Labor and Global Justice

Essays on the Ethics of Labor Practices under Globalization

Edited by Mary C. Rawlinson; Wim Vandekerckhove; Ronald M. S. Commers and Tim R. Johnston - Foreword by Edward S. Casey - Contributions by József Böröcz; Stephen Bouquin; Lefteris Kretsos; Patrick Loobuyck; Zahra Meghani; John Pearson; Franc Rottiers; Charles Umney and Ramona Vijeyarasa

Labor and Global Justice: Essays on the Ethics of Labor Practices under Globalization combines conceptual and theoretical perspectives across a multiplicity of relevant differences, both geographical and disciplinary, to develop a transnational perspective on labor and justice. Through its multidisciplinary, transnational approach and its engagement with public policy, the contributors advance urgent contemporary debates around work and clearly demonstrate the necessity of articulating the rights of labor to any global ethics or to any concept of global justice. Together, the chapters make evident why justice requires, both theoretically and practically, a rethinking and rearticulation of the relation between labor and capital.

Framing the theoretical and practical question of justice in a new way, the editors have gathered addresses scholars across multiple disciplines, including philosophy, international relations, and the social sciences. As the volume emphasizes the connection between the concept of justice and real public policy, it also appeals to human rights workers and labor organizers, as well as those who make the public policies that establish the relation between labor and capital, just or unjust, and that determine the well-being of workers, for good or ill.

Lexington Books

Pages: 236 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-7391-9369-3 • Hardback • October 2014 • $120.00 • (£92.00)

978-1-4985-0309-9 • Paperback • November 2016 • $51.99 • (£40.00)

978-0-7391-9370-9 • eBook • October 2014 • $49.00 • (£38.00)

Subjects: Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, Political Science / Public Policy / General, Social Science / Human Geography, Social Science / Sociology / General, Philosophy / Ethics / Professional Ethics, Philosophy / Continental Philosophy

Labor and Global Justice

Essays on the Ethics of Labor Practices under Globalization

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

Labor and Global Justice: Essays on the Ethics of Labor Practices under Globalization combines conceptual and theoretical perspectives across a multiplicity of relevant differences, both geographical and disciplinary, to develop a transnational perspective on labor and justice. Through its multidisciplinary, transnational approach and its engagement with public policy, the contributors advance urgent contemporary debates around work and clearly demonstrate the necessity of articulating the rights of labor to any global ethics or to any concept of global justice. Together, the chapters make evident why justice requires, both theoretically and practically, a rethinking and rearticulation of the relation between labor and capital.

Framing the theoretical and practical question of justice in a new way, the editors have gathered addresses scholars across multiple disciplines, including philosophy, international relations, and the social sciences. As the volume emphasizes the connection between the concept of justice and real public policy, it also appeals to human rights workers and labor organizers, as well as those who make the public policies that establish the relation between labor and capital, just or unjust, and that determine the well-being of workers, for good or ill.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 236 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-7391-9369-3 • Hardback • October 2014 • $120.00 • (£92.00)

978-1-4985-0309-9 • Paperback • November 2016 • $51.99 • (£40.00)

978-0-7391-9370-9 • eBook • October 2014 • $49.00 • (£38.00)

Subjects: Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, Political Science / Public Policy / General, Social Science / Human Geography, Social Science / Sociology / General, Philosophy / Ethics / Professional Ethics, Philosophy / Continental Philosophy

Author

Mary C. Rawlinson is professor of philosophy and affiliated faculty in comparative literature and women’s and gender studies at Stony Brook University.

Wim Vandekerckhove is senior lecturer in organizational behavior at the University of Greenwich, Work and Employment Relations Unit (WERU).

Ronald M.S. Commers is professor emeritus of moral philosophy and value inquiry and chairman emeritus at the Center for Ethics and Value Inquiry, Ghent University.

Tim R. Johnston is manager of education and training for SAGE (Services and Advocacy for LGBT Elders), the nation’s largest organization dedicated to improving the lives of LGBT older adults.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Laboring in the Darkness of Global Justice, Edward S. Casey
Introduction, Wim Vandekerckhove
Part I. No Justice without Labor
Chapter 1. Putting Labor on the Global Justice Agenda: The Juggernaut of Capital Accumulation
and the Global Assault on Labor Standards, Ronald M.S. Commers
Chapter 2. Meaningful Work: Labor, Gender, and Justice after Globalization, Mary C. Rawlinson
Part II. Citizenship, Democracy, and Global Justice
Chapter 3. Laboring with Others, Franc Rottiers
Chapter 4. Trade Unionism and Theories of Global Justice, John Pearson
Chapter 5. The Collapse of State Socialism in the ‘Soviet Bloc’ and Global Labor Migration,
József Böröcz
Part II. Justice across Borders?
Chapter 6. Labor Migration and Justice: An Analysis of the Labor Migration Policy of the
European Union, Patrick Loobuyk
Chapter 7. Justice for the “Other” Caregivers: Addressing the Epistemic Dimension of Injustice,
Zahra Meghani
Chapter 8. Hidden Data, Hidden Victims: Trafficking in the Context of Globalisation and Labor
exploitation—The Case of Vietnam, Ramona Vijeyarasa
Part III. Laboring for Global Justice: The Role of Labor in Achieving Social Equity Under Globalization
Chapter 9. Resistance To Work and at The Workplace: A Blind Spot For French Sociology Of
Work?, Stephen Bouquin
Chapter 10. Global Justice Norms Versus Interest Representation? British Unions and
International Solidarity, Charles Umney
Chapter 11. Strike, Protest, Occupy, and Vote: Austerity Politics and Resistance to Neoliberal
Social Engineering in Greece, Lefteris Kretsos

Reviews

This is an outstanding and timely volume, essential to understanding contemporary labor issues. It is an impressive interdisciplinary study and a critical contribution, which is a must-read for scholars and students interested in ethics and labor practices in the capitalist world economy.

— Eric Mielants, Fairfield University

Labor and Global Justice shows that at the heart of the process of economic globalization is the decades’ old practice of sidelining labor. Without a mobile and often stateless mass of vulnerable workers, there would be no global triumph of capitalism and unfettered markets. Labor’s vulnerability is the very flip side of neoliberal globalization. The authors of the essays here point the way forward, from the precarious lives of laborers today to the conditions for meaningful work and dignified lives.

— Noelle C. McAfee, Emory University

This collection raises important questions about the position of labor in a globalized world. Without strong global trade unions, what options do we have for protecting the rights of workers? Are there global mechanisms that can be invoked to protect the weak and vulnerable? The essays presented here stimulate further discussion of this urgent, but sometimes neglected, issue.

— Peter Singer, Princeton University