Some of our work on globalisation

Ursula Huws has been carrying out research on what is now known as 'offshore outsourcing' since the late 1970s Much of our ongoing work, both theoretical and empirical, relates to this topic including our journal Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation, and the WORKS project.

Whilst this research has attracted the most attention, we have always argued that it cannot be disembedded from a more general analysis of changes in the global division of labour including the complex interelationship between the movement of people to jobs (migration) and the movement of jobs to people ('offshoring') as well as the dynamic and mutually reinforcing inter-relationship between growth in the production of 'goods' and of 'services'.

Furthermore, the globalisation of employment has to be modelled in its relationship to other drivers of expansion including the search for new markets,  sites of capital accumulation, sources of raw materials and dumping grounds.

Here are some relevant publications:

Value chain restructuring in Europe in a global economy, (with Jorg Flecker, Monique Ramioul and Karen Guerts), Report from the WORKS project, Higher Institute of Labour Studies, Leuven, 2008

The Transformation of Work in a Global Knowledge Economy: Towards a Conceptual Framework, a report from the WORKS Project, edited by Ursula Huws with many co-authors, 2006

‘Fixed, Footloose or fractured: work, identity and the spatial division of labour’ in Monthly Review, Vol 57 No 10, March , 2006 (discusses the relationship between migration - the movement of people to jobs - and offshoring - the movement of jobs to people)

'‘What will we do? The destruction of occupational identities in the Knowledge-based Economy’, Monthly Review, Vol 57 No 8 January, 2006 (includes a discussion of whether we are witnessing the creation of a global reserve army of information workers)

‘The restructuring of global value chains and the creation of a cybertariat’ in May, Christopher (ed)  Global Corporate Power: Global Corporate Power: (Re)integrating companies into International Political Economy (International Political Economy Yearbook volume 15), Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2006

Measuring the Information Society, (editor, with  Ramioul, M. and Bollen, A.) K.U. Leuven Press, 2005 (looks at some of the problems of measuring the global trade in business services)

Status Report on Outsourcing of ICT-enabled Services in the EU, (with Flecker, J and Dalmann, S.) European Monitoring Centre on Change of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, 2004

'Material World: the Myth of the Weightless Economy' in Panitch, L, Leys, C., Zuege, A. and Konigs, M (eds) The Globalization Decade: a Critical Reader, Merlin Press, 2004  

The Making of a Cybertariat:  Virtual Work in a Real World  Monthly Review Press,  New York and Merlin Press, London, 2003

‘A New Virtual Global Division of Labour?  Some Lessons from the EMERGENCE Project’ in Technikfolgenabschätzung - Theorie und Praxis, Vol 12, No 3/4, November, 2003    

When Work takes Flight: Final report of the EMERGENCE Project, IES Report 397, Institute for Employment Studies 2003

'Is the world really your oyster? Going global for information services', in Worldlink- Magazine of the World Federation of Personnel Management Associations, Vol 13, 4 Oct, 2003   http://www.wfpma.com/PDFs/wlv13nf.pdf

‘Die Produktion eines Kybertariats. Die Wirklichtkeit virtueller Arbeit’ in Das Argument, Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Sozialwissenschaften 248, 2002

‘E-work in a Global Economy’ in Challenges and Achievements in E-business and E-work’, Stanford-Smith, B., Chiozza, E. and Edin, M. (eds) IOS Press, Amsterdam, Berlin, Oxford, Tokyo, Washington D.C., 2002

‘Grenzüberschreitende Verlagerung von eWork: Wo kommen die Jobs hin?’ in eWork:  Neue Jobchancen – real oder virtuell? Flecker, J. and Zilian, H.G., (eds) Arbeitsmarktservice, Vienna, 2002

‘The Persistence of National Differences in the New Global Division of Labour in eServices’ in Globalisation, Innovation and Human Development for Competitive Advantage, Asia Institute of Technology, Bangkok, December, 2002

Statistical Indicators of eWork:  a Discussion Paper, IES Report 385, Institute for Employment Studies, 2002

eWork in Europe:  Results from the EMERGENCE 18-country Survey (with O’Regan, S.) Institute for Employment Studies, Report No 380, 2001

Where the Butterfly Alights:  the Global Location of eWork (with Jagger, N.) Institute for Employment Studies, Report No 378, 2001

'‘Der Mythos der weightless economy’ in Die Neue Őkonomie des Internet, Das Argument, Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Sozialwissenschaften 238, 2000

 ‘Un monde materiale: le mythe de l’economie virtuelle’ in Nouvelles Technologies d’Information: Nouvelle Donne Sociale, Critique Communiste 159/160 Autumn 2000

'The Emergence of a new global division of labour in information services' in Where in the World? E-work location in a digital global economy, conference proceedings, October, 2000

Teleworking and Globalisation (with Nick Jagger and Siobhan O'Regan), Report No 358, Institute for Employment Studies, Brighton, 1999

'Beyond Anecdotes: on Quantifying the Globalisation of Information Processing Work', in Mitter and Bastos (eds) Europe and Developing Countries in the Globalised Information Economy, United Nations University Institute of Technology, Routledge, 1999

Virtually Free:  Gender, Work and Spatial Choice, NUTEK, Sweden, September, 1997 (co-editor, with Gunnarsson, E. and author of two chapters)

Teleworking: an Overview of the Research, Joint publication of the Department of Transport, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of the Environment, Department for Education and Employment and Employment Service, July, 1996

'Follow-up to the White Paper - Teleworking',  Social Europe, Supplement 3, European Commission DGV, 1995

'What is a Green-Red Economics?: the Future of Work' Z, September, 1991

'The Global Restructuring of Service Industries and its Implications for Women' in IRENE Newsletter, Industrial Restructuring Network Europe, March, 1991

'Remote Possibilities: some difficulties in the analysis and quantification of telework in the UK', in Telework: development of a new form of work organisation, eds Korte, W., Steinle, W., and Robinson, S., North Holland, 1988

The Potential for Decentralised Electronic Working in the Banking, Insurance and Software Industries in the UK, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, 1986

'The Global Office: Information Technology and the Relocation of White-collar work' in Third World Trade and Technology Conference Papers , Third World Information Network, 1985

'The New Homeworkers: New Technology and the Changing Location of White-collar work', Report of a Research Project Commissioned by the Equal Opportunities Commission, Low Pay Unit, 1984

'The Runaway Office Jobs', International Labour Reports, March-April, 1984

'Demystifying new technology', Opening Address, ISIS International Conference on New Technology and Women's Employment, ISIS Bulletin, Geneva, Autumn 1983

‘'Chips on the Cheap: South East Asian Women Pay the Price', in Scarlet Women No 14, January, 1982