Do choke points provide workers in logistics with power? A critique of the power resources approach in light of the 2018 truckers’ strike in Brazil
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12315744 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Judyta Nowak (0000-0002-3213-4252, Universidade de Brasília, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 1675-1697 |
| Publication date | 2021-06-29 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Review of International Political Economy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0969-2290 • E-ISSN: 1466-4526 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09692290.2021.1931940 |
| OpenAlex | W3173970019 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 29 |
| References cited | 38 |
Choke points in transport and logistics have been identified as devices of the power of workers in these sectors. The 11 day long strike of around 400,000 Brazilian truck drivers at more than 750 blockades in May 2018 exercised an effective blockade of the national economy but only led to meagre results. The article asks how this mismatch between the power to block the flow of goods and the lack of power to achieve significant improvements of the truckers’ situation can be explained. It demonstrates that analyses with a focus on the power resources of workers fail to understand the larger dynamics at play. The article proposes a political economy of labour as an analytical device that incorporates global economic relations, the characteristics of social formations and political-ideological relations into its ambit. It claims that in order to understand the economic and political leverage of workers in transport and logistics, one has to look at capital as a broader social relation which includes long term development strategies and material constraints like energy systems and infrastructure
Business · Choke · Economic system · Economics · Ideology · Industrial organization · Leverage (statistics · Market economy · Order (exchange · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Truck · Computer Science · Engineering · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Finance
Parallel paths
Who governs industrial policy? State–labor relations in the closure and reindustrialisation of an automotive factory
The Spatial Politics of Blockades
Building the car while driving it
Strategic Position and Trade Union Power
Stand up for your rights! The United Auto Workers’ victory against the ‘big three’
Power resources and grassroots activism
Social Formation and Mode of Production
Blocking Route 52
Transnationalised labour struggle – Workers’ conflict on the move? The case of striking truck drivers in Gräfenhausen
Precarious mobilities
Power resources and the last-mile problem in logistics
Leapfrog logistics
The Strike and Contemporary Protest
Social Media and Collective Action in Brazil
The multiple geographies of constrained labour agency
The ambiguity of working class interests in Brazilian road transport
Dialectics of Dissent in/against Capitalism
Trabajo y sindicalismo en la cadena logística
Huelga y sindicalismo de contrapoder en una empresa logística
Un choke point en formación? Conflicto laboral, sindicalismo y construcción de escala en los almacenes de Amazon
Legitimacy, voice and power in ride hailing labour movements in Kenya
E-Commerce E Inteligência Artificial
Power from below
Logistics of unfreedom
Worker-Led Dissent in the Age of Austerity
Disruptive Geographies and the War on Gaza
Heterogeneity and Labour Agency in Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Connected in the struggle
Dependent Development
Global Production Networks
The Deadly Life of Logistics
Forces of Labor
The Power Resources Approach
Poverty chains and global capitalism
Dependent Development
The Social Foundations of Structural Power
Frameworks of Power
The Transformation of Contemporary Capitalism and the Concept of a Transnational Capitalist Class
Five theses on understanding logistics as power
Brazil's liberal neo-developmentalism
Trasformismo or transformation? The global political economy of energy transitions
Power in global value chains
Varieties of Power in Transnational Labor Alliances
The transnational state and the BRICS
Classes in Contemporary Capitalism
Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century
Twenty-first-century International Political Economy
Global production networks and the analysis of economic development
Beyond Capital
Growth, Distribution, and Crisis
The autonomous power of the state
Is Chinese Competition Causing Deindustrialization in Brazil
Worker Power, Trade Union Strategy, and International Connections
Positional Power and Propensity to Strike
Working-Class Power, Capitalist-Class Interests, and Class Compromise
| Unique citing works | 29 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 7,25 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 27 |