ABSTRACT
Tsing defines superexploitation as 'exploitation that depends on so-called noneconomic factors such as gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, age, and citizenship status'. Analyses of gendered global circuits of labor may reveal the ways in which international labor migrants are implicated in these new figurations through their everyday practices of work, mobility and political agency. The emergence of a system of primarily male, seasonal labor migrants in industrial berry picking is an example of the way that labor markets are increasingly globalizing and different industries are adjusting to this transformation, for instance through a variety of disciplining techniques and gendered recruitment strategies. Contemporary global processes of industrialization in Asia and de-industrialization in the rural periphery of Scandinavia have produced connections and new figurations of labor that tell effective stories about our contemporary world. The commodification of forest berries and labor takes place through integration into a global value chain of dominant merchants and retailers.
