The Roles and Intersections of Constrained Labour Agency

Abstract

Ever since labour geography first started demonstrating workers’ ability to shape geographies, geographers have problematised the agency of labour. This article responds to a recent intervention by Strauss (2020a; Progress in Human Geography 44[1]:150–159), challenging the sub-discipline to reflect on who counts as a worker and what counts as work. By combining theories of roles and intersectionality, the article poses a related question: as whom do workers act? Theoretically, a critical realist approach to labour agency forms the basis for an intersectional reading of the active subject. To illustrate our argument, we juxtapose the accounts of three people who speak for groups of workers or are asked to justify the actions of collective actors like unions or social movements. By showing how these actors improvise their own role incumbency while actively negotiating social identities, the article problematises the epistemology of constrained labour agency while responding to Strauss’ call for a rethinking of the ontologies of work.