolonial studies, as well as contemporary politics.

This Advanced Introduction examines globalization and its challenges through the perspective of workers and the labour movement. Driven by workers’ struggles, Ronaldo Munck highlights how capitalism has ‘gone global’ since 1990 and, in doing so, has become a powerful new agent for social transformation. Drawing on historical frameworks, Munck explores current debates around precarity, migration and emerging technologies, as well as the widening disparity between a doubling global working class and decreasing unionization rates.

Key Features:

Breaking new ground by linking globalization with the postcolonial paradigm, the Advanced Introduction to Global Labour is an essential resource for scholars and students of labour, trade union, globalization and postcolonial studies, as well as contemporary politics.

The overall context of this book is set by the decline of the globalization paradigm’s ability to grasp the complexity and uncertainty of the current era. It takes a new approach based on the frame of "transformation" viewed as a catalyst to understand the complex interconnected nature of the world around us from a concrete, grounded perspective. Labour or work is still what makes the world go round, and Latin America offers a unique laboratory of social transformation since the "pink tide" of the 2000s. The left it refers to is a new non-dogmatic version that does not just recycle old debates but, rather, opens up new perspectives. The book is at once global in its ambition while grounded in labour and Latin American realities. Theoretically based and empirically robust, it will enthuse the reader to pursue their own research on matters covered here.

Part I deals with several key debates around labour including the emergence of a precariat, from a standpoint that foregrounds labour agency but also the view from the South, that is, the majority world. Part II takes up various debates around contemporary Latin America from a cultural political economy perspective with an emphasis on the dynamics of social transformation. Part III explores the contributions from the broadly defined left towards an understanding of the current challenges faced by those seeking an alternative to the status quo in Latin America and beyond.

Providing a theoretically sophisticated yet readable text on key contemporary issues, this fully interdisciplinary book will find a broad audience among researchers, scholars, and advanced students of labour, Latin American and development studies, economics, sociology, and politics.

The overall context of this book is set by the decline of the globalization paradigm’s ability to grasp the complexity and uncertainty of the current era. It takes a new approach based on the frame of "transformation" viewed as a catalyst to understand the complex interconnected nature of the world around us from a concrete, grounded perspective. Labour or work is still what makes the world go round, and Latin America offers a unique laboratory of social transformation since the "pink tide" of the 2000s. The left it refers to is a new non-dogmatic version that does not just recycle old debates but, rather, opens up new perspectives. The book is at once global in its ambition while grounded in labour and Latin American realities. Theoretically based and empirically robust, it will enthuse the reader to pursue their own research on matters covered here.

Part I deals with several key debates around labour including the emergence of a precariat, from a standpoint that foregrounds labour agency but also the view from the South, that is, the majority world. Part II takes up various debates around contemporary Latin America from a cultural political economy perspective with an emphasis on the dynamics of social transformation. Part III explores the contributions from the broadly defined left towards an understanding of the current challenges faced by those seeking an alternative to the status quo in Latin America and beyond.

Providing a theoretically sophisticated yet readable text on key contemporary issues, this fully interdisciplinary book will find a broad audience among researchers, scholars, and advanced students of labour, Latin American and development studies, economics, sociology, and politics.

Globalization is undoubtedly the great overarching paradigm of our era. However, there is still little agreement on what globalization actually ‘is’ and some do not accept that it ‘is’ anything at all.

This new book addresses the contestation of globalization by the anti- or counter-globalization movement. To contest means to challenge, to call into question, to doubt, to oppose and to litigate. This study shows how globalization is ‘contestable’ in many different ways and how the counter-movements we have seen emerging over the last decade also ‘bear witness’ on behalf of an alternative human future. Ronaldo Munck presents an overarching framework that allows us to understand how globalization and its contestation are inextricably bound up with one another. This volume insightfully explores a number of case studies, including:

Globalization and Contestation will be of great interest to all students and scholars of international relations, politics and of globalization and global governance in particular.

Globalization is undoubtedly the great overarching paradigm of our era. However, there is still little agreement on what globalization actually ‘is’ and some do not accept that it ‘is’ anything at all.

This new book addresses the contestation of globalization by the anti- or counter-globalization movement. To contest means to challenge, to call into question, to doubt, to oppose and to litigate. This study shows how globalization is ‘contestable’ in many different ways and how the counter-movements we have seen emerging over the last decade also ‘bear witness’ on behalf of an alternative human future. Ronaldo Munck presents an overarching framework that allows us to understand how globalization and its contestation are inextricably bound up with one another. This volume insightfully explores a number of case studies, including:

Globalization and Contestation will be of great interest to all students and scholars of international relations, politics and of globalization and global governance in particular.

Any consideration of global migration in relation to work and citizenship must necessarily be situated in the context of the Great Recession. A whole historical chapter – that of neoliberalism – has now closed and the future can only be deemed uncertain. Migrant workers were key players during this phase of the global system, supplying cheap and flexible labour inputs when required in the rich countries. Now, with the further sustainability of the neoliberal political and economic world order in question, what will be the role of migration in terms of work patterns and what modalities of political citizenship will develop? While informalization of the relations of production and the precarization of work were once assumed to be the exception, that is no longer the case.

As for citizenship this book posits a parallel development of precarious citizenship for migrants, made increasingly vulnerable by the global economic crisis. But we are also in an era of profound social transformation, in the context of which social counter-movements emerge, which may halt the disembedding of the market from social control and its corrosive impact.

This book was published as a special issue of Globalizations.

Any consideration of global migration in relation to work and citizenship must necessarily be situated in the context of the Great Recession. A whole historical chapter – that of neoliberalism – has now closed and the future can only be deemed uncertain. Migrant workers were key players during this phase of the global system, supplying cheap and flexible labour inputs when required in the rich countries. Now, with the further sustainability of the neoliberal political and economic world order in question, what will be the role of migration in terms of work patterns and what modalities of political citizenship will develop? While informalization of the relations of production and the precarization of work were once assumed to be the exception, that is no longer the case.

As for citizenship this book posits a parallel development of precarious citizenship for migrants, made increasingly vulnerable by the global economic crisis. But we are also in an era of profound social transformation, in the context of which social counter-movements emerge, which may halt the disembedding of the market from social control and its corrosive impact.

This book was published as a special issue of Globalizations.