Crossing the Divide: Precarious Work and the Future ofLabour, Eds Webster,Edward, Britwum,Akua O. and Bhowmik,Sharit (OUT OF PRINT NEW)
While work-related insecurities and worker vulnerabilityinduced by neoliberal globalisation are undeniably affecting an increasingnumber of workers around the world, Crossing the Divide revealsthat the history and legacy of colonialism is shaping the response of theGlobal South in ways that are quite different from that of the North.
Comparing precarious work in India, Ghana and South Africa,this book shows how innovative organisational strategies are emerging in theGlobal South to bridge the widening divide between the formal and informaleconomy. Farm workers in Ghana, India and South Africa are challenging colonial-typework practices. Municipal workers in Johannesburg and Accra are organisingcollectively. In the cities of India, Ghana and South Africa, workers indomestic service, unregulated factories and home-based work face difficultconditions with little or no union representation. Yet, these vulnerableworkers are engaging in a range of creative strategies to fight for decent workand living conditions.
The studies in this collection are predominantly ethnographic, drawing on theexperiences of vulnerable workers through in-depth interviews, observation and,in some cases, large-scale surveys. Together they uncover the largely invisibleworld of the informal economy and vulnerable workers. Crossing theDivide makes clear that informal workers are not passive victims butare building new forms of collective solidarity to promote their rights andinterests.
Edward Webster is Professor Emeritus in the Society, Work andDevelopment Institute (SWOP) at the University of the Witwatersrand inJohannesburg. He is the author of more than 100 scholarly publications,including Grounding Globalization: Labour in the Age of Insecurity (2008),written with Rob Lambert and Andries Bezuidenhout. The book won the AmericanSociological Associations Labor and Labor Movements Section DistinguishedMonograph Prize.
Akua Opokua Britwum is an Associate Professor at the Centre forGender Research, Advocacy and Documentation (CEGRAD) at the University of CapeCoast in Ghana. Her publications cover gender-based violence, gender andeconomic participation, trade union democracy, and labour force organisation inthe informal economy.
Sharit Bhowmik was Professor and Chairperson of the Centre forLabour Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai. He engagedin labour studies throughout his working life, with a particular interest inplantation labour and informal work. He was a member of the Subgroup onPlantation Labour of the National Advisory Committee in India and a member ofthe Expert Committee on Street Vendors in Mumbai.
