Globalization Contested

Bringing fresh insights to the contemporary globalization debate, this text reveals the social and political contests that give "global" its meaning, by examining the contested nature of globalization as it is expressed in the restructuring of work. Louise Amoore rejects conventional explanations of globalization as a process that automatically leads to transformations in working lives, or as a project that is strategically designed to bring about lean and flexible forms of production, and advances an understanding of the social practices that constitute global change. Through case studies that span from the labour flexibility debates in Britain and Germany to the strategies and tactics of corporations and workers, the author examines how globalization is interpreted and experienced in everyday life and argues that contestation has become a central feature of the practices that enable or confound global restructuring.