Capital Mobility and the Embeddedness of Labour

The paper discusses claims that radical restructuring of capitalism in the late 20th century fundamentally changed class relations. It challenges abstract presentations of space and time transformation, in particular contesting the logic of generalised, asocial concepts of spatial compression. Changes in capital mobility are dynamic and contradictory processes and spatial and temporal transformations are experienced inherently unevenly. Movements of capital are themselves made by workers. Moreover, the economic weight and social labour involved in transport and communications increased rather than decreased during the last two decades of the 20th century. The paper concretises this critique, evaluating claims that the “national” scale and national systems of industrial relations became less important, through a preliminary investigation of data of levels of industrial action. It shows that even amongst key sectors of labour such as transport and communications workers, who might be thought especially implicated in global transformation, the significance of the national scale for labour activity shows no sign of diminishing.