New Publication by Megan Rivers-Moore on Feminist Labour Organizing and Collective Power
The Feminist Institute of Social Transformation (FIST) is pleased to share a new publication by Megan Rivers-Moore, co-authored with Kate Hardy.
In Organising Beyond the Employment Relationship: Scaling Up and Institutional Power in Own-Account Unions, Rivers-Moore and Hardy explore how sex workers in Latin America are building collective power outside traditional employment structures. Drawing on research in Guatemala and Colombia, the article challenges longstanding assumptions about who can unionize and how labour organizing takes shape.
The authors demonstrate that, despite significant structural barriers, sex workers have successfully formed formal unions and leveraged “institutional power” to advocate for labour rights, recognition, and improved working conditions. This work offers important insights into labour organizing among informal and marginalized workers, and contributes to broader conversations on feminist political economy and global labour movements.
Megan Rivers-Moore is the Director and Associate Professor at the Feminist Institute of Social Transformation at Carleton University. Her research focuses on how gender and sexuality operate transnationally, including projects on sex tourism in Costa Rica, sex worker organizing across Latin America, and clandestine abortion. Working at the intersections of sociology, gender studies, and Latin American and Caribbean studies, her scholarship examines labour, migration, and feminist political economy, with a strong commitment to community-engaged and activist research.
This publication reflects the continued impact of her research in advancing critical conversations on labour, gender, and collective organizing. Read the full article here!