Boundary-work, Occupational Identities and Class-experiences of Global Seafarers

What is it about?

This chapter examines how global seafarers construct occupational identities and symbolic boundaries in the context of a highly segmented maritime labour market. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, we analyse how seafarers translate their lived experiences of class relations into everyday practices of distinction. Our study shows that ships are not cohesive communities but deeply fragmented along the lines of occupational hierarchy, race, gender, and nationality. European officers often symbolically exclude colleagues from the Global South or women seafarers, thereby reinforcing structural inequalities embedded in shipping’s global division of labour. We argue that such boundary-work both reflects and reproduces capitalist labour strategies, including the racial segmentation of crews and the perpetuation of authoritarian management regimes. At the same time, seafarers mobilise cultural repertoires, stereotypes, and discourses to defend their dignity and assert belonging, whether through distinctions from “landlubbers” or through appeals to occupational knowledge and experience. Yet, despite shared vulnerabilities as wage-dependent workers, we find little evidence of a unifying class identity among seafarers today. Instead, solidarities tend to remain confined to national or racial collectives, contrasting with earlier traditions of transnational maritime labour struggles. We conclude that the symbolic boundary-work of seafarers must be understood as a mediated response to structural domination in global capitalism: it provides strategies for coping with class experiences without necessarily leading to class-based solidarities. By situating maritime work in the broader framework of class, race, and gender relations, this chapter contributes to debates on labour, identity, and inequality in transnational occupational fields.

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Why is it important?

This chapter is important because it highlights how life and work on board contemporary merchant ships are shaped by global inequalities. Understanding these processes is vital for several reasons. For scholars, it connects micro-level workplace interactions with broader questions of capitalism, inequality, and identity. For the shipping industry, it highlights how cultural divisions weaken solidarity, cohesion, and potentially even safety on board. More broadly, the chapter reminds us that global trade depends on workers whose lives are profoundly shaped by historical and contemporary inequalities. Recognising their experiences allows us to see ships not only as engines of commerce but also as contested social spaces where power, identity, and belonging are constantly negotiated.