The various metanarratives of globalization project hyper-mobile capital as the leading factor for global economic integration, ignoring the role of labour. Questioning this paradigm, this book reasons that labour becomes actively involved in the very process of globalization and capital expansion.

Based on the broad theme of globalization and labour, particularly female labour, the author applies the ‘labour geography’ approach to examine contemporary forms of labour control, conflict, and response under a globalization regime in Kerala through four diverse and in-depth empirical case studies set in this state. The geographic perspective sheds light on local variability and uneven development in labour market, helping chart the complex landscapes within which contemporary workers live, work, and struggle.

In view of dramatic changes in the labour scenario in Kerala over the second half of the twentieth century, this book constructs a collage of trends in Kerala’s labour scene, in an analysis that departs from economic orthodoxy and borrows from sociological, anthropological, and partly ethnographic approaches to highlight the role played by seemingly unlikely actors in the process of globalization.

About the Author

Neethi P. teaches at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, India. Her research interests include globalization and labour, women’s work, informal labour markets, everyday work politics, alternative labour movements, and other related themes.

Table of Contents:
List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Prologue 1. Contemporary Globalization, Spatiality of Work, and Labour Geography 2. Kerala in Focus 3. A Case of an Apparel Park 4. A Case of an Electronics Firm and the Involvement of the Church 5. A Case of a Food Processing Firm: Issues of Gender and Space 6. A Case of Cochin Port: Privatization of Ports and Workers’ Spatial-Fix 7. A Concluding Note Bibliography Index About the Author