Social dumping and the politics of scale in civil aviation

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the scalar nature of social dumping in civil aviation. Through the use of documents and interviews, this thesis investigates the labor strategies of Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA. This thesis has two goals. The first is to create a deeper understanding of the concept of social dumping, a concept which lacks a common definition or understanding in the literature. This thesis provides an overview of the concept, and also provides a scalar framework of social dumping to help better understand the phenomenon that the term is trying to describe. By understanding the scalar relationship between civil aviation’s labor market, the state and organized labor, the potential for social dumping within an industry can be better understood. The second purpose of this thesis is to conduct a scalar analysis of social dumping in civil aviation. The thesis argues that when conducted, social dumping has an up-scaling effect on the scale of the civil aviation industry and its labor market, and a down-scaling effect on the state and organized labor. In addition, this thesis also provides further evidence for the argument that controlling the scale of labor negotiations is an effective tool for all actors involved in any labor relationships, further demonstrating the affect that scale can have on the practice of social dumping.