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Unfree labour in the 21st century?

In: Handbook of Research on the Global Political Economy of Work

Author

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  • Siobhán McGrath

Abstract

This chapter argues for attending to the dynamics of freedom and unfreedom in all labour relations - not only those that might be categorised as ‘slavery’, trafficking or forced labour. It offers a critical review of varied approaches to conceptualising unfreedoms vis-à-vis labour: influential definitions of human trafficking, forced labour and contemporary ‘slavery’; Marxian conceptualisations of (and debates around) unfree labour; and recent literature proposing a ‘spectrum’ approach to freedom and unfreedom in labour relations. It then explores how we might conceive of dimensions of freedom and unfreedom in ways that break through binaries of free and unfree labour. To do so requires drawing on a range of scholarship to attend to dynamics of dispossession, social reproduction, migration and carcerality as well as to situate our understandings of freedoms and unfreedoms. It further requires recognition of ‘everyday unfreedoms’. In doing so, we can understand struggles over freedom as struggles over power. The chapter therefore calls for (re-)conceptualising struggles over freedom as struggles over power.

Suggested Citation

  • Siobhán McGrath, 2023. "Unfree labour in the 21st century?," Chapters, in: Maurizio Atzeni & Dario Azzellini & Alessandra Mezzadri & Phoebe Moore & Ursula Apitzsch (ed.), Handbook of Research on the Global Political Economy of Work, chapter 5, pages 74-82, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:19739_5
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    File URL: https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781839106583.00013
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