1st ed. 2019 edition
by Gerda Kuiper (Author)
This ethnography analyses labour relations within the export-oriented
cut flower industry at Lake Naivasha in Kenya. Though this
agro-industry has attracted critical attention from journalists and
non-governmental organizations, this book is the first comprehensive,
social scientific analysis of the industry’s labour arrangements and
production processes. Gerda Kuiper here interprets the work on the farms
as ‘agro-industrial labour’: a labour system characterized by high
levels of discipline and a strict rhythm of work, due to the demands
posed by a highly perishable agricultural product. This framework
enables the author to draw on insights from a wide range of
anthropological and sociological studies on (agro-)industrial wage
labour around the globe. This mixed-methods approach, deployed alongside
rich ethnographic detail, allows the author to center the flower farm
workers in her analysis.
