Labour Market Restructuring Research Articles

Wage theft and the contours of accumulation

This article examines the theft of migrant workers’ wages in England by their employers, drawing from original accounts and testimonies of a sample of workers employed between 2018 and 2023. It builds on and establishes new conceptual understandings of wage theft by examining it as a violent form of accumulation, with a range of logics and functions including those which are connected to labour processes and the management of labour forces. In making this argument, the article situates the theft of migrant workers’ wages – in this context at least – at the apex of at least three convergent dynamics: namely, the contours of immigration control and attacks on migrants’ rights, a reworking and undermining of regulatory structures relating to labour protections, and ongoing forms of labour market restructuring. As such, it suggests that these dynamics are structural; and furthermore, at a point where each of these policy trajectories is being aggressively pursued, they are intensifying. In dominant narratives wage theft is frequently depicted as something carried out by ‘rogue’ employers, at the margins of labour markets. But in contrast, this article suggests it must be understood as a structurally-situated component of contemporary political economy. Indeed, it is a core contention of the analysis that follows that movements to resist and tackle wage theft must acknowledge these broader connections and the broader political economy of which they are a part.

Housing and welfare reform, and the suburbanization of poverty in UK cities 2011–20

The suburbanization of poverty has been noted in many advanced industrial nations including the UK. Theory focuses on economic and labour market restructuring combined with processes of market- and/or state-led housing change. This paper examines the contributions of housing and welfare reforms. In the UK, housing policy has driven low-income households increasingly to find accommodation in the private rental sector at the same time that welfare reforms have constrained the rents these households can afford. This paper traces the spatial consequence of these reforms, drawing on a novel combination of Government data and a database of private rental adverts. Up to 2011, the shift from social to private renting for low-income households was relatively neutral in its impacts on suburbanization. Since then, low-income households in private renting have been increasingly pushed to less central locations as rents in more central areas have risen faster. The role played by housing and welfare policy in the suburbanization of poverty needs wider consideration.

Precarious Work and the Gendered Individualisation of Risk in the South African Manufacturing Sector, 2002–2017

Against the backdrop of workplace restructuring globally, post-apartheid South Africa is experiencing consistently high levels of unemployment, the deterioration of employment security and limited improvements in earnings. This article investigates the changing nature of labour-intensive production in the South African labour market and the gendered individualisation of risk associated with precarious or non-standard forms of employment. The article expands on the critical theoretical narrative about the challenges of labour under neo-liberalism by applying a gendered political economy analysis to the experiences of precariousness among workers in the South African manufacturing sector. By focusing on the interconnections between gender and political economy, this article delinks questions about the crisis of labour from a narrow focus on skills and refocuses our understanding in terms of the structural determinants of vulnerabilities in the labour market. The article argues that the gender composition of informal and precarious work in the post-apartheid labour market has significant implications for addressing the persistent racialised and gendered inequalities in the South African economy. KEYWORDS: labour market restructuring; informal employment; precarious work; gender JEL CLASSIFICATION: J21; J30; J71; J80

Антикризове регулювання економічних процесів в умовах масової міграції

The issue of anti-crisis regulation of economic processes in the conditions of massive population migration is multifaceted and requires interdisciplinary approaches. Ukraine's economy suffered a devastating impact during the year of the war, with a decrease in real GDP and unprecedented growth in budget deficits and inflation, as well as disruptions in logistics and trade. At the same time, a war of this scale also has a significant impact on the economies of the EU and global countries. Experts argue that the war in Ukraine may impede or even delay the achievement of UN Sustainable Development Goals, not only for Ukraine but also for the EU and other countries, especially those that are developing and more vulnerable to economic threats. The consequences of this war have already affected both local and global dimensions. The government has identified four priority sectors that are expected to become the engine of economic recovery. However, insufficient transparency, high levels of corruption, and incomplete judicial, tax, and administrative reforms diminish investors' trust, restrain entrepreneurship, and nullify economic development strategies. The anti-crisis recovery of Ukraine's economy already leads to the conclusion of the need to form optimal regional development models, taking into account the actual state of their devastation and resource capabilities during both the current and post-war periods. The scale of migration of the Ukrainian population is catastrophic. Solving the problem of labor market restructuring serves as the basis for anti-crisis regulation of the economy. According to rough estimates, the total number of internally displaced persons and refugees abroad may reach 30–40% of the population of Ukraine. The objective uncertainty regarding the duration of the war and the threat of possible freezing of the conflict increases the risks of a significant outflow of human and intellectual capital. On the other hand, the chaotic distribution of internally displaced persons across regions of Ukraine and the ruin of many enterprises and businesses lead to a labor resource imbalance. The key aspects of anti-crisis regulation of economic processes in the conditions of massive forced population displacement, as outlined in this study, as well as the main bases for restructuring the labor market, can become directions for scientific research aimed at forming effective strategies. Key words: аnti-crisis regulation of the economy; population migration; internal displaced persons; forced migrants.

Albanian migrants’ career pathways and their responses to the challenges of the economic crisis in Italy

ABSTRACT This article explores the career pathways and work practices of Albanian labour migrants in Italy during the economic crisis. It shows how long-term migrants utilise resources accumulated from the early experiences of their (often) informal migratory pathway to address the crisis-induced structural and economic challenges. The questions we ask are: What career pathways have Albanian migrants followed while navigating the Italian labour market? What practices have they employed to respond to the challenges of the economic crisis? Through a biographical approach, we find that rather than victimising their own position, migrants have deployed different resources accumulated from the early stages of their migratory pathways, which they have combined to produce various practices of resilience, reworking and resistance against these new crisis-related challenges. Among them, return to informality and moral contract arrangements have become common practice. We argue that even though they considered informal contractual arrangements and other practices of resilience as provisional, the impact of these crisis-induced experiences is noticeable in the aftermath of the crisis as partially informal and, therefore, precarious arrangements have become established terms of employment for migrant workers. Our findings show that even permanent or naturalised migrants remain precarious and are not immune to the crisis-induced labour market restructuring.

Work and Demand Making: Productionist and Consumptionist Politics in Latin America

How does the world of work in Latin America affect the way workers act to defend their interests? To what extent have “productionist” demands, those concerning jobs, work conditions, and wages, which are highly salient across the region, been “displaced” by consumptionist or political demands? While the literature has distinguished formal and informal work grosso modo, we explore individual traits of work, which cross-cut the formal-informal distinction. Analyzing survey data from four Latin American capital cities, we find, not surprisingly, that both work-based atomization and insecurity depress demand making in the work arena. But these traits of work also affect demand making on the state, albeit in somewhat different ways. Insecurity is associated with a shift from productionist to consumptionist and political demands, while atomization is associated with a more generalized demobilization across issues. These findings have implications for the representation of worker interests in light of current labor market restructuring and raise the question if labor can reclaim an important voice in that restructuring process.

Trends in absolute and relative educational inequalities in health during times of labour market restructuring in coastal areas: The HUNT Study, Norway

BackgroundRestructuring labour markets offers natural population-level experiments of great social epidemiological interest. Many coastal areas have endured substantial restructuring of their local labour markets following declines in small-scale fishing and transitions to new employment opportunities. It is unknown how educational inequalities in health have developed in formerly fishery-dependent communities during such restructuring. In this study, we compare trends in social inequalities in health in Norwegian coastal areas with adjacent geographical areas between 1984 and 2019. MethodsWe used cross-sectional population-based data from the Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT), collected four times: HUNT1 (1984–86), HUNT2 (1995–97), HUNT3 (2006–08) and HUNT4 (2017–19). Adults above 30 years of age were included. Using Poisson regression, we calculated absolute and relative educational inequalities in self-rated health, using slope (SII) and relative (RII) indices of inequality. ResultsTrends in absolute and relative inequalities in rural coastal health were generally more favourable than in adjacent geographical areas. We found a statistically significant trend of declining relative educational inequalities in self-rated health in the rural coastal population from HUNT1 to HUNT4. Absolute inequalities overall increased from HUNT1 to HUNT4, although a declining trend followed HUNT2. Nonetheless, the rural coastal population exhibited the highest prevalence of poor self-rated health across the four decades. ConclusionsAlthough absolute educational inequalities in self-rated health widened in all geographical areas, the smallest increase was in rural coastal areas. Relative educational inequalities narrowed in this rural coastal population. Considering the concurrent processes of large-scale investments in the Norwegian public sector and welfare schemes, increased fishing fleet safety, and employment opportunities in aquaculture, our findings do not suggest that potential positive effects on public health of this restructuring have benefitted inhabitants with higher educational attainment more than inhabitants with lower educational attainment in this rural coastal population.

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Labor Market in India: Focusing on the Expansion of the Labor Gap and Digitization

인도는 2021ë „ 03월 COVID-19 ëˆ„ì  확진자 수가 1,173만 ëª ì„ ë„˜ì–´ì„°ê³ , 미국 다음으로 대규모 확진자가 발생하여 ì „êµ­ì ìœ¼ë¡œ 막대한 피해를 보았다. 특히 ë¹„ê³µì‹ë ¸ë™ì— ì¢ ì‚¬í•˜ëŠ” 인도 내 이주 ë ¸ë™ìžë“¤ì€ 팬더믹과 봉쇄조치의 ì§ì ‘ 타격을 받아 역이주와 생존의 위협을 ê²ªê³ ìžˆë‹¤. 2021ë „ê¹Œì§€ COVID-19가 ì§€ì†ë ê²½ìš° 관광 및 ì ‘ê° ì‚°ì— ì—ì„œ 2천만개 이상의 일자리가 사라질 것으로 ì˜ˆìƒë˜ê³ ìžˆìœ¼ë©°, 이미 ë ¸ë™ìž 부재로 인한 생산면에서의 타격도 í˜„ì‹¤í™”ë˜ê³ ìžˆë‹¤. 더 큰 ë¬¸ì œëŠ” 이러한 일자리 감소와 ë ¸ë™ì‹œìž¥ì˜ 양극화가 COVID-19 ì´ì „ë¶€í„° 꾸준히 진행되어 오던 êµ¬ì¡°ì ì¸ ë¬¸ì œì—ì„œ 출발하였으며, 코로나 ëŒ€ìœ í–‰ì€ êµ¬ì¡°ì  ë¬¸ì œì˜ í­ë°œì  발현의 ì´‰ë§¤ì œê°€ 되었을 뿐이라는 ì ì´ë‹¤. 이에 따라 인도 ì‚°ì— ê³¼ ë ¸ë™ì‹œìž¥ì˜ êµ¬ì¡°ì ì¸ ë¬¸ì œê°€ 무엇인지 짚어 본다. 인도 ì •ë¶€ì˜ ì œì¡°ì— ìœ¡ì„±ì± (Make in India)은 ë¬¼ë¡ ì´ê³ , 2020ë „ 코로나 사태의 한 가운데서 ì œê¸°ëœ 자립 인도(Atmanirbhar Bharat) ì •ì± ë„ 이러한 ë¬¸ì œì˜ 해결에 대한 ê³ ë¯¼ì—ì„œ 시작된 것이다. 본 연구는 디지털화와 4ì°¨ì‚°ì— í˜ëª ì„ ë§žì´í•˜ê³ ìžˆëŠ” 현실을 또 다른 위기 증폭의 ì´‰ë§¤ì œê°€ 아니라, ë¬¸ì œ 해결의 단서가 ë ìˆ˜ 있는 ë ¸ë™ì‹œìž¥ 재구성의 방향성을 살펴본다. India has recently experienced an acute crisis confronting the COVID-19 pandemic as confirmed cases exceeded 11.73 million in March 2021, which was the second worst scale only after the United States. The strict lockdown measures as well as the pandemic itself posed a serious threat of survival, in particular, to immigrant workers engaged in informal sectors, which triggered their reverse immigration. In case the COVID-19 pandemic continues in 2021, it is estimated that in the sector of tourism and service alone, more than 20 million jobs will disappear. The damage on industry is already being realized with the significant decrease of workforce. It is important to note, however, that jobless growth and labor polarization were observed even before the outbreak of COVID-19, and that the pandemic only served as one of the trigger catalysts that made those submerged problems burst out. In this study, we examine the structural problems in industry and labor market in India and consider the social context and efficacy of the “Make in India” or “Atmanirbhar Bhrat” policy. The latter initiative was presented in the trenches of the pandemic in 2020. While considering the complexity of problems, we would like to pursue a future-oriented approach and propose a direction in restructuring the labor market, attempted at reversing the critical conditions following the fourth industrial revolution and digitization into the shortcut to labor market restructuring. Keywords: COVID-19, India, Labor Market, Labor Gap, Digitization, Caste System

Labour Market Restructuring and the Nature of Employment Relations in Nigeria

The Nigerian labour market has experienced remarkable structural changes in the last two decades following the dictates of globalisation. These changes manifested in the sectoral composition of employment, growth in the service and informal sectors, increased youth unemployment, increased self-employment, and growth in female labour participation. These developments equally affected employment arrangement by shifting attention from the traditional employment arrangement characterised by full-time permanent employment to a more flexible employment arrangement and non-standard jobs. This paper examined the emerging structural changes in the labour market and their consequences for employment relations in Nigeria. The paper adopted desk review methodology which involved analysis of secondary data from relevant research institutions, government agencies and corporate organisations. Evidence from the secondary data revealed that Nigeria has witnessed increased youth unemployment and underemployment, the decline in full-time permanent jobs, rise in casual/contract and part-time work, rise in female labour participation, rise in outsourcing and increase in labour shedding in the last two decades. The observed implications of these developments for employment relations include a decline in union density and bargaining power; a gradual increase in non-union representation; a shift in skill requirement; emphasis on employee loyalty and commitment; emphasis on work-life balance and flexible working hours. The paper, therefore, concludes that structural changes in the Nigerian labour market have affected traditional institutionalised employment relations, which are gradually being replaced by flexible and individualised employment relations.

The crisis of waged work and the option of a universal basic income grant for South Africa

ABSTRACTWaged work is widely seen as a sufficient basis for meeting basic needs, achieving social inclusion and realizing essential social rights. Yet waged work that provides a livable income on reasonably secure terms is rare in ‘developing’ economies and increasingly scarce in ‘developed’ economies. This trend is likely to persist and worsen as the disruptive impacts of economic volatility and climate change intensify and labour market restructuring continues. Aggravating the impact is the diminishing access to livelihood options outside the wage economy. South Africa is an extreme example of this trend, with a very large proportion of the working age population superfluous to the formal economy, high levels of poverty and severe inequality. This paper describes this crisis at the global level and then specifically in South Africa, before considering the option of a universal basic income grant (UBIG). It examines the critiques and the potential merits and risks of such an intervention. To realize its transformative potential, a UBIG would have to be deployed as part of a broad transformation strategy that is led by an active state and driven by a mobilized civil society.

A different perspective on post-industrial labor market restructuring in Detroit and Pittsburgh

ABSTRACT The Midwestern cities of Pittsburgh and Detroit are often held up as quintessential examples of post-industrial urban trajectories—one positive (Pittsburgh) and one negative (Detroit). In this paper, we investigate the structural economic shifts reshaping work opportunities in these two urban regions in the aftermath of the 2008 Great Recession, using a shift share analysis of changes in occupational distributions from 2009 to 2016. Through this analysis, we identify comparable patterns in both cities, including the growth of creative workers across industries, and declining demand for service workers balanced only by growth in service-reliant industries. These findings add nuance to the prevailing narratives associated with Detroit and Pittsburgh, and demonstrate how structural forces intersect with understandings of “work” in these cities.

Unemployed: White-Collar Job Searching After the Great Recession

A burgeoning literature on white-collar unemployment and job searching has sought over the past two decades to explain why white-collar workers embrace neoliberal labor market restructuring, and wh...

Identifying opportunities to prevent work-related fatal injury in New Zealand using 40\u2009years of coronial records: protocol for a retrospective case review study

BackgroundImproving New Zealand’s poor workplace safety record has become a high priority following high profile workplace fatal incidents in 2010 and 2014. Existing routine official data are unable to reliably inform occupational safety policy and action in New Zealand. This case review study will examine work-related fatal injury (WRFI) to: i) determine their burden, rates and distribution; ii) identify high-risk groups, causes and circumstances; iii) analyse secular trends, and iv) examine the impact of historic occupational safety legislative reform.Design and methodsA comprehensive New Zealand WRFI dataset from 1975 to 2014 will be established using existing data for 1975–1994 combined with new data for 1995–2014 extracted from reviewed coronial case files. Data collection involves: 1) identifying likely cases of WRFI from national mortality records using selected injury external cause codes; 2) linking these to coronial case files, which will be retrieved and reviewed to determine work-relatedness; and 3) coding work-related cases. Annual WRFI frequencies and rates will be calculated and disaggregated by age, sex, employment status, occupation and industry to identify high-risk groups and compared across the time series. The circumstances of the WRFIs will be analysed in-depth. The impact of New Zealand’s Health and Safety in Employment 1992 Act, which resulted in deregulation of the previous legislative frameworks for occupational health and safety during a period of rapid labour market restructuring, will be examined by comparing rates before and after implementation of the Act.DiscussionThe resulting evidence will serve as the basis for policy development and practical interventions to reduce WRFI, targeting groups of high-risk workers, and for bench-marking of workplace safety performance in New Zealand.

The welfare consequences of the suburbanisation of poverty in UK cities: air pollution and school quality

AbstractThe suburbanisation of poverty has been noted in the cities of a large number of countries, including the UK. The main drivers are labour market restructuring on the one hand, and market-driven change in the housing system on the other although social and housing policies are also factors. This paper explores the possible consequences for the welfare of low-income groups in relation to two dimensions: exposure to air pollution and access to good quality schools. Results show that, for these groups, suburbanisation has had mixed impacts on welfare. In most cities, suburbanisation is likely to bring improvements in air quality but there are only a minority where it improves access to good quality schools. Overall, it is clear that suburbanising low income households enjoy fewer of the benefits of suburban locations than middle class households.

The Trades Union Congress 150 years on

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to reflect on how the UK’s Trade Union Congress, in the 150th year of its formation, has been responding to the significant changes in the labour market, working practices and union decline. The paper considers Trades Union Congress (TUC) initiatives to recruit and organise new groups of workers as it struggles to adapt to the new world of work many workers are experiencing. Although the paper reviews progress in this regard it also considers current and future challenges all of which are becoming increasingly urgent as the current cohort of union membership is aging and presents a demographic time bomb unless new strategies and tactics are adopted to bring in new groups of workers – particularly younger workers.Design/methodology/approachThis is a review paper so it mainly draws on writings (both academic and practitioner) on trade union strategy and tactics in relations to organising approaches and in particularly the TUC’s initiatives from the period of “New Unionism” onwards.FindingsThe authors note that while unions have managed to retain a presence in workplaces and industries where they membership and recognition, there has, despite a “turn to organising” been less success than was perhaps hoped for when new organising initiatives were introduced in 1998. In order to expand the bases of organisation into new workplaces and in new constituencies there needs to be a move away from the “institutional sclerosis” that has prevented unions adapting to the changing nature of employment and the labour market restructuring. The paper concludes that in order to effect transformative change requires leaders to develop strategic capacity and innovation among staff and the wider union membership. This may require unions to rethink the way that they operate and be open to doing thing radically different.Originality/valueThe paper’s value is that it provides a comprehensive overview of the TUC’s role in attempting to inject an organising culture with the UK union movement by drawing out some of the key debates on this topic from both scholarly and practitioner writings over the last few decades.

Precarity in Angolan diamond mining towns, 1920–2014: tracing agency of the state, mining companies and urban households

AbstractAfter nearly 30 years of civil war, Angola gained peace in 2002. The country's diamond and oil wealth affords the national government the means to pursue economic reconstruction and urban development. However, in the diamond-producing region of Lunda Sul, where intense fighting between MPLA and UNITA forces was waged, the legacy of war lingers on in the form of livelihood uncertainty and uneven access to the benefits of the state's urban development programmes. There are three main interactive agents of urban change: the Angolan state, the mining corporations, and not least urban residents. The period has been one of shifting alignments of responsibility for urban housing, livelihoods and welfare provisioning. Beyond the pressures of post-war adjustment, the wider context of global capital investment and labour market restructuring has introduced a new surge of corporate mining investment and differentiated patterns of prosperity and precarity in Lunda Sul.

Demographic and labor market transformations in rural areas of Chile

Based on the information provided by the Encuesta de Caracterización Socioeconómica Nacional (CASEN) (National Socioeconomic Characterization Survey) of 1990 and 2013, the reconfigurations of the Chilean countryside are analyzed in terms of their demographic trends and labor market restructuring. An ongoing process of depopulation and aging of the rural population is found. Agricultural activities of the rural labor market become less relevant both in terms of jobs and income, showing a strong process of deagrarianisation, salaried workers and feminization of the labor market.

Cómo ir y regresar del infierno: la desestructuración de los mercados y la mexicanización de las relaciones de trabajo de las Tres de Detroit o El fin de una era

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Beck noted the imminent appearance of precarious labor relations in the central countries and, using Brazil as a model, called this trend the labor Brazilianization of the West. This article identifies labor market restructuring in the United States’ Big Three auto manufacturers as a factor in their current productive and financial resurgence. Together, they have managed to de-structure the historic rules in the sector’s labor relations in processes that look like the Mexicanization of labor relations.

What drives Senegalese migration to Europe? The role of economic restructuring, labor demand, and the multiplier effect of networks

1. IntroductionAlthough the literature on migration determinants in sub-Saharan Africa is extensive, most focuses on internal migration (Lucas 2006). Compared to the theoretical and empirical literature of international migration elsewhere, relatively little is known about international African migration, especially that outside the continent (Adepoju 2004; Lucas 2006; Grillo and Mazzucato 2008; Hatton and Williamson 2003). Most existing studies have adopted a qualitative approach, and the few quantitative studies are based either on aggregate data or cross-sectional micro-data (e.g., Hatton and Williamson 2003; Schoorl et al. 2000; van Dalen, Groenewold, and Schoorl 2005). As a result, there is a dearth of knowledge and quantitative empirical evidence about what drives migration from Sub-Saharan Africa, and whether this is similar to migration from other geographical regions.Acknowledging the need for appropriate data to remedy this state of affairs, the Migrations between Africa and Europe (MAFE) project collected rich retrospective biographical data in several locations in Africa and Europe (Beauchemin 2012)3. Here we use MAFE data to examine the drivers of Senegalese migration to Europe between 1976 and 2008. This migration system is an example of migration from Sub-Saharan Africa to developed societies. Although comparatively modest in absolute numbers, this migration stream has developed quickly since the 1980s.In this study we pay particular attention to the links between the micro-level factors that influence migration decisions and political, social, and economic processes in both Senegal and Europe. Very few empirical studies have examined how migration relates to historical social and economic transformations (Sassen 1988; Portes 1997; Castles and Miller 2009). Our perspective highlights the importance of institutions in regulating migration behavior and shaping migration dynamics4. Particularly useful for our purposes are several insights from institutional approaches in economics and development research that analyze how social institutions regulate migration behavior (Stark 1991; de Haan 1999; Ellis 2000). The specific characteristics of the origin and destination labor markets are central to understanding migration (Piore 1979; Portes and Bach 1985; Reyneri 2003; Villarreal and Blanchard 2013). Social groups and relationships, including migration networks and families, greatly influence migration (Massey 1990; Stark 1991). Although different, the perspectives above share several conceptual parallels. They place individual behavior in a wider societal context, analyzing how social institutions function and their role in migration. By highlighting the role of families and social networks they take into account (household) decision-making. We argue that integrating these perspectives can enhance the understanding of migration processes through a more complete consideration of how origin and destination factors interact.Our analyses focus on the following hypotheses.1) Economic Insecurity Hypothesis. The long period of economic recession experienced in Senegal and the associated reshaping of social and economic relationships involved a general deterioration of living conditions and heightened economic insecurity, which created the conditions for increasing out-migration propensities.2) Labor Demand Hypothesis. Labor market restructuring in Europe provided job opportunities in particular niches and locations.3) Social Capital Hypothesis. For Senegalese migrants, social networks link the above processes by channeling job access in Europe.4) Interaction between Labor Demand and Social Capital Hypothesis. The conjunction of periods of strong labor demand and the availability of personal networks in Europe creates a boosting effect on the migration probabilities of the Senegalese to Europe.These hypotheses specify under what conditions particular mechanisms, proposed in previous literature, are activated, leading to the development of the migration system between Senegal and Europe. …

Turn up the heat! Contesting energy poverty in Buffalo, NY

Energy poverty – or the condition of households that cannot adequately heat their homes – is produced at the confluence of multi-scalar processes, from regional labor market restructuring, to urban disinvestment, to geopolitical and geoeconomic struggles over extraction. Critical theorization of the concept is in its nascent phase and the notion itself has received relatively little attention in the United States. Our paper aims to address these lacunae by mobilizing an urban political ecology framework to consider a community-based campaign that targeted residential energy conservation funds in Buffalo, New York. We analyze how the community campaign drew upon the “network crisis” of the energy-poor home to frame critical justice demands that foregrounded energy poverty as the product of uneven socionatural development. Through spatial claims and scalar strategies, the campaign highlighted the contribution of neoliberal conservation programs to deepening patterns of uneven development, and demanded redress of disinvestment in urban housing stock through funding of weatherization for low-income households. We argue that contests over urban energy metabolism offer a fruitful area to explore the possibilities of transforming uneven development from below.