Talk: Globalization Lived Locally: Labour in Kerala

"Globalization Lived Locally:
A Labour Geography Perspective on Control, Conflict
and Response among Workers in Kerala "


by
Neethi P.

Event: Geography Coffee Hour
Day: Friday, February 17, 2012
Time: Coffee & Cookies 3:15 pm, Talk 3:30 pm
Place: 445 Blegen Hall

Supported by the labour geography framework, I analyse how spatial practices of labour shape the economic geography of capitalism; by looking into a model not at a global but at a very local scale of organization and showing its effectiveness while confronting social actors organized at global or extra-local scales. Questioning global stereotypes on economic responses to globalization, I argue that labour is actively involved in the very process of globalization and expansion of capital, empirically demonstrating the relevance of this in the globalization literature. I deal with one region - Kerala - and processes in its labour markets, taking the case of apparel workers in an export promoting industrial park.

Neethi P. is a Fulbright Visiting Scholar, Department of Geography, University of Georgia; PhD Scholar, Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Trivandrum, India.

Co-organized and co-sponsored by the Department of Geography and the Institute for Global Studies, University of Minnesota