A matter of choice: fly-in, fly-out labour geographies of work and family

Robyn Mayes

Chapter 23 in Handbook of Labour Geography, 2025, pp 388-399 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Taking the spaces of reproduction as the starting point and primary site of analysis, this chapter both complements and extends Labour Geography's more usual focus upon agency in the spaces of production. This decentring of the worker in favour of a focus upon families in which workers are embedded and reproduced is grounded in empirical research engaging with Fly-in, Fly-out (FIFO) work in the Australian mining industry. Specifically, the chapter traces the dynamic strategies of resilience and reworking undertaken in and by ‘FIFO families’. The chapter thus foregrounds agency within, and through, the reproductive sphere in the direct shaping of labour geographies. The importance of attending to the dynamics of labour agency as embedded in social reproduction is clear, particularly given the context of resources sector de-unionisation in Australia, spatial fragmentation of workforces through FIFO practices, and the absence in the main of collective forms of resistance in the productive sphere.

Keywords: FIFO family; Labour agency; Mining; Resilience; Reworking; Social reproduction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781785363399
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