Grounding Globalization: Labour in the Age of Insecurity

Widespread claims have been made on the emergence of a new labor internationalism in response to the growing insecurity created by globalization. However, when persons face conditions of insecurity – as a result of war, terrorism, environmental catastrophe, or insecurity in the workplace – they often turn inwards. During previous phases of global insecurity we witnessed the rise of fascism.

What is distinctive about this book is that it grounds globalization in the everyday lives of workers, their households, and their communities. It compares three towns, Orange in Australia, Changwon in South Korea, and Ezakheni in South Africa, and shows how the global restructuring of white goods corporations is creating a profound experience of insecurity within workers, their families, and their communities.

The book contains a warning. At times, workers do turn inward and become fatalistic, even xenophobic. But there are also signs of hope. The book explores the possibilities of reempowering labor through engaging space and scale in new ways. Workers are rising to the challenge of neoliberal globalization by attempting to globalize their own struggles.