Lydia Medland | University of Bristol (original) (raw)
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Papers by Lydia Medland
This article discusses the EU Seasonal Workers Directive alongside case study data of seasonal ag... more This article discusses the EU Seasonal Workers Directive alongside case study data of seasonal agricultural work in Spain. The conceptual contribution is to critically consider ‘seasonality’ and the related assumptions around temporary labour migration for agricultural work. This consideration informs an analysis of the Directive's policy approach alongside its three global objectives. It is argued that this Directive is likely to fail to meet all three of these objectives; the assumed timeframe for labour demands does not correspond with unmet seasonal challenges; the lack of options for undocumented workers already in the EU may compound their marginalisation; the policy approach of circular migration and limited worker protections does not do enough to prevent new seasonal workers from falling into situations of vulnerability and undocumented status.
Overview Environmental educators face the challenge of creating learning experiences that help pe... more Overview Environmental educators face the challenge of creating learning experiences that help people develop knowledge, values and skills which might inspire them to become actively involved in dealing with the social and environmental issues that they and their communities confront. This chapter explores social theatre as one instrument for sustainable education.
In this chapter I discuss several ways in which language learning was a valuable process in itsel... more In this chapter I discuss several ways in which language learning was a valuable process in itself for my research in Morocco. Pre-research language learning cannot be expected to completely mitigate the risks and limitations of being an outsider in a foreign research context. However, I found that cultural learning was an inherent and invaluable element of my language preparation in both French and Moroccan Arabic. Unpicking the illusionary goal of becoming fluent in the language(s) and culture(s) of research contexts, I illustrate how some of the costs of learning a language may not be as insurmountable as many assume. I show how my stay at a language school provided a forgiving and powerful environment for research preparation, acting as a variety of rehearsal space. Finally, exploring the value of untranslatable and inbetween linguistic terms, I consider how they helped build an understanding of the social phenomena of my research.
Co-authors: Bridget Anderson, School of Sociology, Politics & International Studies, University o... more Co-authors: Bridget Anderson, School of Sociology, Politics & International Studies, University of Bristol Katie Bales, University of Bristol Law School Alan Bogg, University of Bristol Law School Tonia Novitz, University of Bristol Law School Julia O’Connell Davidson, Sociology, Politics & International Studies, University of Bristol Frederick Harry Pitts, School of Economics, Finance & Management, University of Bristol Peter Turnbull, School of Economics, Finance & Management, University of Bristol
Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 2016
Can the emergence of organic agriculture in global enclaves of food production be interpreted as ... more Can the emergence of organic agriculture in global enclaves of food production be interpreted as contributing to more socially sustainable agriculture? This article discusses three narratives from semistructured interviews with farmers, farmworkers, and trade union representatives in the case of El Ejido, Spain. Here, organic agriculture can be seen to offer a small degree of breathing space from the harshest dynamics of conventional industrial food systems. In conclusion, in this case, the study shows that organic agriculture has been accompanied by experiences of small social sustainability gains and opportunities for workers and farmers, in a particularly challenging context.
European Law Journal, 2017
This article discusses the EU Seasonal Workers Directive alongside case study data of seasonal ag... more This article discusses the EU Seasonal Workers Directive alongside case study data of seasonal agricultural work in Spain. The conceptual contribution is to critically consider 'seasonality' and the related assumptions around temporary labour migration for agricultural work. This consideration informs an analysis of the Directive's policy approach alongside its three global objectives. It is argued that this Directive is likely to fail to meet all three of these objectives; the assumed timeframe for labour demands does not correspond with unmet seasonal challenges; the lack of options for undocumented workers already in the EU may compound their marginalisation; the policy approach of circular migration and limited worker protections does not do enough to prevent new seasonal workers from falling into situations of vulnerability and undocumented status. 1 | INTRODUCTION Migration patterns elicited by seasonal demand for agricultural labour have long been a very tangible reality in Europe. The scale and characteristics of the flows have been very much influenced in recent decades by the development of a particular economic model of intensive agricultural production and by specific structures of distribution and retail of agricultural products. 1 It is in such a context that we must consider the creation of a specific and distinct legal status of 'seasonal worker' in European law by virtue of the 2014 Seasonal Workers Directive (hereafter SWD). 2 This article provides an analysis and a critical assessment of this new status by means of confronting European law with the actual economic and social practices of seasonal work in intensive agriculture, as they emerge from empirical work undertaken in one of the key 'enclaves' of agricultural production in the European Union, namely
Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development
The crucial roles that workers, especially seasonal and migrant workers, play in our food systems... more The crucial roles that workers, especially seasonal and migrant workers, play in our food systems have come under renewed attention in recent years. The coronavirus pandemic resulted in food workers being recognized as critical or essential workers in many countries. In 2021, this coincided with the UN International Year of Fruits and Vegetables (IYFV), highlighting the importance of horticultural crops to healthy lives globally. Yet, workers’ quality of life in this most labor-intensive form of food production is often disregarded, or in the case of the UN IYFV, misconstrued. The agriculture-migration nexus—on which food systems depend—remains recognized as a challenge, yet there is limited debate about how it could be ameliorated and a lack of articulation of desirable alternatives. While alternative food and peasant movements propose food system transformation and alternative labor futures based on agroecology, labor lawyers and other advocates propose regulation and formaliza...
Journal of Rural Studies, 2021
Abstract Agri-industrial production is supported by the agriculture–migration nexus, in which ind... more Abstract Agri-industrial production is supported by the agriculture–migration nexus, in which industrial-scale horticultural production relies on migrant workers. In this article I consider the time-related pressures on workers who are internal migrants from rural regions of Morocco. My account illustrates how workers are impacted by the demands from consumers for fresh food, year round, as well as by the rhythms of nature, and of social reproduction. I use concepts from EP Thompson's depiction of the transition from rural to factory work to describe the tensions in agricultural production at industrial scale for foreign markets. The concepts used are nature's time (related to seasonality, weather, daylight) and industrial time (of the market), and I adjoin to this the category of social-reproductive time in order to show these three time-related pressures function together. The identification of this threefold time-pressure on migrant workers in agri-food production builds on the recent attention of scholars to seasonality as a conceptual lens, and the identification of rhythms to highlight intersectional inequalities in the everyday. The paper is based on ethnographic and interview data from the Moroccan region of Chtouka Ait Baha, from which tomatoes and other crops are produced at industrial scale for export. I find that, together, the three temporal pressures lead to workers suffering exhaustion and finding themselves far from mobile and available to move with the seasons; rather, they are ‘locked in’ to this low-wage sector.
El Ecologista, 2009
Seleccionar todos Título: ¿Seguridad o soberanía alimentaria?. Una guerra de modelos en la que to... more Seleccionar todos Título: ¿Seguridad o soberanía alimentaria?. Una guerra de modelos en la que todos participamos. Autores: Medland, Lydia Revista: Ecologista, El, 2009-2010; (63) Página(s): 24-27 ISSN: 15752712. ...
El Ecologista, 2009
Seleccionar todos Título: ¿Seguridad o soberanía alimentaria?. Una guerra de modelos en la que to... more Seleccionar todos Título: ¿Seguridad o soberanía alimentaria?. Una guerra de modelos en la que todos participamos. Autores: Medland, Lydia Revista: Ecologista, El, 2009-2010; (63) Página(s): 24-27 ISSN: 15752712. ...
This article discusses the EU Seasonal Workers Directive alongside case study data of seasonal ag... more This article discusses the EU Seasonal Workers Directive alongside case study data of seasonal agricultural work in Spain. The conceptual contribution is to critically consider 'seasonality' and the related assumptions around temporary labour migration for agricultural work. This consideration informs an analysis of the Directive's policy approach alongside its three global objectives. It is argued that this Directive is likely to fail to meet all three of these objectives; the assumed timeframe for labour demands does not correspond with unmet seasonal challenges; the lack of options for undocumented workers already in the EU may compound their marginalisation; the policy approach of circular migration and limited worker protections does not do enough to prevent new seasonal workers from falling into situations of vulnerability and undocumented status.
Can the emergence of organic agriculture in global enclaves of food production be interpreted as ... more Can the emergence of organic agriculture in global enclaves of food production be interpreted as contributing to more socially sustainable agriculture? This article discusses three narratives from semistructured interviews with farmers, farmworkers, and trade union representatives in the case of El Ejido, Spain. Here, organic agriculture can be seen to offer a small degree of breathing space from the harshest dynamics of conventional industrial food systems. In conclusion, in this case, the study shows that organic agriculture has been accompanied by experiences of small social sustainability gains and opportunities for workers and farmers, in a particularly challenging context.
Ecologista, El, Jan 1, 2009
Articles, Papers & Book Chapters by Lydia Medland
Learning and Using Languages in Ethnographic Research, 2019
In this chapter I discuss several ways in which language learning was a valuable process in itsel... more In this chapter I discuss several ways in which language learning was a valuable process in itself for my research in Morocco. Pre-research language learning cannot be expected to completely mitigate the risks and limitations of being an outsider in a foreign research context. However, I found that cultural learning was an inherent and invaluable element of my language preparation in both French and Moroccan Arabic. Unpicking the illusionary goal of becoming fluent in the language(s) and culture(s) of research contexts, I illustrate how some of the costs of learning a language may not be as insurmountable as many assume. I show how my stay at a language school provided a forgiving and powerful environment for research preparation, acting as a variety of rehearsal space. Finally, exploring the value of untranslatable and in-between linguistic terms, I consider how they helped build an understanding of the social phenomena of my research. 2
University of Bristol Law Research Paper Series, 2018
Discussion of a world without work usually comes accompanied by either fear or fantasy of a worke... more Discussion of a world without work usually comes accompanied by either fear or fantasy of a workerless world. A hashtag search on twitter for #futureofwork yields many photos of robots, yet very little insight into how such a world will emerge and its relation to the one in which we currently carry out our working lives. In this paper we argue that behind projections of a workerless world, and behind fears of a lack of jobs, are the continuities of dynamics already in play, and that these are capitalist working relations. This working paper firstly offers a contextualisation of the ‘future of work’, shaping new understandings of what is meant by
the ‘worker’ in the contemporary context. Whilst acknowledging technical changes in the contemporary context of working relations, we argue that it is the continuities and contradictions in current labour market dynamics that more usefully identify the challenges for both conceptualising and regulating contemporary work. Highlighting the spatial challenges to contemporary workplace governance we look at three factors: the mobility of work, the mobility of things as trade, and the ‘new workers’ (hyperflexible workers employed through platforms and other new arrangements of work that are made possible by technological advances) to identify key continuities in the factors and actors of the so called ‘future’ of work. To contextualise these factors as they manifest in particular sectors, we consider the cases of care work and agricultural work, both areas which have been subject to great speculation over projected transformation. The paper then turns to the challenges of law and regulation and demonstrates how work is enmeshed in legal developments which go far beyond labour and employment law. In conclusion, we argue that there is need for a radical new conceptualisation of work, in both social and legal terms, yet this must be grounded in recognition of the continuities of capitalist relations of production and accumulation, rather than the fears and fantasies of a worker-free future.
This article discusses the EU Seasonal Workers Directive alongside case study data of seasonal ag... more This article discusses the EU Seasonal Workers Directive alongside case study data of seasonal agricultural work in Spain. The conceptual contribution is to critically consider ‘seasonality’ and the related assumptions around temporary labour migration for agricultural work. This consideration informs an analysis of the Directive's policy approach alongside its three global objectives. It is argued that this Directive is likely to fail to meet all three of these objectives; the assumed timeframe for labour demands does not correspond with unmet seasonal challenges; the lack of options for undocumented workers already in the EU may compound their marginalisation; the policy approach of circular migration and limited worker protections does not do enough to prevent new seasonal workers from falling into situations of vulnerability and undocumented status.
Overview Environmental educators face the challenge of creating learning experiences that help pe... more Overview Environmental educators face the challenge of creating learning experiences that help people develop knowledge, values and skills which might inspire them to become actively involved in dealing with the social and environmental issues that they and their communities confront. This chapter explores social theatre as one instrument for sustainable education.
In this chapter I discuss several ways in which language learning was a valuable process in itsel... more In this chapter I discuss several ways in which language learning was a valuable process in itself for my research in Morocco. Pre-research language learning cannot be expected to completely mitigate the risks and limitations of being an outsider in a foreign research context. However, I found that cultural learning was an inherent and invaluable element of my language preparation in both French and Moroccan Arabic. Unpicking the illusionary goal of becoming fluent in the language(s) and culture(s) of research contexts, I illustrate how some of the costs of learning a language may not be as insurmountable as many assume. I show how my stay at a language school provided a forgiving and powerful environment for research preparation, acting as a variety of rehearsal space. Finally, exploring the value of untranslatable and inbetween linguistic terms, I consider how they helped build an understanding of the social phenomena of my research.
Co-authors: Bridget Anderson, School of Sociology, Politics & International Studies, University o... more Co-authors: Bridget Anderson, School of Sociology, Politics & International Studies, University of Bristol Katie Bales, University of Bristol Law School Alan Bogg, University of Bristol Law School Tonia Novitz, University of Bristol Law School Julia O’Connell Davidson, Sociology, Politics & International Studies, University of Bristol Frederick Harry Pitts, School of Economics, Finance & Management, University of Bristol Peter Turnbull, School of Economics, Finance & Management, University of Bristol
Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 2016
Can the emergence of organic agriculture in global enclaves of food production be interpreted as ... more Can the emergence of organic agriculture in global enclaves of food production be interpreted as contributing to more socially sustainable agriculture? This article discusses three narratives from semistructured interviews with farmers, farmworkers, and trade union representatives in the case of El Ejido, Spain. Here, organic agriculture can be seen to offer a small degree of breathing space from the harshest dynamics of conventional industrial food systems. In conclusion, in this case, the study shows that organic agriculture has been accompanied by experiences of small social sustainability gains and opportunities for workers and farmers, in a particularly challenging context.
European Law Journal, 2017
This article discusses the EU Seasonal Workers Directive alongside case study data of seasonal ag... more This article discusses the EU Seasonal Workers Directive alongside case study data of seasonal agricultural work in Spain. The conceptual contribution is to critically consider 'seasonality' and the related assumptions around temporary labour migration for agricultural work. This consideration informs an analysis of the Directive's policy approach alongside its three global objectives. It is argued that this Directive is likely to fail to meet all three of these objectives; the assumed timeframe for labour demands does not correspond with unmet seasonal challenges; the lack of options for undocumented workers already in the EU may compound their marginalisation; the policy approach of circular migration and limited worker protections does not do enough to prevent new seasonal workers from falling into situations of vulnerability and undocumented status. 1 | INTRODUCTION Migration patterns elicited by seasonal demand for agricultural labour have long been a very tangible reality in Europe. The scale and characteristics of the flows have been very much influenced in recent decades by the development of a particular economic model of intensive agricultural production and by specific structures of distribution and retail of agricultural products. 1 It is in such a context that we must consider the creation of a specific and distinct legal status of 'seasonal worker' in European law by virtue of the 2014 Seasonal Workers Directive (hereafter SWD). 2 This article provides an analysis and a critical assessment of this new status by means of confronting European law with the actual economic and social practices of seasonal work in intensive agriculture, as they emerge from empirical work undertaken in one of the key 'enclaves' of agricultural production in the European Union, namely
Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development
The crucial roles that workers, especially seasonal and migrant workers, play in our food systems... more The crucial roles that workers, especially seasonal and migrant workers, play in our food systems have come under renewed attention in recent years. The coronavirus pandemic resulted in food workers being recognized as critical or essential workers in many countries. In 2021, this coincided with the UN International Year of Fruits and Vegetables (IYFV), highlighting the importance of horticultural crops to healthy lives globally. Yet, workers’ quality of life in this most labor-intensive form of food production is often disregarded, or in the case of the UN IYFV, misconstrued. The agriculture-migration nexus—on which food systems depend—remains recognized as a challenge, yet there is limited debate about how it could be ameliorated and a lack of articulation of desirable alternatives. While alternative food and peasant movements propose food system transformation and alternative labor futures based on agroecology, labor lawyers and other advocates propose regulation and formaliza...
Journal of Rural Studies, 2021
Abstract Agri-industrial production is supported by the agriculture–migration nexus, in which ind... more Abstract Agri-industrial production is supported by the agriculture–migration nexus, in which industrial-scale horticultural production relies on migrant workers. In this article I consider the time-related pressures on workers who are internal migrants from rural regions of Morocco. My account illustrates how workers are impacted by the demands from consumers for fresh food, year round, as well as by the rhythms of nature, and of social reproduction. I use concepts from EP Thompson's depiction of the transition from rural to factory work to describe the tensions in agricultural production at industrial scale for foreign markets. The concepts used are nature's time (related to seasonality, weather, daylight) and industrial time (of the market), and I adjoin to this the category of social-reproductive time in order to show these three time-related pressures function together. The identification of this threefold time-pressure on migrant workers in agri-food production builds on the recent attention of scholars to seasonality as a conceptual lens, and the identification of rhythms to highlight intersectional inequalities in the everyday. The paper is based on ethnographic and interview data from the Moroccan region of Chtouka Ait Baha, from which tomatoes and other crops are produced at industrial scale for export. I find that, together, the three temporal pressures lead to workers suffering exhaustion and finding themselves far from mobile and available to move with the seasons; rather, they are ‘locked in’ to this low-wage sector.
El Ecologista, 2009
Seleccionar todos Título: ¿Seguridad o soberanía alimentaria?. Una guerra de modelos en la que to... more Seleccionar todos Título: ¿Seguridad o soberanía alimentaria?. Una guerra de modelos en la que todos participamos. Autores: Medland, Lydia Revista: Ecologista, El, 2009-2010; (63) Página(s): 24-27 ISSN: 15752712. ...
El Ecologista, 2009
Seleccionar todos Título: ¿Seguridad o soberanía alimentaria?. Una guerra de modelos en la que to... more Seleccionar todos Título: ¿Seguridad o soberanía alimentaria?. Una guerra de modelos en la que todos participamos. Autores: Medland, Lydia Revista: Ecologista, El, 2009-2010; (63) Página(s): 24-27 ISSN: 15752712. ...
This article discusses the EU Seasonal Workers Directive alongside case study data of seasonal ag... more This article discusses the EU Seasonal Workers Directive alongside case study data of seasonal agricultural work in Spain. The conceptual contribution is to critically consider 'seasonality' and the related assumptions around temporary labour migration for agricultural work. This consideration informs an analysis of the Directive's policy approach alongside its three global objectives. It is argued that this Directive is likely to fail to meet all three of these objectives; the assumed timeframe for labour demands does not correspond with unmet seasonal challenges; the lack of options for undocumented workers already in the EU may compound their marginalisation; the policy approach of circular migration and limited worker protections does not do enough to prevent new seasonal workers from falling into situations of vulnerability and undocumented status.
Can the emergence of organic agriculture in global enclaves of food production be interpreted as ... more Can the emergence of organic agriculture in global enclaves of food production be interpreted as contributing to more socially sustainable agriculture? This article discusses three narratives from semistructured interviews with farmers, farmworkers, and trade union representatives in the case of El Ejido, Spain. Here, organic agriculture can be seen to offer a small degree of breathing space from the harshest dynamics of conventional industrial food systems. In conclusion, in this case, the study shows that organic agriculture has been accompanied by experiences of small social sustainability gains and opportunities for workers and farmers, in a particularly challenging context.
Ecologista, El, Jan 1, 2009
Learning and Using Languages in Ethnographic Research, 2019
In this chapter I discuss several ways in which language learning was a valuable process in itsel... more In this chapter I discuss several ways in which language learning was a valuable process in itself for my research in Morocco. Pre-research language learning cannot be expected to completely mitigate the risks and limitations of being an outsider in a foreign research context. However, I found that cultural learning was an inherent and invaluable element of my language preparation in both French and Moroccan Arabic. Unpicking the illusionary goal of becoming fluent in the language(s) and culture(s) of research contexts, I illustrate how some of the costs of learning a language may not be as insurmountable as many assume. I show how my stay at a language school provided a forgiving and powerful environment for research preparation, acting as a variety of rehearsal space. Finally, exploring the value of untranslatable and in-between linguistic terms, I consider how they helped build an understanding of the social phenomena of my research. 2
University of Bristol Law Research Paper Series, 2018
Discussion of a world without work usually comes accompanied by either fear or fantasy of a worke... more Discussion of a world without work usually comes accompanied by either fear or fantasy of a workerless world. A hashtag search on twitter for #futureofwork yields many photos of robots, yet very little insight into how such a world will emerge and its relation to the one in which we currently carry out our working lives. In this paper we argue that behind projections of a workerless world, and behind fears of a lack of jobs, are the continuities of dynamics already in play, and that these are capitalist working relations. This working paper firstly offers a contextualisation of the ‘future of work’, shaping new understandings of what is meant by
the ‘worker’ in the contemporary context. Whilst acknowledging technical changes in the contemporary context of working relations, we argue that it is the continuities and contradictions in current labour market dynamics that more usefully identify the challenges for both conceptualising and regulating contemporary work. Highlighting the spatial challenges to contemporary workplace governance we look at three factors: the mobility of work, the mobility of things as trade, and the ‘new workers’ (hyperflexible workers employed through platforms and other new arrangements of work that are made possible by technological advances) to identify key continuities in the factors and actors of the so called ‘future’ of work. To contextualise these factors as they manifest in particular sectors, we consider the cases of care work and agricultural work, both areas which have been subject to great speculation over projected transformation. The paper then turns to the challenges of law and regulation and demonstrates how work is enmeshed in legal developments which go far beyond labour and employment law. In conclusion, we argue that there is need for a radical new conceptualisation of work, in both social and legal terms, yet this must be grounded in recognition of the continuities of capitalist relations of production and accumulation, rather than the fears and fantasies of a worker-free future.