Agro-industrial Labour in Kenya: Cut Flower Farms and Migrant Workers’ Settlements

Kuiper, Gerda

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.

Details

Published by: Palgrave Macmillan

Publication Date: 2019-05-31

Format: Hardcover

ISBN-13: 9783030180454

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-18046-1

Dimensions: 210cm x148cm

Pages: 284