Ashok Kumar’s new book from
Cambridge University Press
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What does monopsony mean?
monopsony | məˈnɒpsəni | noun (plural monopsonies).
A market situation in which there is only one buyer.
Read the first ten pages of the the book here!
* Winner, 2022 American Sociological Association Immanuel Wallerstein Memorial Book Prize * Winner, 2021 American Sociological Association Paul Sweezy Outstanding Book Prize * Finalist, 2021 British International Studies Association International Political Economy Book Prize
What’s the book about?
This book explores the combination of capital’s changing composition and labour’s subjective agency to examine whether the waning days of the ‘sweatshop’ have indeed begun. Focused on the garment and footwear sectors, it introduces a universal logic that governs competition and reshapes the chain.
By analysing workers’ collective action at various sites of production, it observes how this internal logic plays out for labour who are testing the limits of the social order, stretching it until the seams show. By examining the most valorised parts of underdeveloped sectors, one can see where capital is going and how it is getting there.
These findings contribute to ongoing efforts to establish workers’ rights in sectors plagued by poverty and powerlessness, building fires and collapses. With this change and a capable labour movement, there’s hope yet that workers may close the gap.
“Monopsony Capitalism is a magisterial accomplishment”
Watch the virtual Book Talk hosted by Bristol Transformed: