Laleh Khalili's New Book Examines the Human Cost of Maritime Capitalism

Laleh Khalili's new essay-length publication, 'The Corporeal Life of Seafaring' (Mack, £14 softcover), shifts focus from systems to the human bodies that underpin global maritime trade. While 80% of world goods by tonnage are transported by sea, the number of seafarers has drastically declined—the Titanic had 280 engineers belowdecks, while a modern supertanker may have only 20–35 crew. Khalili argues that seafaring has anticipated the gig economy, extractivism, and current capitalist norms. Drawing on research and her own commercial seafaring experience, she describes how ports are now isolated from city centers, unloading times are shorter, and internet sociability has replaced maritime companionship, leading to confinement, boredom, loneliness, depression, and suicide. The book also addresses ingrained colonial hierarchies, racial prejudice, and open ship registries that enable 'relational inequalities'—European workers form an 'aristocracy of labour' with better rights than non-European colleagues. Khalili acknowledges moments of solidarity and enjoyment at sea but emphasizes that the bodies of some are consumed to fulfill the desires of others.