Working space: why incorporating the geographical is central to theorizing work and employment practices

Andrew Herod, Al Rainnie and Susan McGrath-Champ
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Andrew Herod: University of Georgia, USA, aherod@uga.edu
Al Rainnie: Leicester University, UK, s.mcgrath-champ@econ.usyd.edu.au
Susan McGrath-Champ: University of Sydney, Australia

Work, Employment & Society, 2007, vol. 21, issue 2, 247-264

Abstract: Theorists of work and employment (W&E) practices should more seriously engage with literatures concerning how space is constitutive of social praxis. Rather than simply serving as a stage upon which social life is played out or being merely a reflection of social relations, the construction of the economic landscape in particular ways is fundamental to how social systems function. Struggles over space are a central dynamic in W&E practices as different actors engage with the economic landscape to ensure their 'geographical vision' is emplaced in that landscape. Furthermore, conflicts over W&E practices frequently revolve around the spatial (re)scaling of such practices (as when collective bargaining is 'decentralized'). Consequently, an important key to better theorizing W&E practices is understanding how the various spatial scales at which these operate are socially constructed and discursively represented.

Keywords: geographical scale; geography of capitalism; place; socio-spatial dialectic; space; spatial fix; spatiality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:21:y:2007:i:2:p:247-264

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