| dc.description.abstract | The UK agri-food industry is heavily dependent on migrant labour and, as result,
the position and experiences of migrant workers have remained topics of research
interest for over a decade. To date, a prolific body of research in the Organisation
Studies (OS) literature has addressed the subordinate and exploited position of
migrants against a backdrop of precarious terms and conditions of work. Studies have
also extolled the scope for worker mobility and resistance, as well as explored the
intersectional and non-reductive complexity of migrant life. Although offering valuable
insights, these literatures present a dis-embedded portrayal of the agri-food industry,
studying its regulatory provisions, everyday routines and work patterns in abstraction
from the spaces within which they occur. Existing research has failed to recognise
these processes as modes of space-production, in line with Henri Lefebvre’s trialectic
framework. This issue of Organization enables us to bring empirical and theoretical
insights into this often-neglected area, pertaining both to the study of migrant labour
spaces, and the identification of the rhythms through which these spaces are
produced. Accordingly, our study combines Rudolf Laban’s ‘ontology of rhythm’ and
Henri Lefebvre’s ‘rhythmanalysis’ methodology. Aided by our own positionality as
former agri-food workers, we show how regulating, connecting and ‘dressage’ rhythms
intersect agri-food space in a process of relational and multifaceted ‘ordering’, rather
than static order. We contribute to the OS literature by conceptualising the missing,
spatial dimension in the agri-food migrant industry and demonstrating the value of
rhythmanalysis as an underutilised methodology for its continued study. | en_GB |
