Contesting Digital Technology through New Forms of Transnational Activism

Authors

  • Edward Webster Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, Witwatersrand University
  • Carmen Ludwig International Research Associate SWOP, Witwatersrand University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15173/glj.v14i1.5022

Abstract

While the tech giants are using privatisation to present themselves as providers of solutions to global problems, digitalisation is creating new forms of transnational activism. Global unions are emerging as players in this contest, helping to build counter power at both the local and global level. Through a comparison of the use of digital technology in two case studies in Africa involving two different global unions the article demonstrates how global unions can, through their intermediary coordinating role at the supranational level, deepen worker power.

KEYWORDS: Global unions; digital technology; informal work; power resources; union revitalisation

Author Biographies

Edward Webster, Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, Witwatersrand University

Edward Webster is Distinguished Research Professor at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS) and founder and past director of the Society, Work and Politics Institute (SWOP) at Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg.

 

Carmen Ludwig, International Research Associate SWOP, Witwatersrand University

Carmen Ludwig is a postdoctoral researcher and an international research associate at SWOP, Witwatersrand University. She works as the international secretary of the German Education Union (GEW) and writes in her personal capacity.

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Published

2023-01-31

Issue

Vol. 14 No. 1 (2023): January 2023

Section

ARTICLES

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