{"ID":2843932,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.07491","arxiv_id":"2511.07491","title":"Quantifying the Impact of CU: A Systematic Literature Review","abstract":"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.","short_abstract":"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,...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.07491","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2511.07491v1","authors":"[\"Thomas Compton\"]","published":"2025-11-10T12:46:43Z","proceeding":"cs.DL","tasks":"[\"cs.DL\",\"cs.CL\"]","methods":"[]","has_code":false}