ABSTRACT
Today, it would seem, a point of departure for any discussion of working-class struggle and its prospects is what is referred to as ‘globalization’. ‘Globalization’ is a vague term that can be defined in many different ways. But regardless of its diverse concrete expressions, it is to the fore in discussions of the recent and massive demobilization of the labour movement. Declines in unionization and static or declining real wages for large segments of the workforce are placed at the door of a superior bargaining power that capital has supposedly achieved by its creation and subsequent exploitation of more all-encompassing arenas for its own mobility. The essential complement to this argument is the failure of workers to colonize through their organizations or their own mobility those same arenas. These conceptions have been of particular interest to geographers and to those others in planning, urban and regional studies who typically prioritize space in their discussions.
