Globalisation lived locally : new forms of control, conflict and response among labour in Kerala, examined through a labour geography lens
Abstract
With the support of the labour geography framework, this study
tries to analyse how the economic geography of capitalism is shaped by
the spatial practices of labour. We look into a model, not upon a global
scale but at a very local scale of organisation and show how organising
locally can, in fact, be an effective strategy during confrontation with
social actors organised at the global and other extra-local scales. The
study raises the need for going against the grain by questioning global
stereotypes with regard to expected economic responses to globalisation.
The position I seek to hold is that labour has been actively involved in
the very process of globalisation itself and the expansion of capital in
general. In this paper I take up this particular thread of argument and
empirically show how it is important and relevant in the globalisation
literature. I deal specifically with one region – Kerala – and particularly
the processes in its labour markets, taking the case of apparel workers in
two units in an export promoting industrial park in Kerala.
Keywords: Globalisation, Kerala, Labour Geography, Local-Global
Tensions, Space-Place Conflicts.
JEL Classification: J01, J51, J52, J81