IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v50y2018i6p1228-1249.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Towards a pluralist labor geography: Constrained grassroots agency and the socio-spatial fix in Dȇrsim, Turkey

Author

Listed:
  • Celal Cahit AÄŸar
  • Steffen Böhm

Abstract

This paper explores the interplay between capital, socio-spatial structure and grassroots agency in the context of the recent trajectories of labor geography. Based on field research conducted in Dȇrsim, Turkey, our analysis unfolds the constraining role of socio-spatial structure in the agency and praxis of grassroots movements and their geography-making and crisis-displacement from below. Through the case study, we propound a concept of socio-spatial fix to explain how this praxis conjoins with and assists capital in both staving off its recurrent crises and reproducing its own logic of accumulation. Our analysis reveals that the socio-spatial fix in Dȇrsim, which is constituted by the grassroots struggle against hydroelectric power plant projects, performs three functions. First, it facilitates the production of capitalist social relations and spaces; second, it strengthens and maintains the existing social order through temporally moderating the province’s chronic problems; and third, it provides legitimacy for the capitalist exploitation of nature, culture and histories. Our research contributes to the emerging pluralist school of labor geography, providing an empirically substantiated insight into how capital reproduces itself via socio-spatial fixes produced by constrained grassroots agency.

Suggested Citation

  • Celal Cahit AÄŸar & Steffen Böhm, 2018. "Towards a pluralist labor geography: Constrained grassroots agency and the socio-spatial fix in Dȇrsim, Turkey," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(6), pages 1228-1249, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:50:y:2018:i:6:p:1228-1249
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X18776329
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308518X18776329
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0308518X18776329?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Liam Campling & Satoshi Miyamura & Jonathan Pattenden & Benjamin Selwyn, 2016. "Class dynamics of development: a methodological note," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(10), pages 1745-1767, October.
    2. Noel Castree, 2007. "Labour Geography: A Work in Progress," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 853-862, December.
    3. Rebecca Johns & Leyla Vural, 2000. "Class, Geography, and the Consumerist Turn: UNITE and the Stop Sweatshops Campaign," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 32(7), pages 1193-1213, July.
    4. Jess Walsh, 2000. "Organizing the Scale of Labor Regulation in the United States: Service-Sector Activism in the City," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 32(9), pages 1593-1610, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Steven Tufts, 2007. "Emerging Labour Strategies in Toronto's Hotel Sector: Toward a Spatial Circuit of Union Renewal," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 39(10), pages 2383-2404, October.
    2. Elena Baglioni, 2022. "The Making of Cheap Labour across Production and Reproduction: Control and Resistance in the Senegalese Horticultural Value Chain," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 36(3), pages 445-464, June.
    3. Kafui Attoh, 2017. "Public transportation and the idiocy of urban life," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(1), pages 196-213, January.
    4. Katie J Wells & Kafui Attoh & Declan Cullen, 2021. "“Just-in-Place†labor: Driver organizing in the Uber workplace," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(2), pages 315-331, March.
    5. Tom Barratt & Caleb Goods & Alex Veen, 2020. "‘I’m my own boss…’: Active intermediation and ‘entrepreneurial’ worker agency in the Australian gig-economy," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(8), pages 1643-1661, November.
    6. Barbara Ellen Smith, 2016. "Life with mother and Marx: Work, gender, and class revisited (again)," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(10), pages 2085-2088, October.
    7. Paul Bocking, 2018. "Labor geographies of socially embedded work: The multi scalar resistance of Mexican teachers," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(8), pages 1670-1687, November.
    8. Rachel Slocum, 2004. "Consumer Citizens and the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(5), pages 763-782, May.
    9. Elena Baglioni, 2018. "Labour control and the labour question in global production networks: exploitation and disciplining in Senegalese export horticulture," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 111-137.
    10. Philippa Williams & Al James & Fiona McConnell & Bhaskar Vira, 2017. "Working at the margins? Muslim middle class professionals in India and the limits of ‘labour agency’," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(6), pages 1266-1285, June.
    11. Jane Wills, 2008. "Making Class Politics Possible: Organizing Contract Cleaners in London," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 305-323, June.
    12. Norma Rantisi, 2002. "The Local Innovation System as a Source of 'Variety': Openness and Adaptability in New York City's Garment District," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(6), pages 587-602.
    13. Marslev, Kristoffer & Staritz, Cornelia & Raj‐Reichert, Gale, 2022. "Rethinking Social Upgrading in Global Value Chains: Worker Power, State‒Labour Relations and Intersectionality," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 53(4), pages 827-859.
    14. Yunji Kim & Austin M Aldag & Mildred E Warner, 2021. "Blocking the progressive city: How state pre-emptions undermine labour rights in the USA," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(6), pages 1158-1175, May.
    15. Schmidt Suntje & Brinks Verena & Brinkhoff Sascha, 2014. "Innovation and creativity labs in Berlin: Organizing temporary spatial configurations for innovations," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 58(1), pages 232-247, October.
    16. Iazzolino, Gianluca, 2021. "Going Karura: colliding subjectivities and labour struggle in Nairobi’s gig economy," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 110950, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Lydia Savage, 2004. "Public Sector Unions Shaping Hospital Privatization: The Creation of Boston Medical Center," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(3), pages 547-568, March.
    18. Ding Fei & Abdi Ismail Samatar & Chuan Liao, 2018. "Chinese–African encounters in high†tech sectors: Comparative investigation of Chinese workplace regimes in Ethiopia," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(S1), pages 455-475, March.
    19. Noel Castree, 2001. "Commodity Fetishism, Geographical Imaginations and Imaginative Geographies," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 33(9), pages 1519-1525, September.
    20. Michele Micheletti & Dietlind Stolle, 2007. "Mobilizing Consumers to Take Responsibility for Global Social Justice," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 611(1), pages 157-175, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:50:y:2018:i:6:p:1228-1249. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.