Professor Jane Wills

Jane Wills is Professor of Geography at Queen Mary, University of London. She has a long standing interest in the geo-political-economy of labour and trade union organisation. She has recently published an edited book with Angela Hale called Threads of Labour: garment industry supply chains from the workers' perspective (2005, Blackwell). The book is based on action research led by Women Working Worldwide that constructed a global network of women workers' organisations, feminist and political activists, and consumers, in a bid to better understand the conditions of work and politics in global subcontracted production chains. This work highlights the importance of labour organisations forming alliances and networks with their allies to increase their power, influence and legitimacy. These arguments are explored in Union Futures: Building networked trade unionism in the UK (Fabian Society, 2002) and in articles about community unionism in the Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers and Capital and Class; and about labour and globalisation in Antipode and the Review of International Political Economy. Jane's current research is focused on migrant workers in low paid employment and the activities of the living wage campaign in London (for more information, see http://www.geog.qmul.ac.uk/globalcities and http://www.geog.qmul.ac.uk/livingwage)