ABSTRACT
This article recognises the contributions of workers and more broadly the significance of work within economic geography. It considers how engaging with labour experiences provides an accessible vantage point to consider much wider debates and issues. By doing so, the article suggests that the increasingly well-established sub-field of labour geography has much to offer for geographers to consider wider economic processes as experienced ‘from below’. The article considers recent UK examples of worker action and emerging community union practices as a model developed by trade unions to counter trends in their membership and respond to changes in their role. As such, the article provides a valuable perspective for assessing geographical themes and scholarly interests, not least for a further expanding of approaches towards ‘changing places’ and understanding economic change and social inequalities.
Notes
1 TWCAU members anecdotally suggested that there are currently assisting 200 ‘live cases’ and claimed an overall appeal success rate of over 70%, which would be in line with national averages (see Butler, Citation2019).
2 Scrutiny includes the 2015 Parliamentary inquiry into working practices at Sports Direct (see Parliament, Citation2015) and campaigns include Unite’s Stop Universal Credit (see Unite the Union, Citation2019).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Paul Griffin
Paul Griffin is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences at Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK (email: [email protected]; Twitter: @PaulGriffin_).