About the Book
'This book makes a unique and invaluable contribution to our understanding of the changing nature of employment and its consequences for industrialized societies. It combines industry case studies, company case studies, and specific country case studies to paint a multi-dimensional picture of the spread of precarious employment and the responses by trade unions and other worker mobilizations. In addition, the astute theoretical chapters demonstrate how the trend toward precarization is reshaping power relationships in ways that have significant implications for individual security and well-being, collective agency and empowerment, societal equality and stability, and the vitality of democracy itself. Together these essays provide an exceptionally rich picture and insightful analysis of these important trends in contemporary industrialized societies.' - Katherine V.W. Stone, UCLA School of Law, US. 'Precarious work has become a central model for organizing contemporary employment. Covering precarity in an unprecedented spectrum of sectors - manufacturing, agriculture, retail, IT, services - this book is an invaluable research tool.
More, in its accessibility it will set the pace for teachable texts in this emerging field. Covering an equally broad range of international experiences, this book for the first time introduces work not previously available in English. Its broad international coverage allows the authors to burst the conceptual bubble of even some of the left's own most cherished categories. It analyses responses by workers and unions, and evaluates strategies that have and haven't worked. Read it, teach it, take it to work!' - Neil Smith, University of New York, US. 'Globalization and Precarious Forms of Production and Employment makes an important and timely contribution to scholarly debates about the nature and dynamics of precarious employment as they are shaped by global processes of production, distribution, and exchange. The volume's coverage of macro, meso, and micro level developments posing challenges and opportunities for workers and unions, together with its effective mix of country, region and industry-specific case studies, drawn from a wide range of contexts within and outside English language contexts is impressive indeed.
It is essential reading for scholars, students, and activists in North and South America, Europe and Australasia, concerned not only about understanding precariousness but the continued importance of democratic collective responses questioning its spread. Its editors are to be congratulated on producing an original and tightly focused collection of quality essays.' - Leah F. Vosko, York University, Canada. This important and cross-disciplinary book explores globalization alongside precarious forms of production and employment, and how these factors have impacted on workers and trade unions. The contributors, all leading scholars in their field, investigate central issues including: the role and behaviour of transnational corporations; flexibility, insecurity, individualized and precarious work; individual and collective responses; and ideological forms and justifications. Using rich, diverse examples and case studies they also explore a full range of industries and sectors including agriculture, manufacture, services and state employment, encompassing both mature capitalist economies and global outsourcing to less developed regions.
This innovative and timely book provides a multidisciplinary analysis that advances underdeveloped theories and will stimulate further debate and contributions on the roles of states, employers and workers' organizations, as well as ideology and democracy. It will strongly appeal to academics who work, study or research the interrelated fields of global economy and international sociology, globalization, management, human resource management, employee and industrial relations, sociology of work, and international political economy.
Table of Contents:
Contributors: B. Appay, D. Bailey, I. Berrebi-Hoffmann, R. Bouchareb, I. Campbell, P. Chaskiel, D. Coffey, H. Connolly, S. Contrepois, I. da Costa, A. de Ruyter, J. Frassa, S. Jefferys, M. Lallement, N. Lichtenstein, M. Mahdon, B. Mesini, L. Muniz Terra, A. Naclerio, M. Pernod-Lemattre, U. Rehfeldt, F. Sarfati, J. Thoemmes, C. Thornley.
