Global Cities at Work

摘要

London is one of the paradigmatic global cities. Following Sassen (1991), scholars on global cities have mostly agreed that these cities' labor markets are economically polarized into the highly paid professional elites and low-wage unskilled service workers. Yet few authors have provided a nuanced and insightful analysis of the lower echelon of this divide. Global Cities at Work takes a sharp look at the characteristics of employment in low-income occupations and explores the influence of immigration on the labor market in London. The authors show how the neoliberal economy has created the conditions of supply and demand that shape the migrant division of labor in the British capital city. The heart of the argument centers on the role of the "reserve army of labor" for the emergence of current working conditions in the United Kingdom. Wills et al. revive this conventional Marxist concept and provide a compelling case study analyzing the economic, welfare, and immigration policies that have resulted in the division of the labor force.