Exclusion and Labour Control Regimes: A Tale of Two Tea Plantations

This article examines labour control in residential workplaces through a comparative study of traditional (colonial-era) and new tea plantations in Bangladesh. It extends Burawoy’s analysis of coercion and consent by showing how exclusion operates as a structuring condition of labour regimes. Traditional plantations rely on cumulative social, spatial, legal, and political exclusions that disconnect workers from alternative livelihoods, embed generational dependency, and sustain overtly coercive control. New plantations reconfigure exclusion through selective inclusion, combining limited mobility and negotiated consent with insecurity and continued dependence on employer-controlled resources. The analysis shows how the state, often treated as a neutral arbiter, actively reproduces exclusion through differentiated rights and weak enforcement. By conceptualising exclusion as structured disconnection from rights, resources, and exit options, the article demonstrates how differing configurations of exclusion shape the forms and intensity of labour control within dormitory labour regimes.