Labour Disrupted exposes the precariousness of union organisation and how labour movements have had to respond to the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. It addresses issues related to the fourth industrial revolution on the working class, and the challenges of skills development and inclusiveness.

Labour Disrupted reflects on the past and the future of labour, primarily in South Africa but also globally. It focuses on how South Africa’s lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic further exposed key contradictions and challenges that labour movements face.

The contributions include a diverse range of topics currently engaged with by those actively engaged in the field of labour movement. Essays by academics and activists tackle thorny issues: from redefining democracy in South Africa, to experiences of inclusiveness (or lack thereof) in workplace environments by women, young people, migrant workers, LGBTI people and people living with disabilities. The volume addresses contemporary issues related to the use of technology and the impact of the fourth industrial revolution on the youth and the working class, and the challenges of skills development and restructuring in the workplace.

Labour Disrupted shows new forms of organising and alliances that labour movements are involved in to address issues of social justice in education, health and community solidarity.

Labour Beyond Cosatu is the fourth volume in the series Taking Democracy Seriously - a ground-breaking, textured and nuanced study on workers and democracy - which was established in the 1990s. The series looks at members of trade unions affiliated to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and provides a rich database of trade union members and research conducted over the past twenty years. It is one of the very few such resources available to researchers anywhere in the world. Labour Beyond Cosatu paints a complex picture. The 12 chapters of the volume explore various rebellions and conflicts in the trade union sector, starting with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and rivalries between Cosatu affiliates. Unpacking the conflicts between state-sector and private-sector workers, contributors look at the impact of generational and educational shifts, seen by some commentators as proof that Cosatu is now 'middle class'. The book also raises the issue of gender in the unions by usefully locating the controversy around charges levelled at Zwelinzima Vavi in 2013 in the larger context of serious problems in the gender politics within parts of Cosatu. Refuting the image of a union federation solidly committed to the ANC, Labour Beyond Cosatu presents evidence of a sharp decline in support for the ANC within Cosatu, and growing scepticism towards the Alliance. It shows that attempts to understand the labour movement in South Africa in the future will need to include research of smaller, independent unions and social movements. The volume's contributors make a major contribution to key debates on labour and democracy, providing new material that can potentially shift the discussion in important ways. This book will be of great value to students and researchers in Industrial Sociology, Political Studies, Industrial Psychology and Economics and Management.

Illegalized immigration is a highly iconic topic. The public perception of the current regime for mobility is profoundly shaped by visual and verbal images. As the issue of illegalized immigration is gaining increasing political momentum, the authors feel it is a well-warranted undertaking to analyze the role of images in the creation of illegalization. Their aim is to trace the visual processes that produce these very categories. The authors aim to map out an iconography of illegalized immigration in relation to political, ethical, and aesthetic discourses. They discuss the need to project new images as well as the dangers of giving persons without legal papers an individual face. Illegalization is produced by law, but naturalized through the everyday use of images. The production of law, on the other hand, is also driven by both mental and materialized images. A critical iconology may help us to see these mechanisms.