The difference that difference makes in the mobilization of workers

Abstract

Drawing conceptually from feminist, post–development, cultural politics and radical political science literatures, this essay integrally relates differences among contexts (relationally defined) and people. I suggest that prospects for the mobilization of workers across space requires critical thinking about difference, entailing recognition of different work experiences associated with different industrial processes and avenues of exploitation, as well as possible friction among different groups of people across axes of difference. Although frictions of difference related both to economic and non–economic logics may pose complex problems for connecting workers within and across space, I argue that inclusive organizing strategies are critical to achieving pervasive and long–run social change.

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