Schierup, Likic-Brboric, Wise and Toksöz (eds., 2019) Migration, Civil Society and Global Governance

Schierup, Branka Likic-Brboric, Raúl Delgado Wise and Gülay Toksöz, eds.  2019. Migration, Civil Society and Global Governance. London: Routledge. 

Description

How do the United Nations, international organizations, governments, corporate actors and a wide variety of civil society organizations and regional and global trade unions perceive the root causes of migration, global inequality and options for sustainable development? This is one of the most pertinent political questions of the 21st century.

This comprehensive collection examines the development of an emerging global governance on migration with the focus on spaces, roles, strategies and alliance-making of a composite transnational civil society engaged in issues of rights and the protection of migrants and their families. It reveals the need to strengthen networking and convergence among movements that adopt different entry points to the same struggle, from fighting ‘managed’ migration to contesting corporate control of food and land. The authors examine the opportunities and challenges faced by civil society in its endeavour to promote a rights-based approach within international and intergovernmental fora engaged in setting up a global compact for the management of migration, such as the Global Forum for Migration and Development, and in other global policy spaces.

URL: https://www.routledge.com/Migration-Civil-Society-and-Global-Governance-1st-Edition/Schierup-Likic-Brboric-Wise-Toksoz/p/book/9780367147266

Morena, Krause and Stevis (eds, 2020) Just Transitions: Social Justice in the Shift Towards a Low-Carbon World

Morena, Edouard, Dunja Krause and Dimitris Stevis, eds. 2020. Just Transitions: Social Justice in the Shift Towards a Low-Carbon World. London: Pluto Press.

In the field of 'climate change', no terrain goes uncontested. The terminological tug of war between activists and corporations, scientists and governments, has seen radical notions of 'sustainability' emptied of urgency and subordinated to the interests of capital. 'Just Transition' is the latest such battleground, and the conceptual keystone of the post-COP21 climate policy world. But what does it really mean?

Just Transition emerged as a framework developed within the trade union movement to encompass a range of social interventions needed to secure workers' and frontline communities' jobs and livelihoods as economies shift to sustainable production. Just Transitions draws on a range of perspectives from the global North and South to interrogate the overlaps, synergies and tensions between various understandings of the Just Transition approach. As the concept is entering the mainstream, has it lost its radical edge, and if so, can it be recovered?

Written by academics and activists from around the globe, this unique edited collection is the first book entirely devoted to Just Transition.

URL: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745339924/just-transitions/

Lee, Ng and Landbury (eds, 2020) Trade Unions and Labour Movements in the Asia-Pacific Region

Lee, Byoung-Hoon, Ng Sek-hong and Russell D. Lansbury, eds. 2020. Trade Unions and Labour Movements in the Asia-Pacific Region. London: Routledge.

Description

Recent developments in the world economy, including deindustrialisation

and the digital revolution, have led to an increasingly individualistic relationship

between workers and employers, which in turn has weakened labour

movements and worker representation. However, this process is not

universal, including in some countries of Asia, where trade unions are

closely aligned with the interests of the dominant political party and the

state. This book considers the many challenges facing trade unions and

worker representation in a wide range of Asian countries. For each country,

full background is given on how trade unions and other forms of worker

representation have arisen. Key questions then considered include the challenges

facing trade unions and worker representation in each country, the

extent to which these are a result of global or local developments and the

actions being taken by trade unions and worker representative bodies to

cope with the challenges.

https://www.routledge.com/Trade-Unions-and-Labour-Movements-in-the-Asia-Pacific-Region-1st-Edition/Lee-Sek-Hong-Lansbury/p/book/9780367190491

Schmalz and Sommer (eds 2019) Confronting Crisis and Precariousness

Schmalz, Stefan and Brandon Sommer, eds. 2019. Confronting Crisis and Precariousness: Organized Labour and Social Unrest in the European Union. London: Rowman and Littlefield International.

Anja Höfner and Vivian Frick, eds. (2019) Was Bits & Bäume verbindet: Digitalisierung nachhaltig gestalten

Anja Höfner and Vivian Frick, eds, 2019

Was Bits & Bäume verbindet: Digitalisierung nachhaltig gestalten

Making Digitization Sustainable

Technical University’s Center for Technology and Society

Munich: Oekom verlag

NEU:

Anja Höfner, Vivian Frick (Hrsg.)

Was Bits und Bäume verbindet

Digitalisierung nachhaltig gestalten

Die Konferenz »Bits & Bäume« (2018 in Berlin) bot das bis dato größte Debattenforum für Digitalisierung und Nachhaltigkeit. Über 50 Autor*innen aus Tech-Szene, Nachhaltigkeitsbewegung und Entwicklungszusammenarbeit zeigen in diesem Buch zur Konferenz, wie die Digitalisierung den sozial-ökologischen Wandel voranbringen kann.

Die Beiträge beleuchten die Auswirkungen unseres Digitalkonsums im Globalen Süden, den nachhaltigen Umgang mit Daten oder die Risiken und Potenziale eines digitalisierten Wirtschaftssystems. Im Mittelpunkt steht dabei stets die drängende Frage: Welche Digitalisierung wollen wir?

Die verschiedenen Antworten auf diese Frage machen deutlich: Eine zukunftsfähige Digitalisierung muss sich weniger an Interessen einzelner Wirtschaftsakteure, sondern am Gemeinwohl orientieren. Ausgewählte Beiträge der »Bits & Bäume« zahlreiche Infografiken und Porträts geben Denk- und Handlungsanstöße, wie die Digitalisierung die Welt besser machen kann.

PDF-Datei zum Download

Elizabeth Humphrys (2019) How Labour Built Neoliberalism (Brill: Leiden)

Elizabeth Humphrys. 2019. How Labour Built Neoliberalism: Australia’s Accord, the Labour Movement and the Neoliberal Project. Brill: Leiden.

How Labour Built Neoliberalism

Australia’s Accord, the Labour Movement and the Neoliberal Project

Series:

• Studies in Critical Social Sciences, Volume: 126

Author: Elizabeth Humphrys

Why do we always assume it was the New Right that was at the centre of constructing neoliberalism? How might corporatism have advanced neoliberalism? And, more controversially, were the trade unions only victims of neoliberal change, or did they playSee More

Publication Date: 

8 October 2018

ISBN: 

978-90-04-38346-3

DOI: 

https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004383463

Marissa Brookes (2019) The New Politics of Transnational Labor (Cornell ILR Press)

Marissa Brookes. 2019. The New Politics of Transnational Labor: Why Some Alliances Succeed. Ithaca: Cornell ILR Press.

Over the years many transnational labor alliances have succeeded in improving conditions for workers, but many more have not. In The New Politics of Transnational Labor, Marissa Brookes explains why this dichotomy has occurred. Using the coordination and context-appropriate (CCAP) theory, she assesses this divergence, arguing that the success of transnational alliances hinges not only on effective coordination across borders and within workers' local organizations but also on their ability to exploit vulnerabilities in global value chains, invoke national and international institutions, and mobilize networks of stakeholders in ways that threaten employers' core, material interests.

Brookes uses six comparative case studies spanning four industries, five countries, and fifteen years. From dockside labor disputes in Britain and Australia to service sector campaigns in the supermarket and private security industries to campaigns aimed at luxury hotels in Southeast Asia, Brookes creates her new theoretical framework and speaks to debates in international and comparative political economy on the politics of economic globalization, the viability of private governance, and the impact of organized labor on economic inequality. From this assessment, Brookes provides a vital update to the international relations literature on non-state actors and transnational activism and shows how we can understand the unique capacities labor has as a transnational actor.

Yang, Jenny Chan and Xu Lizhi (2019) La máquina es tu amo y señor (Virus Editorial)

Yang, Jenny Chan and Xu Lizhi. 2019. La máquina es tu amo y señor (The Machine is Your Lord and Master). Translated in Spanish by Li Fei and Zhang Xiaoqio. Barcelona: Virus Editorial.

Una oleada de suicidios durante el año 2010 en la ciudad-fábrica de Foxconn, en Shenzhen, sacó a la luz las condiciones infrahumanas en las que vive y trabaja su plantilla laboral, formada en su mayoría por jóvenes y migrantes, llegados de diferentes regiones rurales de China.

Esta empresa es la mayor fabricante mundial de componentes electrónicos y da servicio a compañías como Apple, Amazon o Google. El cándido discurso de Silicon Valley —«el sentimiento de construir un mundo mejor gracias a la tecnología»— contrasta con las condiciones neoesclavistas que padecen las y los trabajadores de Foxconn, basadas en un taylorismo extremo y en una disciplina y vigilancia militarizadas, dentro y fuera de la cadena de montaje.

Este libro recoge los testimonios de Yang, un estudiante y obrero industrial; Tian Yu, trabajadora migrante que sobrevivió a un intento de suicidio; y Xu Lizhi, que antes de poner fin a sus días dejó escritas descarnadas poesías que nos adentran en las fauces del sistema de Foxconn. Estos poemas, como el resto de textos, cuestionan el beneficio tecnológico, desde ese «otro lado del mundo», en relación con el coste humano, ecológico y social que entraña.

«Hemos perdido el valor que nos corresponde como seres humanos y nos hemos convertido en una extensión de las máquinas, su apéndice, sí, su esclavo. Muchas veces pensaba que la máquina era mi amo y señor, cuyo cabello tenía que peinar como un esclavo.»

Michele Ford (2019) From Migrant to Worker (Cornell ILR Press)

Michele Ford. 2019. From Migrant to Worker: Global Unions and Temporary Labor Migration in Asia. Ithaca: Cornell ILR Press.

What happens when local unions begin to advocate for the rights of temporary migrant workers, asks Michele Ford in her sweeping study of seven Asian countries? Until recently unions in Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand were uniformly hostile towards foreign workers, but Ford deftly shows how times and attitudes have begun to change. Now, she argues, NGOs and the Global Union Federations are encouraging local unions to represent and advocate for these peripheral workers, and in some cases succeeding.

From Migrant to Worker builds our understanding of the role the international labor movement and local unions have had in developing a movement for migrant workers' labor rights. Ford examines the relationship between different kinds of labor movement actors and the constraints imposed on those actors by resource flows, contingency, and local context. Her conclusions show that in countries—Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand—where resource flows and local factors give the Global Union Federations more influence local unions have become much more engaged with migrant workers. But in countries—Japan and Taiwan, for example—where they have little effect there has been little progress. While much has changed, Ford forces us to see that labor migration in Asia is still fraught with complications and hardships, and that local unions are not always able or willing to act.

Indian Perspectives on Workplace Bullying (2018) D’Cruz, Noronha, Mendonca and Mishr, eds (Springer Nature)

Premilla D’Cruz, Ernesto Noronha, Avina Mendonca and Nidhi Mishra, eds. 2018. Indian Perspectives on Workplace Bullying: A Decade of Insights. Singapore: Springer Nature. 

https://www.springer.com/us/book/9789811310164#aboutAuthors

Jörg Nowak (2019) Mass Strikes and Social Movements in Brazil and India (Palgrave Macmillan)

Nowak, Jörg. 2019. Mass Strikes and Social Movements in Brazil and India: PopularMobilisation in the Long Depression. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

“Jörg Nowak has written an ambitious, wide-ranging and very important book. Based on extensive empirical research in Brazil and India and a thorough analysis of the secondary literature, Nowak reveals that numerous labour conflicts develop in the absence of trade unions, but with the support of kinship networks, local communities, social movements and other types of associations. This impressive work may well become a major building block for a new interpretation of global workers’ struggles.”—Marcel van der Linden, International Institute of Social History, The Netherlands

“Nowak’s book meticulously details the trajectory of strikes and its resultant new forms of organisations in India and Brazil. The central focus of this analytically rich and thought provoking book is to search for a new political alternative model of organising workers. A very good deed indeed!”—Nandita Mondal, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India

“Jörg Nowak analyses with critical sense forms of popular organization that often remain invisible. It is an indispensable book for all those who are looking for more effective analytical resources to better understand the present situation and the future promises of the workers’ movements.”—Roberto Véras de Oliveira, Federal University of Paraíba, Brazil

“In this timely and important study, Nowak convincingly challenges the dominant Eurocentric approach to labour conflict and calls for a new theory of strikes. He stresses the need to engage in a wider perspective that includes social reproduction, neighbourhood mobilisations, and the specific traditions of struggles in the Global South.”—Edward Webster, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa


This book explores new forms of popular organisation that emerged from strikes in India and Brazil between 2011 and 2014. Based on four case studies, the author traces the alliances and relations that strikers developed during their mobilisations with other popular actors such as students, indigenous peoples, and people displaced by dam projects. The study locates the mass strikes in Brazil’s construction industry and India’s automobile industry in a global conjuncture of protest movements, and develops a new theory of strikes that can take account of the manifold ways in which labour unrest is embedded in local communities and regional networks.

© 2019

Mass Strikes and Social Movements in Brazil and India

Popular Mobilisation in the Long Depression

Genevieve LeBaron (ed.) Researching Forced Labour in the Global Economy (OUP)

LeBaron, Genevieve, ed. 2019. Researching Forced Labour in the Global Economy: Methodological Challenges and Advances. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Edited by Genevieve LeBaron, Professor of Politics and Co-Director of the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI), University of Sheffield

Genevieve LeBaron is Professor of Politics and Co-Director of Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI) at the University of Sheffield. She is also Co-Chair of the Yale University Modern Slavery Working Group. She has been awarded the British Academy 'Rising Star Engagement Award' for her work on forced labour by the British Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences and was included in the global 'Top 100 Human Trafficking and Slavery Influence Leaders List'. Her research focuses on the business dynamics of forced labour in global supply chains, as well as the effectiveness of private governance systems to combat it.

Contributors:

Jean Allain, Monash University
Robert Caruana, Nottingham University Business School
Jenny Chan, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Andrew Crane, University of Bath
Neil Howard, University of Antwerp
Genevieve LeBaron, University of Sheffield
Sam Okyere, University of Nottingham
Nicola Phillips, Kings College London
Jessica Pliley, Texas State University
Joel Quirk, University of Witwatersrand
Andreas Rühmkorf, University of Sheffield

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/researching-forced-labour-in-the-global-economy-9780197266472?cc=hk&lang=en&# 

Robert O'Brien, Labour Internationalism in the Global South (Cambridge U Press)

O’Brien, Robert. 2019. Labour Internationalism in the Global South: The SIGTUR Initiative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Robert O'Brien, McMaster University, Ontario

https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/people/obrien-robert

New book: Labour Internationalism in the Global South

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/labour-internationalism-in-the-global-south/933DB02DDA78390F3D3468021134C369

Ercüment Çelik, Güney Sosyolojisi ve Türkiye'de Sosyoloji (Southern Sociology and Sociology in Turkey)

Please find the book information below:

Çelik, Ercüment. 2018. Güney Sosyolojisi ve Türkiye'de Sosyoloji. İstanbul: Nota bene. (Southern Sociology and Sociology in Turkey)

The rich contributions to the development of a Southern Sociology perspective have enabled sociologists in various countries to rethink and reassess the development of sociology discipline in their countries. This book firstly, aims to identify the main theses of the scholars contributed to the Southern Sociology perspective such as Connell, Burawoy, Comaroff and Comaroff, Bhambra, Rosa, Maia etc. and then applies these to the historical development of Turkish sociology. The author selectively focuses on two periods, the 1930s-1950s and the 1970s-1980s, which would, he believes, be a valuable contribution from Turkey to the ongoing development of Southern Sociology perspective. The former period was remarked by the re-establishment of sociology at the Turkish universities with the contribution of German migrant scholars, who had to escape from the nationalist-socialist regime in Germany at those years. This period exemplifies a continuity of the Eurocentric development of sociology that extends and partly challenges the periodization of the development of sociology by Connell. The latter period was remarked by the contribution of Turkish scholars and intelligentsia to the international debates on the “Asian Type of Mode of Production” and “Petty Commodity Production”, which in turn exemplifies a Southern production of knowledge and engages with Burawoy’s arguments on Southern Sociology. The book secondly, problematizes the hegemonic construction and structure of the discipline at Turkish universities and focuses on the teaching of ‘Contemporary Sociological Theory’ Courses. The author presents empirical findings of the content analysis of course syllabi and reading lists at 16 sociology departments and qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with 14 sociologists teaching this course. Keywords: Asian Mode of Production, Petty Commodity Production, Contemporary Sociological Theory, Southern Sociology and Turkish Sociology