Discussions of the geographic transformations wrought by capitalism generally treat corporations as the primary agents of spatial change. We hear of billions of dollars flowing here, factories moving there, venture capitalists opening up new markets, and workers having to "take it or leave it." Yet labor too is increasingly thinking and acting geographically, whether by struggling to impose national contracts; building regional, national, or international links of solidarity; or engaging in debates over local economic development. This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the emerging discipline of labor geography. Combining innovative theoretical analysis with empirical case studies from around the world, Herod examines the spatial contexts and scales in which workers live, organize, and work to address particular economic and political problems. The first book-length text of its kind, this is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in working-class life, workers' organizations, and the contemporary dynamics of capitalism.

Life's Work is a study of the shifting spaces and material practices of social reproduction in the global era. The volume blurs the heavily drawn boundaries between production and reproduction, showing through case studies of migration, education and domesticity how the practices of everyday life challenge these categorical distinctions. New and innovative study of the shifting spaces and material practices of social reproduction in the global era. Investigates changing conceptions of subjectivity, national identity and modernity. Focuses on both theoretical and practical issues. Includes case studies on migration, education and domesticity.

Addressing a number of 'missing links' in the analysis of labour and its geographies, this volume examines how theoretical perspectives on both labour in general and the organizations of the labour movement in particular can be refined and redefined. Issues of agency, power and collective mobilizations are examined and illustrated via a wide range of case studies from the 'global north' and 'global south' in order to develop a better and fuller appreciation of labour market processes in developed and developing countries.

Makes correlations between success and geography, explaining how such rising centers of innovation as San Francisco and Austin are likely to offer influential opportunities and shape the national and global economies in positive or detrimental ways.

Exploring a wide range of issues, from the integration of the world economy to how contemporary processes are shaping and shaped by nation-states and how workers are organizing transnationally in response to transformations in the planet’s economic geography, Geographies of Globalization is a critical examination of what has become the leitmotif of our contemporary world. Challenges neoliberal assumptions on the nature of globalization Provides a conceptual overview of how globalization is a spatial process and of its relation to capitalism Explores whether we are in fact living in a more ‘globalized’ world or only in a more ‘internationalized’ one Considers arguments concerning whether ‘globalization’ is a new phenomenon or simply the latest manifestation of processes many hundreds of years in the making Focuses on how nation-states have shaped, and been shaped by, contemporary processes of ‘globalization’, how ‘globalization’ has been imagined discursively, and how workers are responding to such processes Explores how workers are creating new organizing strategies in response to ‘globalization’

Mar Soria presents an innovative cultural analysis of female workers in Spanish literature and films. Drawing from nation-building theories, the work of feminist geographers, and ideas about the construction of the marginal subject in society, Soria examines how working women were perceived as Other in Spain from 1880 to 1975. By studying the representation of these marginalized individuals in a diverse array of cultural artifacts, Soria contends that urban women workers symbolized the desires and anxieties of a nation caught between traditional values and rapidly shifting socioeconomic forces. Specifically, the representation of urban female work became a mode of reinforcing and contesting dominant discourses of gender, class, space, and nationhood in critical moments after 1880, when social and economic upheavals resulted in fears of impending national instability. Through these cultural artifacts Spaniards wrestled with the unresolved contradictions in the gender and class ideologies used to construct and maintain the national imaginary. ? Whether for reasons of inattention or disregard of issues surrounding class dynamics, nineteenth- and twentieth-century Spanish literary and cultural critics have assumed that working women played only a minimal role in the development of Spain as a modern nation. As a result, relatively few critics have investigated cultural narratives of female labor during this period. Soria demonstrates that without considering the role working women played in the construction and modernization of Spain, our understanding of Spanish culture and life at that time remains incomplete.

The first edition of Spatial Divisions of Labour rapidly became a classic. It had enormous influence on thinking about uneven development, the nature of economic space, and the conceptualisation of place arguing for an approach embedding all these issues in a notion of spatialised social relations. This second edition includes a new first chapter and an extensive additional concluding essay addressing key issues in the debates and controversies which followed initial publication.

The first fifteen years of the 21st century have thrown into sharp relief the challenges of growth, equity, stability, and sustainability facing the world economy. In addition, they have exposed the inadequacies of mainstream economics in providing answers to these challenges. This volume gathers over 50 leading scholars from around the world to offer a forward-looking perspective of economic geography to understanding the various building blocks, relationships, and trajectories in the world economy. The perspective is at the same time grounded in theory and in the experiences of particular places. Reviewing state-of-the-art of economic geography, setting agendas, and with illustrations and empirical evidence from all over the world, the book should be an essential reference for students, researchers, as well as strategists and policy makers. Building on the success of the first edition, this volume offers a radically revised, updated, and broader approach to economic geography. With the backdrop of the global financial crisis, finance is investigated in chapters on financial stability, financial innovation, global financial networks, the global map of savings and investments, and financialization. Environmental challenges are addressed in chapters on resource economies, vulnerability of regions to climate change, carbon markets, and energy transitions. Distribution and consumption feature alongside more established topics on the firm, innovation, and work. The handbook also captures the theoretical and conceptual innovations of the last fifteen years, including evolutionary economic geography and the global production networks approach. Addressing the dangers of inequality, instability, and environmental crisis head-on, the volume concludes with strategies for growth and new ways of envisioning the spatiality of economy for the future.

What is the significance of food in our everyday lives? Food Geographies addresses this broad question by examining the social, political, and ecological connections that food weaves between people and places across the world and revealing the centrality of food in the human experience. This interdisciplinary and systemic perspective provides readers with key concepts, analytical tools, and critical skills to better understand and address the many issues facing the contemporary food system, including food insecurity, environmental degradation, climate change, labor exploitation, social inequality, power imbalance in decision making, and threats to health and well-being. It takes readers to places including modern plantations in Peru, collective farms in Tanzania, food halls in France, home kitchens in Japan, community gardens in Brazil, pubs in England, and animal feeding operations in America. By raising important questions about the current system, readers will explore ways to enact meaningful change to build better future food geographies by producing, consuming, and engaging with food differently.

This edited collection contributes to the theoretical literature on social reproduction—defined by Marx as the necessary labor to arrive the next day at the factory gate—and extended by feminist geographers and others into complex understandings of the relationship between paid labor and the unpaid work of daily life. The volume explores new terrain in social reproduction with a focus on the challenges posed by evolving theories of embodiment and identity, nonhuman materialities, and diverse economies. Reflecting and expanding on ongoing debates within feminist geography, with additional cross-disciplinary contributions from sociologists and political scientists, Precarious Worlds explores the productive possibilities of social reproduction as an ontology, a theoretical lens, and an analytical framework for what Geraldine Pratt has called “a vigorous, materialist transnational feminism.”