Rethinking Labour Exploitation through Constraints and Agency: a Power Resource perspective

Journal title MONDI MIGRANTI
Author/s Nicola Quondamatteo
Publishing Year 2026 Issue 2026/2
Language English Pages 18 P. 23-40 File size 182 KB
DOI 10.3280/MM2026-002002
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The article revisits scholarly debate on forms of labour exploitation by integrating the existing literature with the Power Resource Approach. Moving beyond largely descriptive continuum-based accounts of free/unfree labour, it conceptualises different forms of exploitation as a dynamic configuration of constraints that limit workers’ access to and mobilisation of power resources. Combining this framework with the notion of constrained agency, the paper shows how workers exposed to various forms of exploitation can nonetheless enact forms of agency that contest and reshape the intensity and boundaries of exploitation. The analysis draws on a systematic literature review and on qualitative research conducted across multiple sectors, including shipbuilding, food delivery and hospitality.

Keywords: labour exploitation; power resource approach; constrained agency.

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Nicola Quondamatteo, Rethinking Labour Exploitation through Constraints and Agency: a Power Resource perspective in "MONDI MIGRANTI" 2/2026, pp 23-40, DOI: 10.3280/MM2026-002002