Introduction: problematizing “global Amazon,” the organization of e-commerce and its labor and social discontents

Scott B. Martin, João Paulo Veiga, Katiuscia Moreno Galhera and Nikko Bilitza

A chapter in Unpacking Global Amazon, 2026, pp 1-7 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: In this introduction to Unpacking Global Amazon, the co-editors sketch the scale and social and labor impact of Amazon's expansion now encompassing six continents and e-commerce platforms and distribution facilities in 26 countries and major expansion within existing markets toward the “middle” and “last mile.” The volume is an interdisciplinary examination, through case studies and cross-national comparisons encompassing ten countries in North and South America, Eastern and Western Europe, and Asia, at workplace, subnational, national, and transnational scales. The introduction precedes a theoretical and empirical examination of global Amazon in Chapter 1 and reviews the four volume parts—varieties of anti-unionism and union responses in the global North and South; nature and struggles over labor process and labor regimes; labor organizing and strategies among warehouse and last mile delivery workers; and new challenges posed by movements for subnational regulation of new facilities and competition from new business rivals—and the concluding chapter.

Keywords: Multinational Corporations; Amazon; Corporation; E-commerce Logistics; Algorithmic Management; Employment Relations; Labor Process (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035380442
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