Regulating mobile work

Ships move between and beyond different jurisdictions. This, however, does not mean the ships and work onboard is beyond regulation. On the contrary, seafaring vessels are highly regulated working environments. In this conversation, Luisa Piart and Biao Xiang highlight the legal complexity of the shipping industry. They discuss the main actors who adopt and enforce strict regulations on board, the bureaucratic principles that govern the shipping industry, and their impacts on seafarers’ work.

Luisa Piart is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. Conversation recorded on 27 July 2021