Description
Book SynopsisRecent developments in the organization of work and production have facilitated the decline of wage employment in many regions of the world. However, the idea of the wage continues to dominate the political imaginations of governments, researchers and activists, based on the historical experiences of industrial workers in the global North. This edited collection revitalises debates on the future of work by challenging the idea of wage employment as the global norm. Taking theoretical inspiration from the global South, the authors compare lived experiences of ‘ordinary work’ across taken-for-granted conceptual and geographical boundaries; from Cambodian brick kilns to Catalonian cooperatives. Their contributions open up new possibilities for how work, identity and security might be woven together differently. This volume is an invaluable resource for academics, students and readers interested in alternative and emerging forms of work around the world.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Work Beyond the Wage ~ William Monteith, Dora-Olivia Vicol and Philippa Williams Part One: RUPTURES Chapter 1., "Shit Wages" and Side Hustles: Ordinary Working Lives in Nairobi, London and Berlin ~ Tatiana Thieme Chapter 2., The Work of Looking for Work: Surviving Without a Wage in Austerity Britain ~ Sam Strong Chapter 3., Seeking Attachment in the Fissured Workplace: External Workers in the United States ~ Claudia Strauss Part Two: RESIGNATIONS Chapter 4., Wilful Resignations: Women, Labour and Life in Urban India ~ Asiya Islam Chapter 5., ‘Be Your Own Boss’: Entrepreneurial Dreams on the Urban Margins of South Africa ~ Hannah Dawson Chapter 6., Work Outside the Hamster’s Cage: Precarity and the Pursuit of a Life Worth Living in Catalonia ~ Vinzenz Bäumer Escobar Chapter 7., Choosing to be Unfree? The Aspirations and Constraints of Debt-bonded Brick Workers in Cambodia ~ Nithya Natarajan, Katherine Brickell, and Laurie Parsons Part Three: STRUGGLES Chapter 8., “Earning Money as the Wheels Turn Around”: Cycle-rickshaw Drivers and Wageless Work in Dhaka ~ Annemiek Prins Chapter 9., Going Gojek, or Staying Ojek? Competing Visions of Work and Economy in Jakarta’s Motorbike Taxi Industry ~ Mechthild von Vacano Chapter 10., "I Voted Bolsonaro for President": Street Vending and the Crisis of Labour Representation in Belo Horizonte, Brazil ~ Mara Nogueira Part Four: POSSIBILITIES Chapter 11., Extraordinary: Crisis, Charity and Care in London’s World without Work ~ Dora-Olivia Vicol Chapter 12., Defending the Wage: Visions of Work and Distribution in Namibia ~ E. Fouksman
