Containing mobilities: Changing time and space of maritime labor

Johanna Markkula*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

This article uses ethnography from onboard container ships to show how seafarers as a workforce at the center of global capital circulation are increasingly confined inside their mobile worksites. Drawing on theories of the transformation of time and space as internal to the logic of globalization and capitalism, the article argues that the increased mobility of goods, as facilitated by developments in maritime logistics, has decreased the mobility of the seafarers in charge of moving these goods across the world. The article proposes “containing mobilities” as a term for thinking through the particular contradictions and inequalities of mobility that shape the everyday life of the workers at the heart of the global system of mobility and transport that constitutes the maritime supply chain.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)25-39
Number of pages15
JournalFocaal
Volume2021
Issue number89
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • Global capitalism
  • Maritime labor
  • Mobility
  • Shipping
  • Time-space compression

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