Labour’s Spatial Fix: State Socialist Hungary in the 1970s

Abstract

Labour's spatial fix has become a key term in labour geography scholarship in recent decades. The concept has been widely used to understand labour's agency in its own social reproduction in different historical and geographical capitalist social formations. Departing from the position that state socialism was part of global capitalism, this paper applies the concept of labour's spatial fix to the context of state socialist Hungary. The analysis differentiates between three dimensions of labour's spatial fix in social reproduction: wage work (with particular attention given to female employment), income from the "second economy" and housing. The interrelatedness of these dimensions of labour's spatial fix, as well as their different geographies, are shown in an analysis covering Hungary of the 1970s. It is argued that there is a need for more extensive research on how conditions for social reproduction are established in the concept of labour's spatial fix. Absztrakt: A munka t erbeli kiigaz ıt asa a nemzetk€ ozi munkaf€ oldrajzi irodalom egyik kulcsfogalm av a v alt az elm ult evtizedekben. A fogalmat sz eles k€ orben alkalmazt ak arra, hogy a munk ass ag t arsadalmi ujratermel esben bet€ olt€ ott szerep et a kapitalizmus k€ ul€ onb€ oz} o t€ ort eneti es f€ oldrajzi kontextusaiban elemezz ek. A tanulm any a munka t erbeli kiigaz ıt as anak fogalm at az allamszocialista Magyarorsz agra alkalmazza, amelyet a kapitalista vil agrendszer r eszek ent ertelmez. Az elemz es a munka t erbeli kiigaz ıt as anak h arom t ıpus at k€ ul€ on ıti el: a b ermunk at (ezen bel€ ul vizsg alja a n} ok foglalkoztat as at), a m asodik gazdas agot, valamint a lak as ep ıt eseket, mely dimenzi ok f€ oldrajzi egy€ uttmozg asait az 1970-es evekb} ol sz armaz o statisztikai adatok alapj an mutat meg. A tanulm any a t arsadalmi ujratermel es r eszletesebb megjelen ıt ese mellett ervel a munka t erbeli kiigaz ıt as anak fogalmi haszn alata sor an.

The multiple geographies of constrained labour agency

“…Importantly, such work needs to push beyond union-organised strike action to chart labour conflicts led directly by workers and other kinds of organisations (Nowak, 2021b), as seen, for example, in migrant worker protests. By mapping the many ways in which worker actions elaborate on (or reproduce) the structures of capitalism, gender relations and various other systems of oppression, these geographies of action might also allow labour geographers to reconnect with another of Herod’s foundational concepts, namely, labour’s spatial fix (1997), which did more than hint towards a theory of structural elaboration (for attempts to elaborate on this notion, see Ağar and Böhm, 2018 and Czirfusz, 2021).…”

The Roles and Intersections of Constrained Labour Agency

“…As labour geography has grown into a potent sub-field over the course of two decades, the conceptual underpinnings of its research agenda have attracted commentary. Many interventions attempt to apply and nuance the core concepts of labour geography, including, but not limited to, ongoing discussions around the structural constraints of labour agency (Coe andJordhus-Lier 2011, 2023;Hastings 2016), debates around the concept of landscape (Cassidy et al 2020;Mitchell 2013), similar conversations concerning spatial scale and scalar politics (Savage 2006;Silvey 2004), and efforts to refine the notion of "labour's spatial fix" (Czirfusz 2021;Doucette 2010). Other commentaries are presented as reflexive criticism of labour geography as an academic project: Tufts and Savage (2009) called for a clearer political project to emerge among labour geographers, Castree (2007) clamoured for improved analytical clarity and connectiveness, Das (2012) criticised labour geography's lack of a proper class analysis, while Peck (2018) saw opportunities for exploring the "combinational potential" of different strands in the field.…”