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Introduction

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Labour in Contemporary Capitalism

Part of the book series: Dynamics of Virtual Work ((DVW))

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Abstract

Each crisis of capitalism is followed by a major restructuring as capitalists seek new ways to restore existing industries to profitability, and use technological innovations to develop new commodities. Since the crisis of 2008, new patterns in the organisation of global value chains have emerged and new groups of workers have been sucked directly within the organisational scope of transnational corporations, under new conditions. And, as always, we struggle to make sense of the new patterns, which appear unprecedented, cataclysmic, even, impossible to describe using our existing vocabularies and difficult to categorise in our current schemae.

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Notes

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    A term that was widely used throughout the 1990s. See for example, Gordon, R. J. (2000). ‘Does the “New Economy” Measure Up to the Great Inventions of the Past?’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14 (4): 49–74. American Economic Association.

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  47. 47.

    A term originally coined by Alvin Toffler, in Toffler, A. (1970) Future Shock and later taken up by Antonio Negri in Negri, A. (2006) Goodbye Mr. Socialism, New York: Seven Stories Press.

  48. 48.

    Robert Reich (1991) The Work of Nations, New York: Simon & Schuster.

  49. 49.

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Huws, U. (2019). Introduction. In: Labour in Contemporary Capitalism. Dynamics of Virtual Work. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52042-5_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52042-5_1

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