Foreword

Citation

Hogan, J. and Nolan, P. (2005), "Foreword", Critical Perspectives on International Business, Vol. 1 No. 2/3. https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib.2005.29001baa.001

Foreword

Empirical studies demonstrate that access to the internet should no longer be regarded as the sole preserve of small or élite groups. While there is evidence of digital divides in workplaces, knowledge of information technology and the use of computer skills at home is substantial. The capacity for internet-based labour organising fits clearly with the broader call for a more expansive and imaginative re-conceptualisation of solidarity.

The analysis of the implications of information communication technologies (ICTs), in particular the internet, for the politics and processes of labour has now generated a substantial literature. Much of the debate has been driven by activists in the trade union world. They have been concerned with finding ways of building more effective forms in the face of the widespread and global “crises” of trade unionism, while taking inspiration from the innovative counter-coordination of workers who have already demonstrated the potentialities of new ICTs, for example the Liverpool dockers. In their 1995-1998 unofficial dispute, the dockers revealed the capacity for the internet to be used for the generation of widespread international solidarity action (see www.labournet.net/docks2/other/archive.html).

Traditional union structures have begun to respond. The developments in union presence on the internet, the routine use of electronic communications and the sponsorship of practitioner and academic reflection on the possibilities and “perils” provide clear indication of future possibilities.

Recognition that ICTs are an important set of tools for labour has been slow in coming. The technologies available are increasingly sophisticated, with ever greater storage and processing power, capable of being used for the receipt, manipulation, retention, generation and diffusion of written, spoken and visual information, at low and distributed cost on a global scale. Through intervention into these communicative spaces visibility is greatly enhanced, allowing for the auditing of the performance of individuals and institutions. The retention of memories and traditions that hitherto had so easily been broken or lost is also placed within grasp as never before. This drive to innovation can also be internalised within labour institutions by the adoption of servicing and organising facilities which specifically address the need to operate outside of the disciplinary constraints of hostile workplaces, and which recognise that the captured market of the occupationally concentrated community is no more.

This special issue brings together the latest considerations on ICTs and the potentialities for labour. The papers presented represent contributions from leading researchers from every continent. Taken together they reveal sensitivity to local, national and global institutional settings.

John HoganUniversity of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UKPeter NolanESRC Future of Work Programme, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK