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Scaling labour

Author

Listed:
  • Bradon Ellem

    (The University of Sydney)

Abstract

In recent years the ore-rich region known as the Pilbara, in north-western Australia, has been the site of intense struggles over the regulation of labour.Two of the world's biggest resource companies have been pitted against an oftendivided local labour force, but they have not had things all their own way. Drawing on the work of a number of geographers, the article shows how these disputes can be understood more richly than simply as another bout of union recognition disputes. If physical geography – rich ore bodies and isolation from metropolitan centres – or the contest between global capital and local labour are important, they are only the starting points for a textured,‘spatialized’ understanding of capital-labour relationships.The article argues that space is made and argued over in many ways and that there are many scales in addition to the local and the global at which conflicts are constructed and resolved.

Suggested Citation

  • Bradon Ellem, 2006. "Scaling labour," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 20(2), pages 369-387, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:20:y:2006:i:2:p:369-387
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017006064275
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Sadler & Bob Fagan, 2004. "Australian Trade Unions and the Politics of Scale: Reconstructing the Spatiality of Industrial Relations," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 80(1), pages 23-43, January.
    2. 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.
    3. Andrew Jonas, 1996. "Local Labour Control Regimes: Uneven Development and the Social Regulation of Production," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 323-338.
    4. Bradon Ellem & John Shields, 2001. "Placing Peak Union Purpose and Power: The Origins, Dominance and Decline of the Barrier Industrial Council," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 12(1), pages 61-84, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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