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Places of Work, Scales of Organising: A Review of Labour Geography
Author(s) -
Lier David Christoffer
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
geography compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.587
H-Index - 65
ISSN - 1749-8198
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-8198.2007.00047.x
Subject(s) - marxist philosophy , human geography , work (physics) , sociology , politics , economic geography , investment (military) , state (computer science) , social geography , critical geography , social science , historical geography , geography , political science , engineering , law , mechanical engineering , algorithm , computer science
Labour has for a long time been an important concept in economic geography, but more often as a cost that influences investment decisions than as a social force in its own right. Recently, however, some geographers have begun putting the politics of labour at the forefront of the analysis. Labour geography can be understood as a discernible strand of research which, throughout the last decade or so, has begun to emerge from a wider Anglo‐American Marxist‐inspired geography tradition. In this article, I will critically review this emerging literature, which represents a fresh approach to the recent changes in the world of work and to the close relationships between workers, firms, the state and the wider community. Particularly interesting – from a geographical point of view – are the strategies of organised labour in creating new scales of organising, and in rethinking old ones.