Breaks in the Chain: What Immigrant Workers Can Teach America About Democracy
Author:   Paul Apostolidis
Publisher:   University of Minnesota Press
ISBN:  

9780816669813


Pages:   360
Publication Date:   19 July 2010
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Temporarily unavailable   Availability explained
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Breaks in the Chain: What Immigrant Workers Can Teach America About Democracy


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Overview

In Breaks in the Chain, Paul Apostolidis investigates the personal life stories of a group of Mexican immigrant meatpackers who are at once typical and extraordinary. After crossing the border clandestinely and navigating the treacherous world of the undocumented, they waged a campaign to democratize their union and their workplace in the most hazardous industry in the United States. Breaks in the Chain shows how immigrant workers-individually and sometimes collectively-both reinforce and contest a tacit but lethal form of biopolitics that differentiates the life chances of racial groups. Examining their personal narratives, Apostolidis recasts our understanding of the ways immigrants construct and transform social power. Apostolidis uses empirical inquiry to spark new reflections in critical theory as he analyzes how immigrant workers' local practices confront structural power within and beyond America's borders. Linking stories of immigration to stories about working on the meat production line-the chain-he reveals the surprising power of activism by immigrant workers and their allies and demonstrates how it can-and should-promote social and political democracy in America.

Full Product Details

Author:   Paul Apostolidis
Publisher:   University of Minnesota Press
Imprint:   University of Minnesota Press
Dimensions:   Width: 14.00cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 21.60cm
ISBN:  

9780816669813


ISBN 10:   0816669813
Pages:   360
Publication Date:   19 July 2010
Audience:   General/trade ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Temporarily unavailable   Availability explained
The supplier advises that this item is temporarily unavailable. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out to you.

Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgments Acronyms Introduction: Immigration, Power, and Politics in America Today 1. Political Narratives, Common Sense, and Theories of Hegemony 2. Hegemony in Hindsight: Immigrant Workers' Stories of Power in Mexico 3. Stories of Fate and Agency in the Zone of Illegality 4. Labor, Injury, and Self-Preservation in the Slaughterhouse 5. ¡Nosotros Somos la Unión! Immigrant Worker Organizing and the Disciplines of the Law Conclusion: Immigrant Workers and Counterhegemony Appendix: Interview Methods Notes Bibliography Index

Reviews

<p> Breaks in the Chain is tremendously important and timely, treating as it does the intersection between immigration and unionization that is currently a critical edge of left politics and a new frontier of biopolitical power. --Lisa Disch, University of Michigan


Breaks in the Chain is tremendously important and timely, treating as it does the intersection between immigration and unionization that is currently a critical edge of left politics and a new frontier of biopolitical power. --Lisa Disch, University of Michigan


Author Information

Paul Apostolidis holds the Judge and Mrs. Timothy A. Paul Chair of Political Science at Whitman College. He is the author of Stations of the Cross: Adorno and Christian Right Radio and coeditor of Public Affairs: Politics in the Age of Sex Scandals.

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