Edward Webster & Rob Lambert 
Grounding Globalization 
Labour in the Age of Insecurity

*Winner of the 2009 Distinguished Scholarly Monograph Prize,
awarded by the American Sociological Association Labor and Labor
Movements section* Claims have been made on the emergence of a new labour
internationalism in response to the growing insecurity created by
globalization. However, when persons face conditions of insecurity
they often turn inwards. The book contains a warning and a sign of
hope. Some workers become fatalistic, even xenophobic. Others are
attempting to globalize their own struggles.

* Examines the claim that a new labour internationalism is
emerging by grounding the book in evidence, rather than
assertion

* Analyzes three distinct places – Orange, Australia;
Changwon, South Korea; and Ezakheni, South Africa – and how
they dealt with manufacturing plants undergoing restructuring

* Explores worker responses to rising levels of insecurity and
examines preconditions for the emergence of counter-movements to
such insecurities Highlights the significance of ‘place’ and
‘scale’, and demonstrates how the restructuring of multi-national
corporations, and worker responses to this, connect the two
concepts

Table of Content

Preface: A Journey of Discovery.

List of Abbreviations.

1. The Polanyi Problem and the Problem with Polanyi.

Part One: Markets Against Society.

2. Manufacturing Matters.

3. The Return of Market Despotism.

4. Citizenship Matters.

Part Two: Society Against Markets.

5. Strong Winds in Ezakheni.

6. Escaping Social Death in Changwon.

7. Squeezing Orange.

Part Three: Society Governing the Market?

8. History Matters.

9. Grounding Labour Internationalism.

10. The Necessity for Utopian Thinking.

Notes.

References.

Index.

About the author

Edward Webster is Professor of Sociology and Director of the
Sociology of Work Unit (SWOP) at the University of the
Witwatersrand.

Rob Lambert is the Chair of Labour Studies at UWA’s
Business School and is the Director of the Australian Global
Studies Research Centre.

Andries Bezuidenhout works as a senior researcher in the
Sociology of Work Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand.