The Dirty Work of Neoliberalism : Cleaners in the Global Economy

Although they remain largely invisible in the prevailing literature, building cleaners are being affected tremendously by neoliberalism's grip on the reorganization of contemporary work and labour markets.

In this collection of essays, an international group of scholars investigates the global building cleaning industry to reveal the extent of neoliberalism's impact on cleaners.

The first comprehensive study of building cleaners and their experiences of labour market and work restructuring in the global economy, the book's varied topics examine the erosion of cleaners' industrial citizenship rights, the impact of outsourcing upon their working conditions and economic (in) security, and how intensification of their work is having negative effects on their physical and mental health.

Importantly, it also includes a number of essays which discuss various mobilising strategies in which cleaners are engaging to resist the pains of neoliberalism.With a spatial focus that ranges from the cleaning of universities and shopping malls to that of hotels and hospitals, the collection puts front and centre a workforce that is often much maligned by society and ignored by the academic and popular literature, but a workforce which is nevertheless increasingly asserting itself as it attempts to resist neoliberal globalisation.