Alessandra Mezzadri

Global supply-chain capitalism increasingly relies on unfree labor and precarious work. While labor-intensive sectors, such as the clothing, electronics, and agro-food industries, have long been associated with varied forms of coerced labor, the rise of the multipolar planetary economy is deepening these trends. Central to this process is laboring debt, a condition in which workers are structurally indebted to employers in ways that reinforce their exploitation. The Global South has served as a “dark laboratory” for these relations since colonial times. Yet, these have also spread to the Global North, via labor informalization, platform capitalism, and “backshoring”. This project maps three critical typologies of laboring debt: recruitment debt (fees to access work), worktime debt (owing future labor to employers via “time-banks”), and interlocking debt (relying on employers for both credit and work). By mapping these mechanisms, this research seeks to dynamically explore the role that labor unfreedom continues to play in global capitalism and its links to the “financialization of life”. By analyzing how debt and indebtedness deepen intersectional inequalities in the world of work, this project informs debates on global policy, including on modern slavery legislation, corporate sustainability and due diligence.