European Companies Search Engine
UK funding (£100,446): Migrant Workers and Dormitory Labour Regimes: Social Reproduction, Social Difference and Temporalities of Labour Ukri1 Oct 2020 UK Research and Innovation, United Kingdom
Overview
Text
Migrant Workers and Dormitory Labour Regimes: Social Reproduction, Social Difference and Temporalities of Labour
| Abstract | Integration of the Central / East European (CEE) member states of the European Union into the world economy has brought major challenges for working conditions and workers' social reproduction in the region. My PhD research in the Czech Republic presents critical analysis of globalised electronics production; emerging labour migration in CEE and the formation of hyper-mobile workers moving across the EU; contemporary transformations in precarious and intermediated employment relations including work agencies; changing regimes and relations of social reproduction. Migrant workers, from eastern-EU countries (Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania) and non-EU countries (Ukraine, Vietnam, Mongolia) who staff the assembly lines of the country's export-oriented electronics manufacturing sector, are at the particularly sharp end of these processes. Employed on temporary contracts by work agencies, and housed in employer-provided worker dormitories, these workers present a multi-national, multi-gendered and complexly racialized workforce, whose everyday life and social reproduction is directly mobilised within mechanisms of labour control. In researching worker dormitories and temporary work agencies, I offer a unique ethnographic view onto this social transformation, which connects subjective and lived experiences to the geographies of globalised, just-in-time electronics production and attendant regimes of work. In doing so, the research develops social reproduction as a critical analytic lens, presenting vital feminist contributions to economic geography, labour regime analysis and labour geographies, and critical migration studies. The research explores how the social organisation of migrant workers' life beyond work contributes to their production as 'disposable' labouring subjects, whilst also presenting detailed knowledge the everyday and spatial strategies devised by differentiated migrant workers to manage precarity. From this focus I have been able to identify key insights and strategies for improving the conditions of migrant workers' employment and social reproduction. The research presents a fundamentally important contribution for trade unions, labour/migrant rights NGOs, and policy makers seeking to tackle exploitation of precarious migrant labour. With the expert mentorship of Professor Adrian Smith, the Fellowship would allow me to achieve the following four key objectives: 1. Establish track record and disseminate PhD research findings through a series of high-quality publications in leading geography journals. 2. Establish my research within the discipline and develop academic networks towards creating opportunities for future collaboration, including grant applications and publications. This will be achieved through organisation of a workshop on feminist contributions and approaches to economic geography at QMUL; organisation of a conference session on labour migration and CEE at the RGS-IBG 2021 conference; and knowledge exchange with scholars and social researchers in the Czech Republic. 3. Disseminate PhD research findings to non-academic audiences for broader social impact with the aim of benefitting communities and stakeholders. This includes working in collaboration with Electronics Watch and other trade union and NGO contacts to undertake activities building capacity for effective campaigning on labour and migrant rights. The fellowship activities are designed to establish pathways for future social impact. 4. Develop my future research career by using the fellowship time and proposed activities to develop a new research program examining the contested geographies of production, labour, migration and social reproduction in Central-Eastern Europe. I will finalised a book project proposal, securing a book contract by the end of the fellowship, and submit postdoctoral research funding applications to the Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship and British Academy Early Career Research schemes. |
| Category | Fellowship |
| Reference | ES/V011561/1 |
| Status | Closed |
| Funded period start | 01/10/2020 |
| Funded period end | 30/09/2021 |
| Funded value | £100,446.00 |
| Source | https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FV011561%2F1 |
Participating Organisations
| Queen Mary University of London | |
| University of Padova |
The filing refers to a past date, and does not necessarily reflect the current state. The current state is available on the following page: Queen Mary University of London, London.
The visualizations for "Queen Mary University of London - UK funding (£100,446): Migrant Workers and Dormitory Labour Regimes: Social Reproduction, Social Difference and Temporalities of Labour"
are provided by
North Data
and may be reused under the terms of the
Creative Commons CC-BY license.
