IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v30y2016i3p472-488.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reworking labour practices: on the agency of unorganized mobile migrant construction workers

Author

Listed:
  • Lisa Berntsen

Abstract

In an attempt to probe the nuanced processes of non-unionization, this article analyses the agency of migrant construction workers and the ways they negotiate and navigate an increasingly flexible and pan-European labour market. Drawing upon qualitative interview data, the article argues that the precarious employment context limits opportunities for effective collective action (and unionization), and that workers employ a wide range of strategies to ‘get by’ and ‘get ahead’ instead. This analysis contributes to an understanding of the resilience of current employment relations by extending the discussion of agency with the category of reworking. Instead of challenging the way cross-border employment relations are organized, migrant construction workers employ various strategies that rework existing conditions to their advantage. On a broader scale, however, these practices contribute to the continuation of current employment relations.

Suggested Citation

  • Lisa Berntsen, 2016. "Reworking labour practices: on the agency of unorganized mobile migrant construction workers," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 30(3), pages 472-488, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:30:y:2016:i:3:p:472-488
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017015617687
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017015617687
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017015617687?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. Kavita Datta & Cathy McIlwaine & Yara Evans & Joanna Herbert & Jon May & Jane Wills, 2007. "From Coping Strategies to Tactics: London's Low‐Pay Economy and Migrant Labour," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 45(2), pages 404-432, June.
    2. Chris Smith, 2006. "The double indeterminacy of labour power," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 20(2), pages 389-402, June.
    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. Agnieszka Rydzik & Sundari Anitha, 2020. "Conceptualising the Agency of Migrant Women Workers: Resilience, Reworking and Resistance," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(5), pages 883-899, October.
    2. Dawson Chris & Veliziotis Michail & Hopkins Benjamin, 2014. "Assimilation of the migrant work ethic," Working Papers 20141407, Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol.
    3. Sharon C. Bolton, 2009. "Getting to the heart of the emotional labour process: a reply to Brook," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 23(3), pages 549-560, September.
    4. Alex Veen & Tom Barratt & Caleb Goods, 2020. "Platform-Capital’s ‘App-etite’ for Control: A Labour Process Analysis of Food-Delivery Work in Australia," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(3), pages 388-406, June.
    5. Cohen, Nicola & Richardson, James, 2015. "‘I didn't feel like I was alone anymore’: evaluating self-organised employee coping practices conducted via Facebook," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 65024, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. 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.
    7. Laurence Romani & Patrizia Zanoni & Lotte Holck, 2021. "Radicalizing diversity (research): Time to resume talking about class," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 8-23, January.
    8. Ian Fitzgerald & Jane Hardy, 2010. "‘Thinking Outside the Box’? Trade Union Organizing Strategies and Polish Migrant Workers in the United Kingdom," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 48(1), pages 131-150, March.
    9. Croucher, Richard & Ramakrishnan, Sumeetra & Rizov, Marian & Benzinger, Diana, 2015. "Perceptions of employability among London’s low-paid: ‘Self-determination’ or ethnicity?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 39(1), pages 109-130.
    10. Linda McDowell & Adina Batnitzky & Sarah Dyer, 2008. "Internationalization and the Spaces of Temporary Labour: The Global Assembly of a Local Workforce," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 46(4), pages 750-770, December.
    11. 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.
    12. 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.
    13. Wood, Alex & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2021. "Antagonism beyond employment: how the ‘subordinated agency’ of labour platforms generates conflict in the remote gig economy," SocArXiv y943w, Center for Open Science.
    14. Yang Zhou, 2024. "Trapped in the platform: Migration and precarity in China's platform-based gig economy," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(4), pages 1195-1210, June.
    15. Rutvica Andrijasevic & Devi Sacchetto & Ngai Pun, 2020. "One firm, two countries, one workplace model? The case of Foxconn’s internationalisation," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 31(2), pages 262-278, June.
    16. Claudio Morrison & Devi Sacchetto & Richard Croucher, 2020. "Migration, Ethnicity and Solidarity: ‘Multinational Workers’ in the Former Soviet Union," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 58(4), pages 761-784, December.
    17. Lucie Trlifajová & Lenka Formánková, 2023. "‘Finally, We Are Well, Stable’: Perception of Agency in the Biographies of Precarious Migrant Workers," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(6), pages 1583-1604, December.
    18. Harvey, Geraint & Turnbull, Peter & Wintersberger, Daniel, 2021. "Has Labour Paid for the Liberalisation of European civil aviation?," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    19. Francesco E Iannuzzi & Devi Sacchetto, 2022. "Outsourcing and workers’ resistance practices in Venice’s hotel industry: The role of migrants employed by cooperatives," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 43(2), pages 877-897, May.
    20. David Jordhus-Lier & Anders Underthun & Kristina Zampoukos, 2019. "Changing workplace geographies: Restructuring warehouse employment in the Oslo region," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 51(1), pages 69-90, February.

    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:woemps:v:30:y:2016:i:3:p:472-488. 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: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    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.