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Preface: A Journey of Discovery. <p>List of Abbreviations.</p> <p>1. The Polanyi Problem and the Problem with Polanyi.</p> <p><b>Part One: Markets Against Society.</b></p> <p>2. Manufacturing Matters.</p> <p>3. The Return of Market Despotism.</p> <p>4. Citizenship Matters.</p> <p><b>Part Two: Society Against Markets.</b></p> <p>5. Strong Winds in Ezakheni.</p> <p>6. Escaping Social Death in Changwon.</p> <p>7. Squeezing Orange.</p> <p><b>Part Three: Society Governing the Market?</b></p> <p>8. History Matters.</p> <p>9. Grounding Labour Internationalism.</p> <p>10. The Necessity for Utopian Thinking.</p> <p>Notes.</p> <p>References.</p> <p>Index.</p>

“Grounding Globalization represents a culmination of the individual and collective efforts of the authors to establish a ‘new’ international labour studies. It is a bold and ambitious project, but it is also one precisely based on a ‘grounded’ understanding of how workers live their lives, adapt to the discipline of the market, and sometimes vigorously contest it." (<i>Labor History Journal</i>, November 2008)

<b>Edward Webster</b> is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Sociology of Work Unit (SWOP) at the University of the Witwatersrand. <br /> <p><b>Rob Lambert</b> is the Chair of Labour Studies at UWA’s Business School and is the Director of the Australian Global Studies Research Centre.<br /> </p> <p><b>Andries Bezuidenhout</b> works as a senior researcher in the Sociology of Work Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand.</p>

Widespread claims have been made on the emergence of a new labor internationalism in response to the growing insecurity created by globalization. However, when persons face conditions of insecurity – as a result of war, terrorism, environmental catastrophe, or insecurity in the workplace – they often turn inwards. During previous phases of global insecurity we witnessed the rise of fascism.<br /> <p>What is distinctive about this book is that it grounds globalization in the everyday lives of workers, their households, and their communities. It compares three towns, Orange in Australia, Changwon in South Korea, and Ezakheni in South Africa, and shows how the global restructuring of white goods corporations is creating a profound experience of insecurity within workers, their families, and their communities.<br /> </p> <p>The book contains a warning. At times, workers do turn inward and become fatalistic, even xenophobic. But there are also signs of hope. The book explores the possibilities of reempowering labor through engaging space and scale in new ways. Workers are rising to the challenge of neoliberal globalization by attempting to globalize their own struggles.</p>

<p>“<i>Grounding Globalization</i> is a call for a new politics for the social force that labor as social movement represents in the era of global insecurity. Theoretically sophisticated, empirically grounded and politically visionary, it will be read with great interest by students and also by the organic intellectuals of the emerging global labor movement.”<br /> <i>– Ronaldo Munck</i>, Dublin City University<br /> </p> <p>“This is an important, insightful, and wide-ranging book that tackles one of the most important issues of our time. Grounding the theoretical and political narrative in empirical case studies, the book is an excellent account of the realities of economic restructuring and the political possibilities facing the global workforce. It makes a major contribution to academic debates whilst also providing important lessons for activists and policy makers.”<br /> – <i>Andrew Cumbers</i>, University of Glasgow</p>

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