British activists, homeworker rights, and transnational organising, 1994-2004

This thesis explores the history of British-based activism around homework, also known as outwork or home-based work, from 1994 to 2004. It examines how the movement changed during this period, shifting from its local and national focus to become more internationally oriented. It argues that these changes were the result of a mixture of internal and external forces, from the ambition of individual activists to the globalisation of supply chains, growing international cooperation, and the collapse of domestic funding streams. It explores the professionalisation of activist organisations, the power relationships between partners in the Global North and South, the intersections with race and gender, and how the movement engaged with formal politics, including the New Labour government in Britain and international institutions such as the International Labour Organization (ILO). This story of change is explored through a series of five case studies: the campaign for the 1996 ILO Convention on Home Work; the formalisation of international activism in HomeNet International, a network of home-based worker organisations across the Global North and South; the campaign for the inclusion of homeworkers in the 1998 British National Minimum Wage legislation; the British government-funded international mapping and organising programme undertaken by the Leeds-based group Homeworkers Worldwide in the early 2000s; and, finally, the growth of white-collar homework, known as ‘telework.’ Rooted in extensive archival research and supplemented by new oral histories, the thesis represents a major contribution to the history of home-based labour and activism, as well as deepening our understanding of how small NGOs operated in Britain and in the Global South during a period often associated with the growth of international civil society and neoliberalism. As a collaborative doctoral project conducted in partnership with Homeworkers Worldwide, the thesis emphasises and evaluates activist strategies to advance change: through legislation, lobbying, organising, working to improve accountability in global supply chains, and by operating in spaces that straddled the local, national, and international.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Dryzek, Rose

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• McCarthy, Helen
• Brill, Lucy

• Activism
• Labour organising
• Labour rights
• Lobbying
• NGO
• Women's activism

Licence

• https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/a4662a00-4ebb-435e-b22e-f070bc5e3fd8/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.122676

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/391605