Mending the Breach Between Labour and Nature: A Case for Environmental Labour Studies

Abstract

In the past, environmental movements and labour movements have seen each other as opponents. Where labour movements have taken an interest in nature it has been in the early movements as a space of recreation, later as a necessary condition for a healthy life. In both cases nature has been constructed as “the Other” of labour. The same can be said for environmental movements, which have aimed to defend, often conserve nature “against labour”. This opposition has been mirrored in the academic field in as much that environmental studies have not taken any account of labour, whereas labour studies have largely ignored the environment. The authors argue that these oppositions are started to being tackled within the respective movements and within academic research as well. As the contributions in this volume demonstrate, there is a need for a new area of research: environmental labour studies.

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