IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2021-158.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The afterlife of industrial work: Urban-to-rural labour transitions from the factory to the informal economy

Author

Listed:
  • Alessandra Mezzadri
  • Kaustav Banerjee

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has escalated processes of labour transition from industrial work to the informal economy, which have always characterized the life of the working poor. Exploring urban-to-rural labour transitions through a feminist political economy lens and adopting a life-cycle approach to labour and social reproduction, this paper analyses the post-industrial livelihoods and experiences of former Indian garment workers leaving the National Capital Region and moving back to Bihar.

Suggested Citation

  • Alessandra Mezzadri & Kaustav Banerjee, 2021. "The afterlife of industrial work: Urban-to-rural labour transitions from the factory to the informal economy," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-158, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2021-158
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2021-158-afterlife-undustrial-work-urban-rural-labour-transitions-factory-informal-economy.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cowan, Thomas, 2018. "The urban village, agrarian transformation, and rentier capitalism in Gurgaon, India," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 89699, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Stephanie Ware Barrientos, 2013. "'Labour Chains': Analysing the Role of Labour Contractors in Global Production Networks," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(8), pages 1058-1071, August.
    3. Mezzadri,Alessandra, 2017. "The Sweatshop Regime," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107116962, November.
    4. Jeemol Unni & Suma Scaria, 2010. "Government Structure and Labour Market Outcomes in Garment Embellishment Chains," Working Papers id:3061, eSocialSciences.
    5. Dibyendu Maiti & Kunal Sen, 2010. "The Informal Sector in India," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 5(1), pages 1-13, April.
    6. Sara Stevano & Alessandra Mezzadri & Lorena Lombardozzi & Hannah Bargawi, 2021. "Hidden Abodes in Plain Sight: the Social Reproduction of Households and Labor in the COVID-19 Pandemic," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1-2), pages 271-287, April.
    7. Alessandra Mezzadri, 2016. "Class, gender and the sweatshop: on the nexus between labour commodification and exploitation," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(10), pages 1877-1900, October.
    8. Breman, Jan, 2013. "At Work in the Informal Economy of India: A Perspective from the Bottom Up," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198090342, Decembrie.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alessandra Mezzadri, 2016. "The informalization of capital and interlocking in labour contracting networks," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 16(2), pages 124-139, April.
    2. Rajorshi Ray & Jillet Sarah Sam, 2023. "Off-platform Social Networks and Gig Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic in India," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 18(3), pages 359-382, December.
    3. Alessandra Mezzadri, 2022. "The Social Reproduction of Pandemic Surplus Populations and Global Development Narratives on Inequality and Informal Labour," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 53(6), pages 1230-1253, November.
    4. Rashmi Venkatesan, 2019. "The UN Framework on Business and Human Rights: A Workers’ Rights Critique," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(3), pages 635-652, July.
    5. Fabiola MIERES & Siobhán MCGRATH, 2021. "Ripe to be heard: Worker voice in the Fair Food Program," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 160(4), pages 631-647, December.
    6. Heslop, Luke & Jeffery, Laura, 2020. "Roadwork: expertise at work building roads in the Maldives," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103969, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Matias Ramirez & Ian Clarke & Laurens Klerkx, 2018. "Analysing intermediary organisations and their influence on upgrading in emerging agricultural clusters," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(6), pages 1314-1335, September.
    8. Thomas Chambers & Ayesha Ansari, 2018. "Ghar Mein KÄ m Hai (There is Work in the House)," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 13(2), pages 141-163, August.
    9. Mark ANNER, 2019. "Predatory purchasing practices in global apparel supply chains and the employment relations squeeze in the Indian garment export industry," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 158(4), pages 705-727, December.
    10. Amrita Chhachhi & Amrita Chhachhi, 2014. "Introduction: The ‘Labour Question’ in Contemporary Capitalism," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(5), pages 895-919, September.
    11. Malanski, Priscila Duarte & Schiavi, Sandra & Dedieu, Benoît & Damasceno, Julio Cesar, 2022. "Labor in agrifood value chains: a scientometric review from Scopus," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 25(3), March.
    12. Michael Schwind & Uwe Altrock, 2023. "Negotiating Land in Rurban Bengaluru, South India," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-17, February.
    13. S. Mahendra Dev, 2018. "Inequality, Employment and Public Policy," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 61(1), pages 1-42, March.
    14. Bishwanath Goldar, 2010. "Informalization of Industrial Labour in India: Are labour market rigidities and growing import competition to blame?," Working Papers id:3125, eSocialSciences.
    15. Kasturi Sadhu & Saumya Chakrabarti, 2021. "Neo-Dualism: Accumulation, Distress, and Proliferation of a Fissured Informality," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 53(4), pages 694-724, December.
    16. Nivedita Jayaram & Divya Varma, 2020. "Examining the ‘Labour’ in Labour Migration: Migrant Workers’ Informal Work Arrangements and Access to Labour Rights in Urban Sectors," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(4), pages 999-1019, December.
    17. Jihye Kim & Wendy Olsen & Arkadiusz Wiśniowski, 2023. "Predicting Child-Labour Risks by Norms in India," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(6), pages 1605-1626, December.
    18. Choithani, Chetan & van Duijne, Robbin Jan & Nijman, Jan, 2021. "Changing livelihoods at India’s rural–urban transition," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    19. Elsa Underhill & Dimitria Groutsis & Diane Broek & Malcolm Rimmer, 2018. "Migration Intermediaries and Codes of Conduct: Temporary Migrant Workers in Australian Horticulture," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(3), pages 675-689, December.
    20. Helwing Veronique & Verfürth Philip & Franz Martin, 2023. "Trucking (un)limited – the impact of digital platforms on labour in production networks of logistics," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 67(4), pages 177-188, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Feminist economics; Political economy; Social reproduction; Informal sector; Labour dynamics; Livelihoods; Life cycle;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2021-158. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.