Abstract：In the studies of economic geography, labor is always regarded as an economic factor, which is as important as natural resources, capital, and technologies etc. All the economic geographers stress on the costs of labor, but not all can recognize the role that labor plays in the production of economic landscape. Its role as one of the most important social actors is ignored. Recently, the situations have changed much because labor geography has made great progress. The main study contents of labor geography are labor organizations, labor market, employment etc. In these studies, the social role that labor plays is emphasized. There are three topics which are worthy to be paid more attentions. First, labor movements (especially international labor solidarity movements)are facing new challenges in the process of globalization. Capital mobility and spatial competition have led the labor organizations to great dilemmas. The conflict between space interests and class interests is very difficult to coordinate. But the labor's international and local activities can still affect economic activities, especially FDI. On the other hand, national and local labor control regimes are becoming more and more complex. The labor control regimes in the locations of industrialization are also rich. Second, the studies of labor market segmentation have advanced considerably in recent years. Segmentation theory and cultural geography have good contributions to the labor market segmentation. The emphasis is labor demand early, but now it has transformed to labor supply such as social nature of labor, cultural representation of place (neighborhood)etc. The spatial segmentation of informal labor markets is also a substantial study object. Third, many economic geographers are interested in the complexity and diversity of rural labor relations and work organizations in different countries and areas, in which economic development, social institutions and culture backgrounds are different.
王兵, 覃成林. 劳工地理研究新进展评述[J]. 人文地理, 2003, 18(6): 1-4.
WANG Bing, QIN Cheng-lin. A REVIEW OF THE NEW PROGRESS OF LABOR GEOGRAPHY. HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, 2003, 18(6): 1-4.
