Quantifying the Impact of CU: A Systematic Literature Review
Fuente:
arXiv
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| Natura: | Preprint |
| Pubblicazione: |
2025
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| _version_ | 1866908641579237376 |
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| author | Compton, Thomas |
| author_facet | Compton, Thomas |
| contents | Community Unionism has served as a pivotal concept in debates on trade union renewal since the early 2000s, yet its theoretical coherence and political significance remain unresolved. This article investigates why CU has gained such prominence -- not by testing its efficacy, but by mapping how it is constructed, cited, and contested across the scholarly literature. Using two complementary systematic approaches -- a citation network analysis of 114 documents and a thematic review of 18 core CU case studies -- I examine how CU functions as both an empirical descriptor and a normative ideal. The analysis reveals CU's dual genealogy: positioned by British scholars as an indigenous return to historic rank-and-file practices, yet structurally aligned with transnational social movement unionism. Thematic coding shows near-universal emphasis on coalition-building and alliances, but deep ambivalence toward class politics. This tension suggests CU's significance lies less in operationalising a new union model, and more in managing contradictions -- between workplace and community, leadership and rank-and-file, reform and radicalism -- within a shrinking labour movement. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_07491 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Quantifying the Impact of CU: A Systematic Literature Review Compton, Thomas Digital Libraries Computation and Language Community Unionism has served as a pivotal concept in debates on trade union renewal since the early 2000s, yet its theoretical coherence and political significance remain unresolved. This article investigates why CU has gained such prominence -- not by testing its efficacy, but by mapping how it is constructed, cited, and contested across the scholarly literature. Using two complementary systematic approaches -- a citation network analysis of 114 documents and a thematic review of 18 core CU case studies -- I examine how CU functions as both an empirical descriptor and a normative ideal. The analysis reveals CU's dual genealogy: positioned by British scholars as an indigenous return to historic rank-and-file practices, yet structurally aligned with transnational social movement unionism. Thematic coding shows near-universal emphasis on coalition-building and alliances, but deep ambivalence toward class politics. This tension suggests CU's significance lies less in operationalising a new union model, and more in managing contradictions -- between workplace and community, leadership and rank-and-file, reform and radicalism -- within a shrinking labour movement. |
| title | Quantifying the Impact of CU: A Systematic Literature Review |
| topic | Digital Libraries Computation and Language |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.07491 |