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This book explores the history and global expansion of AB Volvo, one of the hundred largest corporations in the world, through the experiences of its workers in Sweden, Mexico, South Africa, and India. It investigates how neo-liberalisation has transformed the company into a promoter of lean production, at the expense of the workers´ needs.

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PART I: THEORIES AND HISTORIES OF LABOUR 1. In Search of Labour in Labour Studies 2. Production Processes in a Globalising World 3. Qualitative Methods: What We Did and How We Did It PART II: ENTERING THE FACTORY GATES 4. Locating Volvo: Four Plants, Four Places, Four Histories 5. Regimes of representation: Trade Unions in Sweden and Mexico PART III: SUBJECTIVITIES AT WORK 6. Men´s Jobs - Women´s Work: Women as Industrial Workers 7. Three Gender Regimes - Gender Relations at Work 8. Constructing the Volvo Family. The West and the Rest 9. Production Regimes - Producer´s Pride 10. Women´s Pride as Producers 11. The Wage Labourer´s Discontent Epilogue

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Nora Räthzel is Professor of Sociology at the University of Ume†, Sweden and Visiting Professor at the Universities of Surrey, UK and Vigo, Spain. Her publications include: Finding the Way Home. Young Peoples´ Stories of Gender Ethnicity, Class and Place in Hamburg and London (with Phil Cohen, Les Back, Michael Keith, and Andreas Hieronymus, 2008), and Trade Unions in the Green Economy (with David Uzzell, 2013).

Diana Mulinari is Professor of Sociology at the Centre of Gender Studies, University of Lund, Sweden. She has written extensively on gender and development in Latin America, and on the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, and class in the context of the Swedish welfare state. Her publications include: Complying with Colonialism. Gender, Race and Ethnicity in the Nordic Region (with Suvi Keskiknen, Sari Irni, and Salla Touri, 2009).

Aina Tollefsen is Reader in Geography at the Department of Geography and Economic History, University of Ume†, Sweden. She has written extensively on labour migration, critical development studies, and globalisation. Her publications include: Globalisering (with Tommy Jensen, 2012), Of Berries and Seasonal Work: The Swedish Berry Industry and the Disciplining of Labour Migration from Thailand (with Madeleine Eriksson, 2013).

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