Value Theories in Motion: Circular Labour Migration, Unfinished Land Dispossession and Reproductive Struggles across the Urban-Rural Divide

Click here to view record
Main author: Mezzadri, Alessandra
Format: Journal Article           
Online access: Click here to view record


id eprints-40727
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
description This analysis theorises the central role of the urban–rural divide in the making of value relations and exploitation in contemporary labour regimes. Inspired by insights contained in Diane Elson’s ‘value theory of labour’ and informed by evidence on labour circulation in India’s ‘Sweatshop Regime’, the article combines Early Social Reproduction Analyses (ESRA) and debates on ‘forms of exploitation’ to illustrate the integrated nature of the circuits incorporating production and reproduction, use and exchange value across the urban–rural divide. It represents these circuits as a concrete instantiation of ‘value in motion’. In this schema, the countryside emerges as central to the regeneration of the urban labour regime; as key provider of labouring bodies; and as absorber of reproductive costs, also performing the function of ‘global housework’ for contemporary capitalism. The narrative is particularly attentive to post-industrial work trajectories, which further explain how partial land dispossession and informal work interplay to sustain the dynamic nature of value relations as well as workers’ livelihoods beyond factory labour. The conclusions stress the political implications of reproductive readings of value for labour struggles and pro-labour policy.
format Journal Article
author Mezzadri, Alessandra
author_facet Mezzadri, Alessandra
authorStr Mezzadri, Alessandra
author_letter Mezzadri, Alessandra
title Value Theories in Motion: Circular Labour Migration, Unfinished Land Dispossession and Reproductive Struggles across the Urban-Rural Divide
publisher Sage
publishDate 2024
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/40727/

Similar items