Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/163036 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 2017/57
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
This paper brings labour back into the literature on legal empowerment against poverty. Employing a historical lens, I outline three waves of legal movements. Each wave is distinguished by its timing, the state-level target, and the actors involved. In all three waves, legal empowerment was won, not bestowed. Labour played a significant role, fighting in each subsequent wave for an expanded identity to address exclusions. These findings reveal the false dichotomy used to distinguish workers from citizens and class from identity-based interests. They underline the significance of symbolic power of legal recognition, even in the absence of perfect implementation. Finally, they highlight contemporary workers as an overlooked, identity-based group that addresses the intersectionalities between class and ascriptive characteristics.
Subjects: 
labour
judicial activism
legal empowerment
informal workers
social movements
India
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9256-281-6
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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