Labour In The 21st Century

Book Code: 1111036803302

Dr. P . Suresh Kumar and Dr. R.K. Suresh Kumar

ABOUT THE BOOK

Labour in the 21st Century offers a timely and incisive analysis of how work, technology, and global economic forces are redefining labour in the contemporary world. Rejecting narrow views of labour as a mere factor of production, the book foregrounds human agency, social values, and transformative change. Across seven integrated chapters, the authors examine how advances in information and communication technologies have reshaped production systems, labour relations, and global integration. They contend that technology has become more decentralised and people centred, softening traditional capital labour antagonisms while creating new opportunities for cooperation, flexibility, and participation in work. The book examines evolving labour dynamics shaped by global value chains, labour mobility, and changing patterns of organised and unorganised work. It reconceptualises informalisation not as a sign of underdevelopment, but as a structural consequence of technology-driven, service-based economies. By connecting inequality to the underlying structures of production, the authors highlight the need for fairness, accountability, social justice, and democratic responsibility at a global level.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

P. Suresh Kumar is at present an activist and a practicing lawyer. He was formerly Associate Professor and Head, Post Graduate and Research Department of Economics, Government College, Attingal. He has also served in Kerala Public Service Commission as its Member. His ideas, visions and experience as an academician and administrator are well reflected in his writings and publications which include more than 50 research articles and seven books. His areas of specialization are Development Economics, Education, Ecology and Governance and Planning.

R.K.Suresh Kumar is the former Head of the Department of Political Science at University College, Thiruvananthapuram. He has served as a Member of both the Governing Body and the Executive Body of the Kerala State Higher Education Council. He is currently the Chairman of the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIP A), Kerala Regional Branch, and has also been a Member of the Executive Council of the IIP A, New Delhi. For the last seventeen years he is the Editor of the research journal “Social Science in Perspective”. With thirteen books to his credit, Dr .Suresh Kumar has also published numerous research papers, editorials, and popular articles in reputed journals. His primary areas of academic interest include Governance and Development, State and Society, Constitution, Electoral Reforms and Political Parties.

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