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Socio‐Spatial Strategies of Worker Centres: An Ethnography of Alt‐Labour in NYC
Author(s) -
Roca Beltrán
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
antipode
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.177
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 1467-8330
pISSN - 0066-4812
DOI - 10.1111/anti.12621
Subject(s) - grassroots , ethnography , typology , sociology , political action , laundry , politics , scale (ratio) , perspective (graphical) , action (physics) , economic geography , business , political science , geography , computer science , law , anthropology , physics , quantum mechanics , cartography , artificial intelligence
This article examines the typology of worker centres from a socio‐spatial perspective. Drawing on ethnographic and qualitative fieldwork and applying the multidimensional TPSN (Territory, Place, Scale and Network) framework, it analyses three worker centres: Make the Road New York (MRNY), Retail Action Project (RAP) and Laundry Workers Center (LWC). Each model is the result of the predominance of certain logics of action, political strategies, and spatialities. The multidimensional socio‐spatial approach allows us to identify the advantages and problems of each strategy. MRNY shows a territory‐based strategy that combines membership participation with effective advocacy on different scales. RAP, despite focusing on services, has been able to overcome the fragmentation of the retail industry and escalate to regulating labour relations at the industry level. LWC prioritises workplace organising and shows a high level of experimentalism and grassroots base, although the results of their irradiation strategy are very modest.