Baldacchino, Godfrey (1993) Labouring in Lilliput : labour relations and images of smallness in developing microstates. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This project opens up insights into the social processes colouring labour relations in developing microstates. It purports to explore how worker behaviour in very small, often island, developing countries unfolds in circumstances prone also to influences resulting from the condition of smallness. The thesis' main intended contribution is therefore an alertness to the plausibility and heuristic usefulness of a smallness perspective towards a better understanding of microstate labour dynamics in particular. The research design adopted is reflexively critical. It confronts the theories and epithets surrounding the developing microstate, constructing a home grown, conceptual framework and methodological regime. This sensitises research to the often unacknowledged, behavioural dynamics which 'infect' labour formation and labour-management relations in these territories. The method of investigation comprises a resort to multiple data sourcing. A literature audit is complemented by 4 case studies. These involve: Transnationally comparable employment and labour relations settings emergent from semi-structured interview scripts; encounters with fellow microstate academics; and an autobiographical ethnography. The material is organised a follows: The research question is first set up and the applied methodology problematised (Chapter 1) . Next is a review of development theory, with the proposal of an alternative explanation of microstate 'development' strategies, subsequently applied to the experiences of Malta (my country) and Barbados (Chapter 2). The construction of a microstate labour syndrome follows, with the explanatory and organising potential of a typology revolving around the conditions of intimacy, totality and monopoly (Chapter 3). These leitmotifs are then tested out: First, in the context of labour relations in two microstate hotels (Chapter 4); secondly, with respect to the behaviour and perceptions of microstate campus academic staff; lastly, in relation to the self as microstate academic (Chapter 5). The conclusion serves as a synthesis as well as an opportunity to appraise the implications of the results (Chapter 6).

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Industrial relations, Developing countries -- Economic conditions, States, Small -- Economic conditions
Date:	October 1993
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	School of Industrial and Business Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Hyman, Richard ; Fairbrother, Peter
Sponsors:	Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation (CFTC) ; University of Prince Edward Island ; University of Malta ; University of Warwick ; University of the West Indies (Cave Hill, Barbados)
Extent:	xiv, 442 p.
Language:	eng
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/4042

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