Labour Control

This study analyses labour processes and local labour control strategies in the extractive industries and regions as the reflections of state-capital-labour-nature relations. I argue that, for the analysis of labour control in extractive industries, there is a need to pay attention to (i) the significance of the natural resource for global capital accumulation processes and for the development policies of the state; (ii) the formation of the local labour market through proletarianization of rural population and other means of labour supply; (iii) the organization of work considering both natural limits (such as geological structure of the basin) and workforce composition; and (iv) the use of local political, institutional and community dynamics. Drawing upon the fieldwork carried out in Soma Coal Basin, this paper shows how Turkey’s coal rush shapes local labour control strategies.

Başlangıcı Harry Braverman’ın Marksizmi temel alarak gelişmiş kapitalist sistemde işlerin ve çalışmanın düzenlenme biçimlerini eleştirmek için yazdığı “Emek ve Tekelci Sermaye” adlı çalışmasında bulunan Emek Süreci Teorisi’ne göre, kapitalist üretim ilişkilerinde emek gücünün emeğe dönüştürülmesi sürecindeki belirsizlik emek üzerinde – değişen sartlara göre yeniden tasarlanan - denetim mekanizmalarını gerekli kılar. Işçiler/çalışanlar üzerinde sermayedarları temsilen yöneticilerin kurguladığı denetim mekanizmalarının tarihsel analizine Richard Edwards’ın katkıları değerlidir. Emek Süreci Teorisi ve Edwards’ın denetim yapıları sınıflandırması, 1970’lerden sonra ortaya çıkan – özellikle de hizmet sektöründeki ¬– yeni işlerde çalışmanın düzenlenmesini eleştirel bir incelemeye tabi tutarak neoliberal dönemde ortaya atılan işçi sınıfının yok olduğu, teknoliji ve bilgiye dayalı yeni ekonomide artık sınıf çatışmasının olmayacağı savlarını bertaraf etmek, isçi sınıfının derinleşen sömürüsünü tespit etmek ve böylece kapitalist sistemde insanın gerçek anlamda çalışmadan nasıl koparıldığını anlamak için elzemdir. Türkiye’de 1980’lerden itibaren uygulamaya konulan neoliberalizmin bağrında serpilen ve hizmetler sektörünün bir altkolu olan turizm sektörü yeni iş ve çalışma düzenlerini bünyesinde barındırır. Ilk bakışta imalathane üretim düzeninden çok farklı bir görüntü sergileyen ve Türkiye’nin tabiat güzelliklerini yansıtan güney sahillerinde çoğunlukla yabancı turistlere hizmet veren tatil köyleri bu yeni tip işyeri ve çalışma organizasyonlarından biridir. Çeşitli hizmetleri bir çatı altında toplayan tatil köylerindeki hizmet emek süreci çok boyutlu bir emek denetim mekanizmasını bize gösterir. Yapısal denetim, normatif denetim ve takım çalışmalarının yanısıra asıl çarpıcı olan Edwards’ın basit denetim adı altında vurguladığı uygulamaların baskın hale gelmiş olmasıdır. Basit denetimin yeniden neden ve nasıl baskın hale geldiği önemli bir sorudur. Bu durum neoliberal dönemde rekabet şartları, emek piyasalarının esnekleştirilmesi, işin yoğunlaştırılması ve şirket- calışan arasındaki sadakat-güven ilişkisinin kırılması ile yakından alakalıdır.

Disputes over the meaning of human trafficking, forced labour and modern slavery have both provoked and coincided with a reinvigorated debate in academic and policy literatures about how to conceptualise unfree labour. This article traces the contours of the debate over free and unfree labour, identifying its key stakes as the debate has developed and paying particular attention to recent interventions. It begins by identifying a problem common to both canonical liberal and Marxian approaches to the free/unfree labour distinction, which is to fetishise the labour market. It then discusses the consensus that is emerging across disciplines and in leading international organisations that labour unfreedom in contemporary capitalism is best conceptualised as a continuum rather than a binary, highlighting recent disciplinary-specific contributions. It argues that the metaphor of a continuum of labour unfreedom obscures more than it illuminates. Drawing upon the growing body of literature that advocates a multifaceted approach to labour unfreedom, this article argues that a robust concept of local labour control regime does a much better job of capturing the complex mix of consent and coercion involved in extracting value from labour power than the idea of a continuum of labour unfreedom. Introduction Disputes over the meaning of human trafficking, forced labour and modern slavery have coincided with a reinvigorated debate about how to conceptualise unfree labour, a phenomenon that has attracted increasing attention as neo-liberal labour regimes, best exemplified by global supply chains, have become embedded across the globe. Although conducted in different idioms or registers-the first involves legal and policy questions, while the latter tends to be academic and theoretical-and, thus, the debates are not congruent, they tend to overlap and intersect. Significantly, the way that unfree labour is conceptualised informs the kinds of strategies and policies that are advocated to deal with the range of its contemporary manifestations. The fault line over the dispute about how to conceptualise unfree labour is whether or not the key institutions of capitalist labour markets-private property, contract and wage labour-are seen as resulting in work arrangements that are regarded as consensual and fair or coercive and exploitative. At the crux of the discussion of free and unfree labour are notions of consent, coercion and exploitation. Anthropologists, development scholars, historians, geographers, socio

Ausgehend von zwei exemplarischen Fallstudien befasst sich der Beitrag mit digital gestützten Innovationen im Gebiet der Arbeitskontrolle und-steuerung. Diese zeichnen sich durch zwei Charakteristika aus: Erstens eine Horizontalisierung von Kontrolle, die sich insbesondere in Kommen-tierungs-und Ratingsystemen manifestiert, in denen sich ArbeitnehmerInnen gegenseitig bewerten müssen; und zweitens eine automatisierte Rekursivität, die sich in unmittelbaren Feedbacks auf der Basis eines ubiquitären digitalen Trackings des Arbeitsprozesses manifestiert. Basierend auf diesen empirischen Erkenntnissen lautet unsere Diagnose deshalb, dass man die Digitalisierung betrieblicher Herrschaft aus einer Perspektive verstehen muss, die an der Analyse des kommerziellen Internets geschult wurde. In einer Umkehr der klassischen Prosumenten-These zeigen wir auf, dass das kom-merzielle Internet heute nicht nur nach dem Vorbild der Arbeit gestaltet ist, sondern die Arbeit nach dem Vorbild des kommerziellen Internets.

Disputes over the meaning of human trafficking, forced labour and modern slavery have both provoked and coincided with a reinvigorated debate in academic and policy literatures about how to conceptualise unfree labour. This article traces the contours of the debate over free and unfree labour, identifying its key stakes as the debate has developed and paying particular attention to recent interventions. It begins by identifying a problem common to both canonical liberal and Marxian approaches to the free/unfree labour distinction, which is to fetishise the labour market. It then discusses the consensus that is emerging across disciplines and in leading international organisations that labour unfreedom in contemporary capitalism is best conceptualised as a continuum rather than a binary, highlighting recent disciplinary-specific contributions. It argues that the metaphor of a continuum of labour unfreedom obscures more than it illuminates. Drawing upon the growing body of literature ...

Although it has been more than 150 years since the emergence of the plantation, labour in the democratic context of post-1998 Indonesia remains subject to similar forms of suppression. Following the distinct social and political trajectory of North Sumatra, this paper provides an explanatory analysis of the interrelation between historical hegemonic social relations and the mobility of labour in modern palm oil plantations. Following well-documented accounts of colonial plantation practices, this paper empirically examines whether it is plausible to argue that historical forms of subordination remain relevant to the political mobility of plantation labour. To guide the evaluation, I will look at the existence of historical practices of labour control on the one hand and conditions of democratic reform and structural change on the other. I argue that the modern plantation is constitutive of historically inscribed social relations that function to keep intact colonial and authoritarian structures.

In line with previous research in the field of aesthetic labour, this article explores the tensions generated in upper market hotels by the increasing popularity of body-art. Using the findings of personal interviews with general managers, the research reveals how worker body-art is manifested in this highly aesthetic form of organisation and what the managerial responses are. Unlike previous studies, this article argues that aesthetic requirements in this type of hotels are the same at both the front and back of the house. Unexpectedly, most of the hotels participating in the study have employees with visible tattoos and piercings on their payroll. This is attributed to external social and labour-related forces that induce managers to bypass or soften up aesthetic standards.