Global Workers and Entangled Crises
Biographical and Relational Approaches to Resilience
Policy Press
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 24. September 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-1-4473-8080-1 (ISBN)
Description
Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
The early 2020s brought a torrent of disruptions - COVID-19, war-amplified inflation and migration blockages - that reshaped global labour in uneven and deeply unequal ways. Across the Global North and South, vulnerable workers faced deteriorating conditions, fractured livelihoods and growing distrust as chronic uncertainty was compounded by socio-economic and political shocks.
Moving beyond policy-driven models focused on human and social capital, this edited collection offers a variety of novel biographical and relational approaches to studying resilience that all centre on workers' lived experiences, histories and networks. Drawing on rich fieldwork across multiple countries, the authors show how past crises, care obligations and collective ties both enable resilience and generate new burdens.
Bridging biographical research methods, social reproduction theory and development studies, this book shows that resilience is a relational process shaped by inequality, gender, migration and labour struggle.
The early 2020s brought a torrent of disruptions - COVID-19, war-amplified inflation and migration blockages - that reshaped global labour in uneven and deeply unequal ways. Across the Global North and South, vulnerable workers faced deteriorating conditions, fractured livelihoods and growing distrust as chronic uncertainty was compounded by socio-economic and political shocks.
Moving beyond policy-driven models focused on human and social capital, this edited collection offers a variety of novel biographical and relational approaches to studying resilience that all centre on workers' lived experiences, histories and networks. Drawing on rich fieldwork across multiple countries, the authors show how past crises, care obligations and collective ties both enable resilience and generate new burdens.
Bridging biographical research methods, social reproduction theory and development studies, this book shows that resilience is a relational process shaped by inequality, gender, migration and labour struggle.
More details
Series
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Bristol
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bristol University Press
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
1 s/w Abbildung
1 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-4473-8080-1 (9781447380801)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Mihai Varga is Research Associate and Lecturer in Sociology at the Institute for East-European Studies, Freie Universitaet Berlin.
Mateusz Karolak is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Sociology, University of Wroclaw.
Adam Mrozowicki is Head of the Department of the Sociology of Work and Economic Sociology at the Institute of Sociology, University of Wroclaw.
Mateusz Karolak is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Sociology, University of Wroclaw.
Adam Mrozowicki is Head of the Department of the Sociology of Work and Economic Sociology at the Institute of Sociology, University of Wroclaw.
Contributions
University of Hamburg (Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy)
National University of Colombia
National University of Colombia
Freie Universitaet and Erasmus University Rotterdam
OEzyegin University
Institute for Development and International Relations
Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research (IEF)
University of Wroclaw
University of Wroclaw
Content
1. Workers, Biographies and the Polycrisis: Introduction (Mihai Varga, Mateusz Karolak, Adam Mrozowicki)
2. Worker Biographies and Recurrent Crises in the EU Periphery (Mihai Varga and Diana Perca)
3. Essential Workers and Biographical Resources in Germany (Christian Froehlich)
4. Debts, Work, and Autonomy of Women Returnees to Colombia (Sofia Margarita Vinasco-Molina and Yenny Carolina Ramirez Suarez)
5. Waiting and Hope among Precarious Migrant Workers in Istanbul (Soner Barthoma and Susan Beth Rottmann)
6. Care between Nationhood and Capitalism: Precarious Female Teachers in Croatia's Minoritised Education (Emina Buzinkic and Nina Colovic)
7. Navigating the Storm: Coping Strategies of Migrant and Non-Migrant Logistics Workers in Poland (Mateusz Karolak, Koenuel Jafarova, and Adam Mrozowicki)
8. Trade Union Activism as a Biographical Resource: Unionised Health Care Workers Facing COVID-19 in Upstate New York (Adam Mrozowicki and Jacek Burski)
9. Vale do Ribeira, Serra da Bocaina, and the Amazon: Community Resilience in Brazil (Marina Fontolan, Aline Hasegawa, Liliana Acero, Carla Aguas, Jose Maria Trajano, and Leda Gitahy)
10. Global Workers and Entangled Crises: Conclusions (Mateusz Karolak, Adam Mrozowicki, Mihai Varga)
2. Worker Biographies and Recurrent Crises in the EU Periphery (Mihai Varga and Diana Perca)
3. Essential Workers and Biographical Resources in Germany (Christian Froehlich)
4. Debts, Work, and Autonomy of Women Returnees to Colombia (Sofia Margarita Vinasco-Molina and Yenny Carolina Ramirez Suarez)
5. Waiting and Hope among Precarious Migrant Workers in Istanbul (Soner Barthoma and Susan Beth Rottmann)
6. Care between Nationhood and Capitalism: Precarious Female Teachers in Croatia's Minoritised Education (Emina Buzinkic and Nina Colovic)
7. Navigating the Storm: Coping Strategies of Migrant and Non-Migrant Logistics Workers in Poland (Mateusz Karolak, Koenuel Jafarova, and Adam Mrozowicki)
8. Trade Union Activism as a Biographical Resource: Unionised Health Care Workers Facing COVID-19 in Upstate New York (Adam Mrozowicki and Jacek Burski)
9. Vale do Ribeira, Serra da Bocaina, and the Amazon: Community Resilience in Brazil (Marina Fontolan, Aline Hasegawa, Liliana Acero, Carla Aguas, Jose Maria Trajano, and Leda Gitahy)
10. Global Workers and Entangled Crises: Conclusions (Mateusz Karolak, Adam Mrozowicki, Mihai Varga)