Agro-industrial Labour in Kenya: Cut Flower Farms and Migrant Workers’ Settlements
Gerda Kuiper, "Agro-industrial Labour in Kenya: Cut Flower Farms and Migrant Workers’ Settlements"
English | ISBN: 303018045X | 2019 | 284 pages | EPUB, PDF | 10 MB + 4 MB
English | ISBN: 303018045X | 2019 | 284 pages | EPUB, PDF | 10 MB + 4 MB
This ethnography analyses labour relations within the export-oriented cut flower industry at Lake Naivasha in Kenya. Though this agro-industry has attracted critical attention from journalists and non-governmental organizations, this book is the first comprehensive, social scientific analysis of the industry’s labour arrangements and production processes. Gerda Kuiper here interprets the work on the farms as ‘agro-industrial labour’: a labour system characterized by high levels of discipline and a strict rhythm of work, due to the demands posed by a highly perishable agricultural product. This framework enables the author to draw on insights from a wide range of anthropological and sociological studies on (agro-)industrial wage labour around the globe. This mixed-methods approach, deployed alongside rich ethnographic detail, allows the author to center the flower farm workers in her analysis.