Time, space and power: introduction to the special issue on the making and remaking of unions, community, work and family life

Unions, communities, work and families/households are embedded in a complex set of relations. Adopting a socioecological systems analysis of the intersections between unions, communities, work and families/households foregrounds the connections, frictions and disjunctures in these relations. This analytical approach also demonstrates the significant efforts that unions make, with varying degrees of success, to influence the economic, social and political forces that shape everyday life. In doing so, it points to the historically and spatially specific nature of those efforts, and the degree to which they are shaped by an intricate web of power relations that operate on multiple levels.