This chapter discusses transformation and permanence in the Brazilian labour market since the 2000s. The analysis takes place in three stages. The first analyses the changes in Brazilian social stratification, promoted by the Workers' Party administrations (2003-2016). It is argued that a...

Over the last four decades, Chile has experienced the longest economic expansion in its history but also suffered the persistence of high levels of income inequality, precarity, and social dislocation. This chapter contends that narrow interpretations of this apparent good news-bad news paradox,...

This chapter analyses the working-class characteristics in Argentina beginning with the conservative turn configured during the government of Mauricio Macri at the end of 2015, considering the conditions under which workers face the current crisis, intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this...

This chapter examines the political economy of labour in Ethiopia from a recent historical perspective, with the aim of describing the changing world of work as it appears to Ethiopian toilers. It does so by centering on the contested process of surplus generation and appropriation across...

South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world. This chapter outlines the shape of these structural divergences, with particular attention to the effects on the labour market and working class movements. It seeks to understand the significance of these changes within the labour...

Chan assesses major transformations of the Chinese economy and its impact on the lives of workers through the intertwined realms of production and social reproduction. In an active way, the government excludes student interns from the rank of "employees" under the current internship regulations....

Successive agrarian crises and stunted employment in industries have combined to create a crisis of work in India. The growth of the services sector has seen a rise primarily in informal employment. Informal work is often seen as the domain of the self-employed, of petty trade and small...

Work conditions and economic trends in the maritime sector often only refer to seafarers on board merchant ships and dockworkers. This conventional view is no longer appropriate in the face of recent and long-term trends in the maritime economy. To understand what the political economy of...

Contemporary capitalism is characterized by the predominance of monopoly capital over practically all spheres of the world economy and society. This predominance is related to the emergence of a new international division of labor on the North-South or centre-periphery horizon: the export of...

The palm oil industry is a complex business and has operated on a global scale for two centuries. It involves local, national and transnational capital, articulates political elites around the world, and mobilizes international nets of scientific investigation and technical knowledge. Since its...