HR410 People, Work and the Global Economy
Introduction BRIAN GARVEY
Lecture 1
20 September
Introduction to the module:
Labour, networks and conflicts across the Global North and South, Brian Garvey
27th September University closed
Lecture 2
4 October
A critical lens on migrant employment and the concept of ‘free labour’ in the global economy: evidence from a
south‐south movement
Pratima Sambajee
Lecture 3
11 October
Deindustrialisation, pandemic and shifting standards of work
Guest Lecture, Richie Venton, Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, UK
Lecture 4
18 October
Immigration and migrant work in the UK
Dennis Nickson
Lecture 5
25 October
Reading week
Lecture 6
1 November
“The pristine myth as pretext for territorial expropriation of forest peoples in Brazilian Amazonia”
Guest lecture, Bruna C. Rocha, Federal University of West Pará, Amazonia, Brazil
Lecture 7
8 November
Primary commodity chains, land and resource conflict: film viewing and question and answer session
Thaís Borges, Journalist and author, Amazon region of Brazil’ Ana Terra Reis, Landless Workers Movement
Introduction to group project assignment
Lecture 8
15 November
Financialisation, organisations, commodities and agrarian labour
Guest lecture, Maria Luisa Mendonça, City University New York
Lecture 9
22 November
Forced labour in a state-directed economy
Darren McGuire
Lecture 10
29 November
Review of first term, assignment feedback
Brian Garvey
People, Work and the Global Economy
What are we going to do?
Why are we going to do it?
How are we going to do it?
Course aims
The aim of the module is to provide students with knowledge and critical understanding of the
context and content of work, employment and organisation in a globalizing economy. The
module will complement and advance existing knowledge and understanding of employment
relations, new forms of industrial organization and range of responses to these by workers and
their communities across a range of settings.
Objectives
To examine current empirical developments and trends in the social organization of economic activity
in the context of developments in the international political economy
To provide understanding of the relevant theoretical debates and issues effecting employers and
employees, and broader social relations, in the global context.
To be able to discern the national, regional and international processes, models and institutions
effecting work and the organization of employment within the globalizing economy.
To understand contemporary changes to work and its organization across space and across
dimensions of gender, class, nationality, migration and race.
To develop a critical and reflective understanding of the nature of international human resource
management and competing models of organization, some of which may be driven by employees
rather than management.
To develop an appreciation of the impact of local histories, cultures and nation state decision making
on the practices of global organizations and acceptance of, or resistance to, their activities by labour
and social organisations.
Assessment
1 - An individual assignment with a choice from two questions.
The word limit is 3,000 words (not including references). The exam
is worth 35% of the final grade
2- Group project This will be undertaken in semester 2; however,
you will be introduced to the assignment and your groups in
semester 1. This forms 25% of the overall marks for this course.
3- Exam. The final exam will take place in April/May and forms
40% of the overall grade
Why this course?
The Personal-The work we do, in employment, at home, caring, working for others, self
employed dominates human activity – increasingly so
The local- How it is experienced is a result of a complex of social, human interactions and our
relation with nature and technology – increasingly so
The national- The organisation of these activities and interactions are influenced by powerful
actors in the economy, the political economy-increasingly so
The global- There are conflicts, regional tensions, economic and political uncertainties –
increasingly so
Globalisation means that affects us, choose how to deal with them, understand them to
consider solutions
How ? Approach to learning
Approach is inspired by Paulo Freire, Brazilian educator and author
“Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the
people--they manipulate them”
“For apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, individuals cannot be truly human. Knowledge
emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing,
hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.”
“No one is born fully-formed: it is through self-experience in the world that we become what we
are.”
“If you copy it means you are working without any real feelings” Billie Holliday
Source www.kentakepage.com
Values and expectations
As a course co-ordinator I aim to be:
Organised, receptive, attempting to balance various aspects of work and life, honest,
challenging, ethical
Punctual, prepared, flexible, available, fair
I trust you will be
Committed, present, interested, disciplined, argumentative, engaging, challenging, honest and
fair
Let’s begin: thinking about the global economy today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkEIrWSPKhk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EodhCqvD42U
Group discussion….
Stage 1: Define and describe What is going on?
Who are the actors in the story? What work is
being done? How is it organised? What do we
learn about work (economic production) and
domestic life (social reproduction)?
Stage 2 Analysis What are the key themes
arising from the story?What power is held by
the various actors? Who has more power? Who
has less power? How do the actors feel?Is there
conflict? How is this manifested? Is there
unrest? Is it latent/hidden?
Stage 3: critical reflectionWhat do you know
about the context for the story?What do we
learn about regulation? What do we learn
about social relations?What links this local story
to globalisatio?What solutions would you
propose? ie recommendations?
What we are learning
[the pandemic has served to highlight:]
The globalised and interconnecting links between production, distribution and consumption of
goods across borders
Liberal market economy remains pivotal/hegemonic, BUT the state/government retains
considerable power
Global work force, carrying out differentiated tasks, fragmented yet often co-ordinated
Tensions between economic growth and health, safety and wellbeing
Inequalities, regional disparities, within country, class, race, gender
Theoretical and conceptual considerations
At Honours level we should be grasping key concepts and theories, in this case about the
global economy, to understand patterns of work, employment and organisation
The theory is a set of concepts, ideas or hypotheses that explain or interpret phenomena
and predict of the its occurrence in future
e.g. Global production network theory (Yeung and Coe, 2015: p.29) “a more dynamic
theory of global production networks that can better explain the emergence of different
firm-specific activities, strategic network effects, and territorial outcomes in the global
economy”
Yeung, H.W.‐c. and Coe, N.M. (2015), GPN Theory. Economic Geography, 91: 29-58. doi:10.1111/ecge.12063

Internationalisation, Globalisation, Neoliberallism-
patterns, trends, trajectories
‘Internationalization’: the geographic spread of economic activities across national boundaries; e.g.
internationalising strategy of a multi national corporation
‘globalization’ : how these activities across national borders are integrated in the market oriented
economy and coordinated via a range of institutions ( see P. Dicken, 2003: Global Shift: Reshaping
the Global Economic Map in the 21st Century: p 12)
‘neoliberalism’ : a conceptual term that refers generally to a re regulation of the economic and social
life that prioritises the law of market forces. It is subject to healthy debate e.g.
- Taylor and Rioux , 2018:p. 74-82; -J.
Peck and N. Theodore, 2019 Still neoliberalism? The South Atlantic Quarterly 118:2, April 2019
K. Brich, https://theconversation.com/what-exactly-is-neoliberalism-84755;
-I Bruff & C.B. Tansel (2019) Authoritarian neoliberalism: trajectories of knowledge production and praxis,
Globalizations, 16:3, 233-244
Empirical dimenisons
De-industrialisation in many parts of globe with implications for work and employment(e.g.
Glasgow, US)
Globalisation -removal of trade barriers, increasing role of multi national corporations linked to
neoliberal financialisation of markets, technological advances, political dominance of neoliberal
governance (See Martinez 2014), with distinct authoritarian character (Bruff and Tansel, 2018).
Reduction of social protections, particular vulnerabilities – precarity (UK), forced labour
(Uzebekistan), migration (Brazil, Mauritius)
Shifting investment strategies, foreign direct investment means new sites of industrialisation
and economic activity and new sites economic depression and inequalities – (Mississippi)
Global production networks-value added along simple or complex chains of production that are
controlled from a distant base; new places of resource capture and conflict (Amazon and
Cerrado regions of Brazil) linked to both the carbon and the green economy
De-industrialisation, flexible, post
industrial work
The rapid decline of ‘smoke-stack’ industries in Western industrialized countries
Changed distribution of work throughout society, particularly between men and women
Change in working hours
Increased intensity of that work
Non standard work, non standard hours, self employment affecting boundaries between work,
leisure and domestic life
Optimistic observers of service economy point to new skills alongside technology, new
employment relations
Others note the proliferation of low skilled, poorly paid, ‘Mac-jobs’
Warhurst and Thompson, “Indeed, proponents of the knowledge economy should appreciate
that most tertiary sector growth has occurred not in knowledge work but in the lower paid work
of serving, guarding, cleaning, waiting and helping in the private health and care services, as
well as hospitality industries, (1338: 5)
Morphing of standard and non standard
work
Standard work; say, 20 years ago, typically blue collar work, manufacturing, but also construction
and mining. Permanent jobs, strong social wage (welfare benefits, pension). Typically male and
with core references to USA, UK, European, Australian and Fordist/Taylorist systems of
production; and dependent on ‘unpaid, female domestic labour’ (Herod and Lambert, p5)
As Ursula Huws states,
“Seen from the perspective of women, and, indeed, from the perspective of the majority of the
workforce in many developing countries, precariousness is the normal condition of labour under
capitalism. Given the enormous asymmetries between capital and labour, what needs to be
explained is not so much how this precariousness has come about but how it is that in certain
times and places certain groups of workers have managed to organise themselves effectively
enough to achieve some degree of income security and occupational stability.” (Huws, 2011: 4)
Foreign direct investment
7% of GDP in 1980 to 30% in 2009 In 2010 more than half went to ‘third world and transition
economies’
Global FDI reached 58% 5 of top 10 host countries including China, Brazil and India, but new
uncertainties affecting future investment
https://unctad.org/en/pages/PublicationWebflyer.aspx?publicationid=84
“COVID-19 causes steep drop in investment flows, hitting developing countries hardest.
Recovery is not expected before 2022, says new UNCTAD report”.
https://unctad.org/en/pages/newsdetails.aspx?OriginalVersionID=2396
Internationalisation, Globalisation, Neoliberallism-patterns, trends,
trajectories continued
Group question…
Choose a job that you have, or had, or would like to have
What is the job?
What are the hours of work?
Is it flexible? Is it guaranteed hours per week
Is there a contract?
Is it a job for life?
Is there a trade union in the workplace?
https://thefuturesagency.com/2014/10/27/pikettys-inequality-story-in-six-charts/
https://thefuturesagency.com/2014/10/27/pikettys-inequality-story-in-six-charts/
Work and its future
ILO: https://www.ilo.org/global/research/global-reports/weso/2015-changing-nature-of-
jobs/WCMS_368626/lang--en/index.htm
https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/future-of-work/lang--en/index.htm
Migration
https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/wmr_2020.pdf
Ecological crisis, conflicts and resource capture
https://medium.com/@thugznkisses/theres-more-to-the-ecological-crisis-than-global-warming-
2de8a66de4d
https://theconversation.com/brazils-jair-bolsonaro-is-devastating-indigenous-lands-with-the-
world-distracted-138478
Internationalisation, Globalisation, Neoliberallism-patterns, trends,
trajectories : some links
Learning from the past, discussing the present and
looking forward
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hgQFaeaeo0