The Working Class Goes to the Movies: Labour Law and Thatcherism in British Films
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Marco Peruzzi
Marco Peruzzi is Researcher in labour law at the University of Verona. His fields of research include European social dialogue, Health and Safety at Work, anti-discrimination law, equality rights, undeclared work. Among his most recent publications, the monograph «L’autonomia nel dialogo sociale europeo» (Bologna: il Mulino, 2011), essays on the Gender Pay Gap, undeclared work, the European and transnational collective bargaining, the protection against psychosocial risks, the protection of the health and safety of the worker abroad, the interpretation of the EU anti-discrimination directives concerning risks other than gender, paternity rights. He is currently participating in the project LEGAL_frame_WORK (PRIN Call 2010–2011) and in the international project «Close the Deal, Fill the Gap», granted by the European Commission.
Abstract
The essay focusses on the employment relationship as a privileged perspective for the analysis of the binomial “power of voices/voices of power.” In such context, the right to strike is presented as a meaningful example of the power stemming from a collective organisation of voices, the voices of the workers, granted as a means to counter-balance the power and the voice of the employer. The analysis highlights the enduring relevance of the British perspective towards the topic, from the liberalist policies fostered by Prime Minister Thatcher in the Eighties until the critical approach recently adopted by the British Government with regard to the protection of the right to strike at international level. British filmography is chosen as a lens for observing such perspective, in particular to the extent it describes the impact of Thatcherism on the British model of industrial relations as well as the economic and social consequences of such political measures in the Nineties. After a general overview, aimed at highlighting common features across the films, like the pivotal role of music and dance in the storyline, the analysis focusses on Billy Elliot, examining the ambiguous relationship between the collective and individual dimension in its narration.
About the author
Marco Peruzzi is Researcher in labour law at the University of Verona. His fields of research include European social dialogue, Health and Safety at Work, anti-discrimination law, equality rights, undeclared work. Among his most recent publications, the monograph «L’autonomia nel dialogo sociale europeo» (Bologna: il Mulino, 2011), essays on the Gender Pay Gap, undeclared work, the European and transnational collective bargaining, the protection against psychosocial risks, the protection of the health and safety of the worker abroad, the interpretation of the EU anti-discrimination directives concerning risks other than gender, paternity rights. He is currently participating in the project LEGAL_frame_WORK (PRIN Call 2010–2011) and in the international project «Close the Deal, Fill the Gap», granted by the European Commission.
©2015 by De Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Focus
- Focus: Voices of Power/Power of Voices
- Voices of Spectators and Audience Power
- “There Were No Longer Any Laws”: Voices of Authority, Complicity, and Resistance in Totalitarian Dystopias and Holocaust Imaginings
- Caesar’s Body in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: Sacralization and De-sacralization of Power
- Legal Oracularism and Theological Prophetism. Fleshly Silences Across Memories and Traditions
- “What Is Royalty Without a Voice?” The Performance of Power in The King’s Speech
- Is There Voice Without Law? On The Road
- Voice, Incarnation and the United States Supreme Court
- Disputes and the Differend: Literary Strategies to Say the Unspeakable
- The Working Class Goes to the Movies: Labour Law and Thatcherism in British Films
- War in Words: The Tricycle Theatre’s Re-voicing of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry
- Research
- Legal Systemology and the Geopolitics of Roman Law: A Response to Stuart Elden’s Critique of Carl Schmitt’s Spatial Ontology
- Speech and Graphomena: The Power of Apuleius’ Words in Court and in Translation
- Book Review
- Mireille Hildebrandt and Jeanne Gaakeer: Human Law and Computer Law: Comparative Perspectives
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Focus
- Focus: Voices of Power/Power of Voices
- Voices of Spectators and Audience Power
- “There Were No Longer Any Laws”: Voices of Authority, Complicity, and Resistance in Totalitarian Dystopias and Holocaust Imaginings
- Caesar’s Body in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: Sacralization and De-sacralization of Power
- Legal Oracularism and Theological Prophetism. Fleshly Silences Across Memories and Traditions
- “What Is Royalty Without a Voice?” The Performance of Power in The King’s Speech
- Is There Voice Without Law? On The Road
- Voice, Incarnation and the United States Supreme Court
- Disputes and the Differend: Literary Strategies to Say the Unspeakable
- The Working Class Goes to the Movies: Labour Law and Thatcherism in British Films
- War in Words: The Tricycle Theatre’s Re-voicing of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry
- Research
- Legal Systemology and the Geopolitics of Roman Law: A Response to Stuart Elden’s Critique of Carl Schmitt’s Spatial Ontology
- Speech and Graphomena: The Power of Apuleius’ Words in Court and in Translation
- Book Review
- Mireille Hildebrandt and Jeanne Gaakeer: Human Law and Computer Law: Comparative Perspectives
