Forces of Labor: Workers' Movements and Globalization Since 1870 (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)

Silver, Beverly J.

ISBN 10: 052181751X / ISBN 13: 9780521817516

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2003

About this Item

In.

Seller Inventory # ria9780521817516_new

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Forces of Labor: Workers' Movements and Globalization Since 1870 (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 052181751X
• ISBN 13: 9780521817516
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Recasting labor studies in a long-term and global framework, the book draws on a major new database on world labor unrest to show how local labor movements have been related to world-scale political, economic, and social processes since the late nineteenth century. Through an in-depth empirical analysis of select global industries, the book demonstrates how the main locations of labor unrest have shifted from country to country together with shifts in the geographical location of production. It shows how the main sites of labor unrest have shifted over time together with the rise or decline of new leading sectors of capitalist development and demonstrates that labor movements have been deeply embedded (as both cause and effect) in world political dynamics. Over the history of the modern labor movement, the book isolates what is truly novel about the contemporary global crisis of labor movements. Arguing against the view that this is a terminal crisis, the book concludes by exploring the likely forms that emergent labor movements will take in the twenty-first century.

Book Description

The book analyzes the global dynamics of labor movements, introducing a major new database on labor unrest events worldwide from 1870 to 1996. The book's purpose is to assess the contemporary crisis of labor movements, but it argues that to do so effectively labor movements need to be studied in a longer historical and wider geographical framework than is normally done. Key themes include the relationship between labor unrest and capital mobility in various global industries (automobiles, textiles, semiconductors, and service industries) and the inter-relationship between world labor unrest and world politics over the past century.