Peripheral labour : studies in the history of partial proletarianization

This volume takes an alternative look at the notion of 'wage-workers'.

The contributors suggest that the idea of a 'pure' working class should be reconsidered and examine specific South Asian and Latin American case studies.

A large part of the working class in the so-called third world and also in the main capitalist countries is either free (but coerced through non-economic means) or does hidden work labor e.g. as formally self-employed producers. By rethinking the fundamental assumptions of 'classical' labor and working-class history, the volume contributes to the development of a non-Eurocentric historiography.