The places of labour conflict in twenty-first century capitalism

Jörg Nowak

Chapter 11 in Handbook of Labour Geography, 2025, pp 211-223 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter explores the relationship between the spatial concentration of workers and labour mobilisation, and the association of certain industries and sectors with labour conflict. Whilst there are historical connections between labour militancy and the concentration of workers in, for example, mining regions and large factories, the emergence of labour conflict in the public sector and the persistence of labour conflict in agricultural work demonstrate that spatial concentration is not a necessary requirement for the mobilisation of workers. Thus, the chapter adopts an extended understanding of concentration, one that draws upon a concept of space that goes beyond a traditional territorial definition. In line with this concept, later understandings have explored spatially-dispersed global supply chains and the urban territory as new areas where the concentration of workers might take place. The difficulty for the labour movement in the twenty-first century consists in the fact that the earlier spatial standard of organisation across national sectors has not yet found a successor.

Keywords: Labour conflict; Workplace; Industrial sector; Global supply chains; State repression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781785363399
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