Rethinking Labour Exploitation through Constraints and Agency: a Power Resource perspective

Titolo Rivista MONDI MIGRANTI
Autori/Curatori Nicola Quondamatteo
Anno di pubblicazione 2026 Fascicolo 2026/2
Lingua Inglese Numero pagine 18 P. 23-40 Dimensione file 182 KB
DOI 10.3280/MM2026-002002
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The article revisits scholarly debate on forms of labour exploitation by integrating the existing literature with the Power Resource Approach. Moving beyond largely descriptive continuum-based accounts of free/unfree labour, it conceptualises different forms of exploitation as a dynamic configuration of constraints that limit workers’ access to and mobilisation of power resources. Combining this framework with the notion of constrained agency, the paper shows how workers exposed to various forms of exploitation can nonetheless enact forms of agency that contest and reshape the intensity and boundaries of exploitation. The analysis draws on a systematic literature review and on qualitative research conducted across multiple sectors, including shipbuilding, food delivery and hospitality.

L’articolo rivisita il dibattito accademico sulle forme dello sfruttamento lavorativo integrando la letteratura esistente con la Power Resource Theory. Andando oltre le analisi prevalentemente descrittive basate sul continuum tra lavoro libero/non libero, il contributo concettualizza le diverse forme di sfruttamento come una configurazione dinamica di vincoli che limitano l’accesso alle risorse di potere e la possibile mobilitazione di esse da parte dei lavoratori. Combinando questo quadro analitico con la nozione di constrained agency, il paper mostra come i lavoratori esposti a varie forme di sfruttamento possano comunque attivare forme di agency capaci di contestare e ridefinire l’intensità e i confini dello sfruttamento. L’analisi si basa su una revisione sistematica della letteratura e su ricerche qualitative condotte in diversi settori, tra cui cantieristica navale, food delivery e turismo.

Parole chiave:sfruttamento lavorativo; risorse di potere; agency vincolata.

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Nicola Quondamatteo, Rethinking Labour Exploitation through Constraints and Agency: a Power Resource perspective in "MONDI MIGRANTI" 2/2026, pp 23-40, DOI: 10.3280/MM2026-002002