scholarly journals TAMING PLATFORM CAPITALISM: STRUGGLES FROM THE GLOBAL SOUTH MEET STRUGGLES FROM THE GLOBAL NORTH

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arturo Arriagada ◽  
Mark Graham ◽  
Ursula Huws ◽  
Janaki Srinivasan ◽  
Macarena Bonhomme ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Global South ◽  
Job Quality ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Global North ◽  
Global Platform ◽  
The Impact ◽  
North And South ◽  
Platform Economy

This panel brings together scholars whose work seeks to tame platform capitalism understanding how the lives of platform workers are affected by digital platforms. Research on platform labor has been mostly done in the global north, as well as in relation to global platforms like Uber or Amazon (Rosenblat 2019; Scholz 2016). Thus, the panelists, moreover, explore how the lives of platform workers can be improved within the global platform economy by analyzing workers’ subjectivities in relation to platforms and the impact of technologies in job quality. To achieve this, this panel brings together scholars from global north and south countries that will map the complexities and subjectivities of platform workers in order to tame platform capitalism. We present a set of articles that address: (1) regulatory resistance that clarifies and redefines the rules that platforms need to abide by; (2) bottom-up resistance of platform workers who seek to organize, subvert, and build alternatives; (3) the ways that action research can support either of those initiatives to ultimately tame some of the worst excesses of platform capitalism.

scholarly journals Reproducing Global Inequalities in the Online Labour Market: Valuing Capital in the Design Field

2020 ◽  
pp. 095001702094244
Author(s):  
Pelin Demirel ◽  
Ekaterina Nemkova ◽  
Rebecca Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Global South ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Global North ◽  
Online Design ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Platform Economy ◽  
Rules Of The Game

Millions of freelancers work on digital platforms in the online labour market (OLM). The OLM’s capacity to both undermine and reproduce labour inequalities is a theme in contemporary platform economy debates. What is less well understood is how processes of social (re)production take place in practice for diverse freelancers on global platforms. Drawing on a study of freelance designers, we use Bourdieu’s notions of capital and field to explore the specific ‘rules of the game’ and the symbolic valuing of skills and identities that secure legitimacy and advantage in the OLM. We contribute to contemporary debates by illuminating the power of Global North actors to shape freelancer positions and hierarchies in the online design field. The ‘cost advantages’ of Global South workers are counterbalanced by the symbolic legitimising of specific cultural and social practices (specifically in relation to language) and the devaluing of others.

scholarly journals Solidarity Economy, Social Enterprise, and Innovation Discourses: Understanding Hybrid Forms in Postcolonial Colombia

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 205
Author(s):  
Sara Calvo Martínez ◽  
Andrés Morales Pachón ◽  
José María Martín Martín ◽  
Valentín Molina Moreno
Keyword(s):  
Social Enterprise ◽  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Global South ◽  
Contextual Analysis ◽  
Solidarity Economy ◽  
Global North ◽  
Alternative Discourses ◽  
North And South ◽  
Dynamic Interplay ◽  
Hybrid Forms

Dominant conceptions of solidarity economy, social enterprise, and innovation (SSEI) remain poorly positioned for understanding the diverse models emerging across the global South. The purpose of this paper is to examine the power relations between the global North and South in the production and dissemination of SSEI knowledge, highlighting the importance of recognizing alternative discourses in the global South. This contextual analysis is developed through consideration of the construction of the hybrid SSEI model in Colombia, drawing upon postcolonial theory and using Nicholls’ framework on the legitimacy of SSEI discourses. This paper offers the first application of postcolonial theory to the analysis of SSEI in the global South. This research has demonstrated that the construction of the SSEI sector in Colombia is a reflection of the dynamic interplay of the hybrids, as it incorporates the hero entrepreneur and business-like discourses within the traditional community discourse, which indeed is a combination of domestic (indigenous collective practices) and colonizer influences (e.g., cooperatives, associations). This paper also identifies the current tensions that have emerged from such hybridity within the country.

scholarly journals Learning with mobiles: The Global South

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 152-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Traxler
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Mobile Technology ◽  
Global South ◽  
Global North ◽  
Education And Technology ◽  
Practical Progress ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Research And Policy

This article addresses the need to build sustainable, appropriate and authentic foundations for learning with mobiles in the Global South. It does this in two ways: first, by reviewing aspects of the current environment, namely the nature of learning with mobiles in the Global North, the relationships between research and policy in relation to learning with mobiles, the impact of mobile technology on language, and the meanings of international development; and second, by consolidating these within a broader and critical historical framework that sees education and technology as the instruments of the hegemony of the Global North, reinforcing its values and worldview. This is, however, methodologically challenging and problematic, and the article briefly considers how such arguments should be constructed. The article concludes by offering ways forward as the basis for practical progress.

scholarly journals Precarity North and South: A Southern Critique of Guy Standing

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Scully
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Global South ◽  
Precarious Work ◽  
New Politics ◽  
Central Focus ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Global North ◽  
North And South

<p>Guy Standing is among the most provocative and influential analysts of the rise of precarious work around the world. His writing is part of a wave of global labour studies that has documented the spread of precarious work throughout the Global North and South. However, this article argues that by treating precarity around the world as a single phenomenon, produced by globalisation, the work of Standing and others obscures the different and much longer history of precarious work in the Global South. This article shows how many of the features that Standing associates with the contemporary “precariat” have long been widespread among Southern workers. This longer history of precarity has important implications for contemporary debates about a new politics of labour, which is a central focus of Standing’s recent work.</p>

DOES THE GLOBAL NORTH STILL DOMINATE WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZING? A NETWORK ANALYSIS FROM 1978 TO 2008*

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie M. Hughes ◽  
Pamela Paxton ◽  
Sharon Quinsaat ◽  
Nicholas Reith
Keyword(s):  
Global South ◽  
Women's Movements ◽  
International Nongovernmental Organizations ◽  
Organizational Membership ◽  
The North ◽  
Exchange Information ◽  
Global North ◽  
National Boundaries ◽  
North And South ◽  
Over Time

Over the last century, women increasingly transcended national boundaries to exchange information, build solidarity, and bring change. Accounts suggest that as women's international presence expanded, the types of women who participated also shifted. During the first wave of women's movements, White Western women dominated, but over time women of the Global South increasingly organized themselves. Yet we do not know whether North-South inequalities in women's organizational membership have diminished. We collect longitudinal network data on 447 women's international nongovernmental organizations (WINGOs) and use visual tools and network measures to explore changes in the network structure from 1978 to 2008. Results suggest (1) WINGOs—while increasing in frequency—are not connecting to greater numbers of countries, (2) the North/South split in WINGO memberships does not change over time, (3) significant power differences between the North and South persist, and (4) substantial inequalities in WINGO memberships within the Global South also exist.

scholarly journals The gendered effects of entrepreneurialism in contrasting contexts

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Malin Tillmar ◽  
Helene Ahl ◽  
Karin Berglund ◽  
Katarina Pettersson
Keyword(s):  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Global North ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Experiences Of Women ◽  
North And South

Purpose Contrasting Sweden and Tanzania, this paper aims to explore the experiences of women entrepreneurs affected by entrepreneurialism. This study discusses the impact on their position in society and on their ability to take feminist action. Design/methodology/approach This paper analysed interviews conducted in the two countries over 15 years, using a holistic perspective on context, including its gendered dimensions. Findings The results amount to a critique of entrepreneurialism. Women in Sweden did not experience much gain from entrepreneurship, while in Tanzania results were mixed. Entrepreneurialism seems unable to improve the situation for women in the relatively well-functioning economies in the global north, where it was designed. Research limitations/implications In mainstream entrepreneurship studies, there is a focus on the institutional context. From the analysis, it is apparent that equal attention must be given to the social and spatial contexts, as they may have severe material and economic consequences for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. The paper raises questions for further studies on the gendering of markets in different contexts, as well as questions on the urban-rural dimension. Practical implications In Sweden, marketisation of welfare services led to more women-owned businesses, but the position of women did not improve. The results strongly convey the need for a careful analysis of the pre-existing context, before initiating reforms. Originality/value The paper adds to the understanding of context in entrepreneurship studies: Africa is largely an underexplored continent and contrasting North and South is an underexplored methodological approach. This paper further extends and develops the model of gendered contexts developed by Welter et al. (2014).

scholarly journals In Search of the Global East: Thinking between North and South

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 19-43
Author(s):  
Martin Müller
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Global South ◽  
Interstitial Position ◽  
Strategic Essentialism ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Connections ◽  
Global North ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
North And South ◽  
Global Relations

Carving up the world into Global North and Global South has become an established way of thinking about global difference since the end of the Cold War. This binary, however, erases what this paper calls the Global East — those countries and societies that occupy an interstitial position between North and South. This paper problematizes the geopolitics of knowledge that has resulted in the exclusion of the Global East, not just from the Global North and South, but from notions of globality in general. It argues that we need to adopt a strategic essentialism to recover the Global East for scholarship. To that end, it traces the global relations of IKEA’s bevelled drinking glass to demonstrate the urgency of rethinking the Global East at the heart of global connections, rather than separate from them. Thinking of such a Global East as a liminal space complicates the notions of North and South towards more inclusive but also more uncertain theorizing.

The Imperative of Intervention

2020 ◽  
pp. 24-47
Author(s):  
Sarah G. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Global South ◽  
State Building ◽  
International Intervention ◽  
State Fragility ◽  
The World ◽  
Governance Institutions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
North And South ◽  
Peace And Development

This chapter sets the scene for Somaliland’s place within debates about the utility of northern intervention against violence and poverty in various southern contexts. It explores the way that the dominant discourse about state fragility frames the quality of domestic governance institutions in the Global South as both cause of, and solution to, the prevalence of conflict and poverty. In so doing, it brackets out alternative—nondomestic and noninstitutional—ways of understanding peace and development in the Global South. These exclusions also frame international intervention as self-evidently useful in making the world more peaceful and prosperous. The chapter argues that this dramatically overstates the impact that development or state-building interventions have because they constitute a small part of the means by which power and resources move between north and south.

Italian youth mobility: The case for a Mediterranean model of ‘family-centred’ mobile transitions

Ethnicities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 146879682110370
Author(s):  
Giulia Marchetti ◽  
Loretta Baldassar ◽  
Anita Harris ◽  
Shanthi Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Model ◽  
Global South ◽  
Transitions To Adulthood ◽  
Transnational Mobility ◽  
Global North ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
New Generation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Critical Literature ◽  
Transition Studies

This article seeks to advance our understanding of contemporary transnational youth mobility, drawing on the concept ‘mobile transitions’ to explore scholarly approaches to the mobility practices of young Italians moving abroad. We present a critical literature review of the intersections of migration, youth and transition studies to argue that the literature on youth transnational mobility currently features two contrasting models comprising a ‘transitions-focused’ Global South model and an ‘experiential-focused’ Global North model. This bifurcation fails to account for emergent regional models of mobility that may help to sharpen scholarly understandings of a new generation of youth ‘on the move’. We propose an alternative model positioned somewhere along the spectrum between the Global North and Global South models, which we define as the Mediterranean model of ‘family-centred’ transnational youth mobility. This model reflects aspects of both privileged, experiential youth migrations, which tend to undervalue the impact on transitions to adulthood, and economically driven youth migrations, which tend to focus more directly on the economic dimensions of youth to adulthood transitions. The Mediterranean model highlights more broadly how mobility enables and shapes transitions, which are simultaneously driven by both economic imperatives and individual experiential desires, and mediated through family and culture.

scholarly journals Geographies of waste: Conceptual vectors from the Global South

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 1044-1063 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nate Millington ◽  
Mary Lawhon
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Global South ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Relational Understanding ◽  
Neoliberal Governance ◽  
Global North ◽  
North And South

Geographies of waste, which include examination of its flows and politics, have demonstrated empirical differences and contrasting approaches to researching waste in the Global North and South. Southern waste geographies have largely focused on case studies of informality and (neoliberal) governance. We draw on Southern theory to argue that this focus can be productively extended through greater consideration of the production of value and the role of materiality and technology in the wastescape. We argue that a relational understanding of multiscalar wastescapes contributes insights into the distribution of costs and benefits as well as what enables and constrains the extraction of value for different actors.

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