Politicising digital labour through the politics of body

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 382-398
Author(s):  
Changwook Kim ◽  
Sangkyu Lee
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Bodily Pain ◽  
Social Recognition ◽  
Social Category ◽  
Digital Game ◽  
Work Experiences ◽  
Jel Codes ◽  
Labour Unions ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Struggle For Recognition

By analysing the recent emerging labour movement of Korean digital game workers, this article seeks to explore a relatively novel issue – the importance of a politics of body in digital labour. By employing Elaine Scarry’s concept of ‘language of agency’ and ‘analogical substantiation’, the article first investigates how digital game workers express their work experiences and their embodied pain by analysing the mechanism of ‘crunch’ practice. Second, by examining ‘karoshi (overwork to death)’ and a series of suicides of digital game workers in Korea, it seeks to explore the problem of death as the final form of bodily pain – focusing on how these death events led workers to develop new forms of politics and solidarity by organising labour unions. Finally, by analysing the newly established digital game worker unions’ opposition to the violation of worktime regulation as a ‘struggle for recognition’, this research illuminates how digital game workers not only acquire self-respect but also achieve social recognition for their bodies as working labour. By examining this labour union organisation practice in Korea, the study ultimately argues that recognising the politics of body in digital labour offers the possibility that an emerging social category of precariat can actually co-exist and connect with the existing social class of proletariat. JEL Codes: J50, J81, L86

scholarly journals Adulthood: The Contemporary Redefinition of a Social Category

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Blatterer
Keyword(s):  
Family Formation ◽  
Alternative Conception ◽  
Social Recognition ◽  
Social Category ◽  
Social Trends ◽  
Home Leaving ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Successive Generations

Social trends such as delayed or forfeited family formation, postponed home leaving and allegedly infantilising leisure practices are often marshalled in support of a long standing social scientific as well as popular assumption: successive generations take longer to reach adulthood. This article argues that this ‘delayed adulthood thesis’ is based on an anachronistic model of adulthood and goes on to suggest an alternative conception. Some original interview material with individuals in their late twenties as well as the notion of social recognition are utilized in this process. It is suggested that the very practices that serve as evidence for the delayed adulthood thesis are in fact productive of new, emerging modalities of adulthood that are commensurate with changed and changing social realities.

The light on the hill and the ‘right to work’

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 459-480
Author(s):  
Victor Quirk
Keyword(s):  
Full Employment ◽  
White Paper ◽  
Jel Codes ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Labor Party ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
Right To Work ◽  
The Right ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Hill

In 1945 the Curtin Labor Government declared it had the capacity and responsibility to permanently eliminate the blight of unemployment from the lives of Australians in its White Paper ‘Full Employment in Australia’. This was the culmination of a century of struggle to establish the ‘right to work’, once a key objective of the 19th century labour movement. Deeply resented and long resisted by employer groups, the policy was abandoned in the mid-1970s, without an electoral mandate. Although the Australian Labor Party and union movement urged public vigilance to preserve full employment during 23 years of Liberal rule, after 1978 they quietly dropped the policy as the Australian Labor Party turned increasingly to corporate donors for the money they needed to stay electorally competitive. While few leading lights of today’s Labor movement care to discuss it, it is right that Australians celebrate this bold statement of our right to work, and the 30 years of full employment it heralded. JEL Codes: P16, P35, N37

How the changing relationship between labour and political party influenced growth of autonomous labour unions in Taiwan

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 758-772
Author(s):  
Santanu Sarkar ◽  
Meichun Liu
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Democratic Progressive Party ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Labour Unions ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Economic Landscape ◽  
New Forms Of Work ◽  
New Generation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to find how the changing relationship between labour and political parties influenced the growth of reasonably independent labour unions in Taiwan. Design/methodology/approach The authors have drawn on data collected through in-depth interviews of union officials, labour activists and members of legislature from two major political parties in Taiwan. Findings The authors found that the breach between labour and political parties was affected by the eventualities contemplated in democratisation. Though the DPP (Minchin-tang/Democratic Progressive Party) provided the initial “shot in arm”, autonomous unions have not necessarily grown underneath DPP’s dominion. Political liberalisation of Taiwan’s industrial relations systems has gained more momentum when the DPP was in opposition than in power. Anti-incumbency pushed independent unions to sway the opposition’s backing when Kuomintang (KMT/the Chinese Nationalists) was in power and not to that extent when the KMT stepped down. The autonomous labour movement in Taiwan was initially influenced by the changing relationship between labour and ruling parties. However, the movement was subsequently shaped by the ethnic and political characteristics based on the historical divide between the mainlanders and Taiwanese and Taiwan’s changing economic landscape. Research limitations/implications Specific limitations include the subjectivity of the inference and lack of generalisability of the findings that are based on interviews with two out of three players of industrial relations system. Practical implications Because of globalisation and global financial crisis that brought together a new generation of workforce who hold individualistic values, have lesser faith in collectivism and perform new forms of work where unionisation is no more relevant, the autonomous labour movement in Taiwan was hugely impacted. Originality/value Growth of independent unions is not being shaped by democratisation alone. If we refocus the debate about democracy’s implied relationship with the rhetoric of national identity, one can see the crucial role played by the changing economic landscape and ethnic divisions ingrained in political origins.

Generational, Biographical and Life-Course Approaches to the History of the German Labour Movement in the Nineteenth Century*

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-313
Author(s):  
Jürgen Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Work Experiences ◽  
Historical Scholarship ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Life Phase ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Course Experiences

Abstract While generational and biographical approaches are well-established methods in historical scholarship, life-course approaches are less prominent. This article seeks to bridge that gap by applying all these methods to an examination of the early membership of the German labour movement in the 1860s and 1870s. It considers whether we can interpret the rise of the labour movement in the nineteenth century as a generational phenomenon and explain it in light of (work) experiences that were life-phase specific. We see that while life-course experiences were more decisive than generational factors for the making of the movement, the retrospective identification of a founding generation was significant for the creation of the identity of a united labour movement in the years of the Kaiserreich.

scholarly journals Human displacement and social recognition: the working conditions and relations of refugees and displaced people in Brazil

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-291
Author(s):  
JOSÉ HENRIQUE DE FARIA ◽  
ELAINE CRISTINA SCHMITT RAGNINI ◽  
CAMILA BRÜNING
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Public University ◽  
Social Recognition ◽  
Social Injustice ◽  
Psychological Suffering ◽  
Displaced People ◽  
Struggle For Recognition ◽  
The City ◽  
Nancy Fraser ◽  
Human Displacement

Abstract This research analyzes the process of inclusion and social recognition of migrants in a Brazilian city. The study presents a report of the demands from migrants in the context of a host project carried out at a Brazilian public university regarding their insertion in the world of work and in Brazilian higher education, highlighting their difficulties and expressions of suffering. Documentary research was used based on the analysis of qualitative data collected from about 300 interviews and over 1000 individual and group psychosocial consultations carried out with migrants in the city of Curitiba-PR. As a theoretical framework we adopted the category of “social recognition” proposed by Nancy Fraser (2008a) based on the debate with Axel Honneth (2009), and inspired by the category “struggle for recognition,” by Hegel (2008). Results point to the precarious inclusion of migrants in the labor market, with evident social injustice and psychological suffering.

scholarly journals IMPACTS OF GLOBALISATION ON GLOBAL LABOUR MOVEMENT: CHALLENGES AND RESPONSES

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 294-302
Author(s):  
Ibukun Olorunisola KOLAWOLE
Keyword(s):  
Adverse Effects ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Labour Unions ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Author Review ◽  
Traditional Roles

Across the globe labour formations have generally been experiencing insurmountable challenges related to globalisation these challenges, though differs in the levels of impact, the issues raised are universally applicable. Studies show that trade unions are trying to combat these challenges by adopting organising model elements which involves social unionism movement. Unfortunately, this has not been adopted by all unions. This paper has as its main objective of situating the trade unions within the context of globalisation era with a view to assessing the effects of globalisation on the roles of labour movement. It is believed more than ever before, that the challenges facing the labour unions are daunting and this has changed the traditional roles of the trade union to be more dynamic and versatile. Attempts are made to define trade union and globalisation in its multi-faceted dimension. It looks at these challenges faced by trade unions due to globalisation and how they have responded to these challenges. The author review various areas that globalisation have been perceives to have adverse effects on trade unions and its members and their responses, recommending measures to be adopted by unions to overcome these challenges

Sutomo, the Indonesian Study Club and organised labour in late colonial Surabaya

2007 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Ingleson
Keyword(s):  
Labour Unions ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Colonial Government

AbstractThe labour movement in colonial Indonesia is an important part of Indonesian history. The accepted convention is that after 1926, there was little or no labour activity in the colony, or at least little of any consequence. This article argues that much was going on but that it was of a different character from earlier years because of the limitations imposed by the colonial government. The Indonesian Study Club, based in Surabaya and led by Dr Sutomo, had a central role. The creation of labour unions was part of a broader effort to create enduring linkages between the western educated Surabaya elite and Surabaya workers.

scholarly journals Managing uncertainty during unemployment : a phenomenological exploration of social class differences

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jonathan Edward Wickert
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Job Search ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Physical Work ◽  
Work Experiences ◽  
Written Text ◽  
Class Differences ◽  
Concern For Others ◽  
Different Types ◽  
White Collar Workers

This research address a relevant and important problem, unemployment. After 2008 unemployment steadily increased leaving many people out of work and causing concern for others. This study attempts to understand how people from different types of work experience unemployment. The data was gathered through interviews with 31 people who were experiencing unemployment. To assist in understanding their experiences, each participant provided pictures of anything they thought symbolized their unemployment experience. People commonly took pictures of their cars, empty wallets, and closed doors or hallways. Findings from this study suggest that participants anticipated being able to find a new job. However, participants described experiencing uncertainty after multiple failed attempts to find work. Additionally, social class positioning exposed text (white-collar) workers to valuable job search related resources; whereas body workers (laborers) struggled to manage the job search and meet their basic needs such as food and shelter. Lastly, both text and body workers described feeling stigmatized by their unemployment status and chose to withdraw from interactions with others to avoid feeling stigmatized. As a result of these findings, practitioners are encouraged to help laborers translate their physical work experiences into written text that is useful in the job search process. Practitioners can also help text and body workers develop strategies for managing the unemployment stigma that does not hinder their ability to find a new job.

scholarly journals The Union as Employer: Personnel Practices in Canadian Labour Unions

2005 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 488-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul F. Clark ◽  
Lois Gray ◽  
Norm Solomon
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Administrative Practices ◽  
Efficient Operation ◽  
Labour Unions ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Economy Of Scale ◽  
Personnel Practices ◽  
Personnel Policies

This paper reports on personnel practices in unions operating in Canada. The analysis is based on survey data collected from a représentative sample of 60 labour organizations. The findings indicate that for the overall sample, formai, written personnel policies are the exception and not the rule in Canadian unions. The data also reveal, however, that personnel practices are conducted on a more formai, sophisticated basis for Canadian unions with over 50,000 members. The results confirm findings of an earlier study of U.S. unions that there is a relationship between size and sophistication of administrative practices in at least this one area. This "economy of scale" effect has important ramifications for the efficient opération of unions and for the future structure of the labour movement in North America.

Labour in Turkey during the 1960s: The Long Hot Decade of the Working Class

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Aziz Çelik
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Class Struggle ◽  
Industrial Capitalism ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Critical Moment ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
The 1960S

Abstract The 1960s were unique and sui generis years for the labour movement in Turkey. This decade not only witnessed the emergence of industrial capitalism, but also was a critical and intense period of class struggle in which the formation of the country’s working class accelerated. As the working class gained momentum, it proved itself to be a new social class after being dismissed in previous decades. At the beginning of the period, trade unions gained constitutional guarantees, thereby increasing the momentum of the labour movement, even as traditional trade unionism eroded somewhat following a period of dominance in the previous two decades. Ultimately, class-based and independent unionism grew in strength in the 1960s, while the decade also represents a critical moment in the process of working-class politicisation.

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