The Palgrave Handbook of Environmental Labour Studies [1 ed.] 9783030719081, 9783030719098
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English Pages [896] Year 2021
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Table of contents :
The Palgrave Handbook of Environmental Labour Studies
Contents
The Palgrave Handbook of Environmental Labour Studies
List of Figures
List of Tables
Notes on Contributors
Abbreviations
1: Introduction: Expanding the Boundaries of Environmental Labour Studies
Introduction
Ways of Understanding the Environment and the Society-Nature Relationship
Ways of Understanding the Work/Labour: Nature Relationship
Labour and the Environment: Elements of History
Environmentalism of the Poor and Environmental Justice
Environmental Labour Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Research Area Bridging the Academic/Practitioner Divide
Structure of the Book
Part I: Histories
Part II: Seeking Common Ground
Part III: Farmers, Commoners, Communities
Part IV: Trade Unions and the State
Part V: Organic Intellectuals
Part VI: Rethinking and Broadening Concepts
Possible Futures for Environmental Labour Studies
References
Part I: Histories
2: Labour and the Environment in India
Introduction
Natural Resource Regimes
Industry, Labour and the Environment
Urbanization
Displacement
Conclusion
References
3: Energy Transitions in the Global South: The Precarious Location of Unions
Introduction
South Africa’s Carbon-Intensive Economy
South Africa’s Winding Energy Transition
Workers’ Anxieties
Labour Contestations
The Vice-Grip of a Carbon Lock-In
Explaining Labour’s Pendulum Swing
Precarious Position of Labour
Conclusion
References
4: The New Struggles to Be Born: The Difficult Birth of a Democratic Ecosocialist Working-Class Politics
Introduction
Ecosocialism and Working-Class Politics
Case Study: NUMSA’s Lost Moment
Conclusion
References
5: The Green New Deal and Just Transition Frames within the American Labour Movement
Introduction
Just Transition: A Brief Overview
Jobs Versus the Environment: Labour Resistance to Climate Protection and Just Transition
Fear of Job Loss
Decline in Bargaining Power
The Promise of Job Creation in Fossil Fuels
The Structure of the U.S. Labour Movement
Clean Air and Good Jobs: The Labour-Climate Movement for a Fair and Just Transition
Protective Just Transition
Proactive Just Transition
Transformative Just Transition
The Green New Deal and Just Transition
Conclusion
References
6: Working-Class Environmentalism: The Case of Northwest Timber Workers
Introduction
Conclusions
References
7: Trade Unions and Environmental Justice
Introduction
What Is Environmental Justice?
Unions and EJ: Theoretical Considerations
Unions and Environmental Justice in the Workplace
Solidarity Divided and Reunited: Australian Unions and the Case of Asbestos
Trade Unions and EJ Beyond the Workplace
Los Angeles and the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports
Global EJ and Trade Unions
Trade Unions and Climate Justice
Conclusion
References
Part II: Seeking Common Ground
8: ‘Beware of the Crocodile’s Smile’: Labour-Environmentalism in the Struggle to Achieve a Just Transition in South Africa
Introduction
The Power of the Minerals-Energy Complex in the South African Energy Landscape
Fault Lines in the Labour and Environmental Movements
Fractures Within the Labour Movement and Just Transition
Areas of Innovative Worker Agency
Engaging the Binary Between Jobs or Environmental Protection
Attempts to Unify the Labour Movement on the Relation Between Capitalism and Climate Change
Establishing Connections Between Labour and the Environmental Justice Movement
Labour and Coal Workers
Red-Green Tensions
Illustration of Tensions Between Mining and Environmental Protection: The Mabola Protected Environment
Bringing in Coal Mining-Affected Communities
Conclusion
References
9: Fighting in the Name of Workers: Exploring the Dynamics of Labour-Environmental Conflicts in Kerala
Introduction
Context: Labour-Environmental Tensions in the Eloor-Edayar Industrial Belt
Conceptualizations of Labour-Environmental Conflicts
Exploring the Intersection of Class and Environmental Inequality
Methods and Analytical Approach
Tracing the Working-Class Origins of the Local Environmental Movement
Fighting in the Name of Workers
In the Name of Fisherfolk and Farm Workers
Defending the Interests of Factory Workers
Jobs as a Mechanism for Manufacturing Consent
Discussion
References
10: Trade Union Politics for a Just Transition: Towards Consensus or Dissensus?
Introduction
Analytical Considerations: A Concept Prone to Both Consensus and Dissensus
The Intra-Union Tier: Overcoming the Labour-Environment Contradiction?
The Extra-Union Tier: Public and Private Interests on Just Transition
The Union-Plus Tier: Social Movements Space and Social Power of Unions
Conclusion: Framing Just Transition as a Politics of Dissensus
References
11: Climate Jobs Plans: A Mobilizing Strategy in Search of Agency
Introduction
The Origin and Spread of CJPs
The Climate Part of the CJPs
The Job Part of CJPs
A Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels
The Inclusiveness of the Climate Jobs Strategy
Hard to Exclude: The ‘green economy’
Hard to Include: The State and the Public Sector
In Search of an Agency with the Power to Win
Conclusion: Climate Jobs as Crisis and Emergency Jobs
References
12: The Role of Ecuadorian Working-Class Environmentalism in Promoting Environmental Justice: An Overview of the Hydrocarbon and Agricultural Sectors
Introduction
The Ecuadorian Political Economy
The Agrarian Political Economy
The Oil Political Economy
The Agrarian Labour Movement: An Environmental Agenda Framed as Both Food Sovereignty and Plurinational State
The Anti-Oil Labour Environmental Politics: Between Territorial Rights, Cosmopolitics and National-Developmentalist Claims
Conclusions
References
13: A Just Transition for All? A Debate on the Limits and Potentials of a Just Transition in Canada
Introduction
Framing a Just Transition
Just Transition Debates in Canada: A Worker-Focused Approach
An Expanded Just Transition: Fighting for 15&Fairness
From the Tar-Ssands to Fossil-Free Power: A Just Transition for All of Us
Reaching a Green New Deal in Canada
The Challenges of Building Blue-Green Coalitions
Concluding Remarks
References
Part III: Farmers, Commoners, Communities
14: Labouring the Commons: Amazonia’s ‘Extractive Reserves’ and the Legacy of Chico Mendes
Introduction
Labour and the Common/s
The Geo-historical Context: Amazonia, 1960s–1970s
Insurgent Commoning: The Extractivist Movement and the Resex Law, 1980s–1990s
A Disputed Legacy
Conclusion
References
15: Connecting Individual Trajectories and Resistance Movements in Brazil
Introduction
Agrarian Protests
Part I: Social Movements and Their Roots and Conditions
The Role of Brazilian Liberation Theology
Agribusiness Still Calls the Shots in Agrarian Reform
The Profile of the Agrarian Protests and Manifestations
Part II—Becoming Organic Intellectuals: Poverty, Inequality and the Politicisation of Experiences of Exploitation
They Do Not Call It Poison
Those Who Devastate Are Not the Small Ones
Land, Source of Livelihood: Do Not Give Up Your Land
Conclusion
References
16: Whose Labour, Whose Land? Indigenous and Labour Conflicts and Alliances over Resource Extraction
Introduction
Theoretical Perspectives: Settler Colonialism and Capitalism
Labour-Indigenous Relationships Around Mining and Energy
Conflict over Sovereignty, Land, and Natural Resources
Pro-development Alliances
Coalitions for Environmental Justice
Case Study of the Dakota Access Pipeline: Conflicts and Alliances over Fossil Fuels
The NoDAPL Movement
Labour Union Responses to NoDAPL
Conclusion
References
17: Commoning Labour, Labouring the Commons: Centring the Commons in Environmental Labour Studies
Introduction
The Commons and Commoning: Key Insights for Environmental-Labour Studies
Expanding Conceptions of ‘Labour’ and the Working Class: Social Reproduction and the Labour Commons
Deepening Understanding of Working-Class Environmental Subjectivities: Commoning and the Co-Becoming of the ‘Worker Commoner’
Broadening Visions of ‘Blue-Green’ Alliances: The Commons as Common Ground for Environmental-Labour Struggles
Grounding the Commons-Environmental-Labour Nexus in Climate Justice, Just Transition and Green New Deal Debates
A View from the Global South: Puerto Rico’s Struggle Against the ‘colonial job blackmail’ and for a Just Transition
Conclusion: Towards a Decolonial-Commons Perspective on Working-Class Community Ecologies and Just Transitions
References
18: Agroecological Farmer Movements and Advocacy Coalitions in Sub-Saharan Africa: Between De-Politicization and Re-Politicization
Introduction: Agroecology and Farmer Movements
Agroecology as a Form of Labour Environmentalism
Agroecology in Sub-Saharan Africa
Senegal: Recent Farmer Movements, Productivist Policies and an Agroecology Led by NGOs
Farmer Organizations: Repertoires of Collective Action
‘Agroecology-by-Doing’
Alternative Food Networks
Supporting Alternative Labelling and Certification
Securing Land Rights and Access to Natural Resources
Resistance and Protest
Promoting Territorial Approaches
National Advocacy Coalition Platforms
Discussion and Conclusion
References
19: Working-Class Environmentalism in the UK: Organising for Sustainability Beyond the Workplace
Introduction
Working-Class Environmentalism
Autoethnographic Environmental Community Development Experience
Lockleaze Community Market (2004–2007)
Trees for Lockleaze
Joint Workplace and Community Organising in the UK—Potential and Barriers
Three Strategies for Joint Trade Union-Local Community Environmental Organising
The Trade Union Health and Safety Movement
Community Unionism
Workers’ Control of Production for Socially Useful Production
Conclusion
References
Part IV: Trade Unions and the State
20: A Just Transition Towards Environmental Sustainability for All
Introduction
Part 1: Context, Development of Concept and the ILO Approach to Just Transition
A Just Transition in Dealing with Consequences of Climate Change
Just Transition in International Instruments and the ILO Approach
Inclusion of Just Transition in International Instruments
ILO Guidelines for a Just Transition Towards Environmentally Sustainable Economies and Societies for All
Scope and Inclusiveness of Just Transition from the ILO Approach
Part 2: Just Transition Policies in Practice
Spain
Context and Challenges
Policy Instruments
South Africa
Context and Challenges
Policy Instruments
Ethiopia
Context and Challenges
Policy Instruments
Conclusion
References
21: Labour Resistance Against Fossil Fuel Subsidies Reform: Neoliberal Discourses and African Realities
Introduction
The Neoliberal Discourses and Policies
African Realities: Contextualising Subsidy Reforms in Zimbabwe, Sudan, Ghana and Nigeria
Fuel Subsidies as ‘Socially Inefficient’ or a State Benefit for Workers
Conclusion
References
22: Challenges and Prospects for Trade Union Environmentalism
Introduction
Climate Change and Trade Union Dilemmas
The Multilevel Engagement of Trade Unions with Climate Change Mitigation
The International Trade Union Movement
Trade Unions at National Level
Trade Unions at Sector and Company Levels
Climate Change Mitigation and the Conditions for Strategic Union Action
Conclusion
References
23: From ‘Just Transition’ to the ‘Eco-Social State’
Introduction
Scope and Interpretations of a (Green) ‘Transition’ That Is ‘Just’
Environmental, Climate and Social Justice
The Concept of a Just (Green) Transition
Interpretations of ‘Just Transition’
Trade Unions and Just Transition
Trade Unions and the Historical Capital–Labour Deal
Trade Unions in Renewal
Cases on the Ground: Coal Phase-Out and the Transformation of the Automobile Industry
Phasing Out Coal
National Level
Company Level Practices—The Case of ENEL
The Automobile Industry
National Level
Plant Level Agreements in the Automobile Sector
Conclusions—A New Welfare Concept for Just Transition?
References
24: Environment, Labour and Health: The Ecological-Social Debts of China’s Economic Development
Introduction
Encountering Pneumoconiosis
Painful Breaths: The Impacts of Pneumoconiosis on the Affected Individual, Family and Community
Obstacles on the Road Towards Justice
Pneumoconiosis: An Environment-Labour-Health Complex
References
Part V: Organic Intellectuals
25: Introduction: Trade Union Environmentalists as Organic Intellectuals in the USA, the UK, and Spain
Introduction
The Usage of Life-History Interviews
Comparing and Contrasting Trade Unions in Three Countries
References
26: Embedding Just Transition in the USA: The Long Ambivalence
Introduction
Method: The People and Their Backgrounds
The Rise, Decline and Tentative Resurgence of Just Transition in the USA: 1988–2020
1988–2001: The Rise and Decline of Just Transition as an Element of Political Change
The ‘BlueGreen Working Group’: Diffusing Just Transition to Environmentalists
~2001–2012: The Promise of Green Industrial Policy
The Workers Themselves: The AFL-CIO’s Energy Task Force
Green Manufacturing to the Rescue: The BlueGreen Alliance
The Difficult Road to a Socioecological Just Transition
Concluding Thoughts
References
27: Caring for Nature, Justice for Workers: Worldviews on the Relationship Between Labour, Nature and Justice
Introduction
The UK Context
Method
Colin Bedford
Philip Hendon
Jack Cromore
Sam Henley
Mike Cooley
History, Society and Personal Biography in Labour/Environmental Transformation
Bringing About Change in an Organisation
A Participatory Approach to Transformational Change
References
28: Individuals Transforming Organisations: Spanish Environmental Policies in Comisiones Obreras
Introduction
Life-Histories of Spanish Trade Union Environmentalists
Growing Up Under a Dictatorship
Perceptions of the Labour-Nature Relationship
Strategies for Environmental Trade Union Policies
Beyond the Jobs Versus Environment Dilemma
Sustainable Mobility: Broadening the Notion of the Environment
Transcending Borders
How Did the Project Succeed?
The Individual Conditions
The Organisational Conditions
The Societal Conditions
How Did the Project Implode?
The End or Dormant Seeds Waiting to Re-flourish?
Elements of the Revival
Concluding Reflections
References
Part VI: Rethinking and Broadening Concepts
29: The Commodification of Human Life: Labour, Energy and Money in a Deteriorating Biosphere
Introduction
Energy Technologies Viewed as Historical Progress
The Social Construction of Labour, Energy and Technology
The Relation Between Labour and Energy Technologies as Political Economy
Conclusions
References
30: Workers, Trade Unions, and the Imperial Mode of Living: Labour Environmentalism from the Perspective of Hegemony Theory
The Labour-Environment Divide
The Imperial Mode of Living
Contradictions of the Imperial Mode of Living
Overcoming the Labour-Environment Divide
References
31: André Gorz’s Labour-Based Political Ecology and Its Legacy for the Twenty-First Century
Introduction
André Gorz as a Precursor of Critical ELS Scholarship
The Oil Shock as a Crisis of Reproduction and the Green Capitalism Debate
André Gorz on Cognitive Capitalism
Conclusions: Gorz’s Legacy and the Critique of Contemporary Biocapitalism
References
32: Rethinking Labour/Work in a Degrowth Society
Introduction
Degrowth: An Overview
Degrowth and Labour/Work: Reconstruction of a Discourse
Beyond the (Global) Division of Labour: Post-growth-Economy and Re-localization
Working Less While Being Happier?
Degrowth as Shrinking Scenario Will Require a Higher Workload
Reforming Labour and Welfare Systems
Rethinking Work as a Project of Radical Transformation of Society
Limits to Work: Objections from an Ecofeminist Political Economy Perspective
The Ecofeminist Political-Economic Critique of the Economy
Ecofeminist Relation to Degrowth
Focus on Paid Labour
Intermediation of Social-Ecological Processes
Rethinking Labour/Work in a Degrowth Society: A Feminist Proposal
Conclusion
References
33: Labour and Societal Relationships with Nature. Conceptual Implications for Trade Unions
The Role of Labour in Times of Sustained Unsustainability
Societal Relationships with Nature. A Social and Political Ecology of Labour
The Concept of Societal Relationships with Nature
Labour and the Regulation of Capitalist SRNs
Sustainable and Unsustainable Work
Industrial Trade Unions in Germany and Austria: Promoting Sustainable Labour or Sustained Unsustainability?
Conclusions
References
34: Society–Labour–Nature: How to Think the Relationships?
Introduction
The Society–Nature Relationship
Nature as ‘Inescapably Social’
Finding a New Language—A Feminist Approach
Finding a New Language—A Marxist Approach
The Question of Alienation
What Is Work?
Bringing Schools of Thought Together
References
35: Labour-Centred Design for Sustainable and Just Transitions
Introduction
Theorizing the Labours of Design
‘A Factory as It Might Be’—Building the Googleplex for All!
Designs for Sustainability: From Kropotkin to Cradle to Cradle™
Worker-Centred Design and Scandinavian Designs for Industrial Democracy
Socialist-Feminist Labour-Orientated Designs
Invisible Labour and the Hidden Histories of Black, Brown and Decolonial Labour
Conclusion: The Design-Labours of the Green New Deal and the Just Transition
References
36: Technology and the Future of Work: The Why, How and What of Production
Technology and the Future of Work
Automation
Human-Centred Technology
The Lucas Plan and Beyond
What Now— for Products and Processes?
The Future of Work
A Way Forward to a Secure Future?
Conclusions
References
Index
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