“Self as enterprise”: overmarketization and the self-management of R&D engineers

This article analyzes the self-enterprising mechanism of research & development (R&D) engineers based on a case study of labor control in a high-tech company. The concept of “self as enterprise” refers to the form of labor control by allowing workers to self-manage according to the market principle. It is neither a form of normative control built upon accepting and internalizing market-oriented values nor responsible autonomy aiming to enhance workers' organizational commitment. R&D engineers' reproduction of current living standards depends heavily on performance-based salaries, which forces them to pragmatically comply with market rules. When both the reproduction of labor and the labor market have been overmarketized, R&D engineers are at high risk of downgrading their living standards and facing double job insecurity. Therefore, they must manage their work and life in an enterprising way to maximize labor value and prevent it from being devalued.

Laborer Identification and Monitoring System: Dactyloscopy on the Plantations of East Sumatra, 1926-1980

This study aims to explore and discuss laborer identification and monitoring systems on East Sumatran plantations during 1926-1980. It is focused on the implementation of dactyloscopy, archives that have never been researched it all, which had replaced the anthropometric identification system as the reference to determine the criminal justice system. The data used is the dactyloscopy archive in the office of the Sumatra Plantation Company Cooperation Agency and the Indonesian Plantation Museum in Medan City. Data were analyzed using a historiographic approach. The study found that dactyloscopy was part of the modernization of the administrative and bureaucratic systems in plantations. The novelty of the study that the implementation of dactyloscopy in plantation communities is in line with the high crime of labor against employers. Therefore, there is a major distinction in the implementation of dactyloscopy before and after the independence which has been influenced by the logic of colonialism and independence. During the colonialism period, dactyloscopy was used to identify and monitor taming laborersin plantations, while post-independence and nationalization it was used as a modern labor control system.

Digital Workers, Urban Vectors, and New Economies

Platform capitalism has enabled digital platforms to bring producers, consumers, and workers in a multisided marketplace with the purpose of collecting data. The resulting commodification of materiality and sociality in the digital sphere and the proprietary control of data open opportunities for value creation and realization, quite distinct from the value propositions of industrial manufacturing. As the relationship between value generation and human labor becomes tenuous or invisible, management strategies to appropriate value extends beyond labor control to direct appropriation. This article explores how labor responds to such devices of control and appropriation by digital platforms. Using the typological approach, the study argues that labor resistance emerges as a direct response to the management strategies of platforms in the form of granular resistance, data activism, trade unions and workers’ organization, and collective ownership.

TOWARDS A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL THEORY OF TEMPORAL CONTROL IN THE GIG ECONOMY

This paper proposes a multi-dimensional theory of temporal control in the gig economy. Specifically, we focus on different types of platform-based temporal control and their respective effects on (a) workers’ autonomy, (b) value of free time, and (c) their social and political connectedness. Theoretically, we draw on the sociology of time and normative time literature in political theory. Empirically, the framework is informed by the synthesis of the literature about algorithms in the gig economy, with particular attention to the methods of temporal control. Meanwhile, we draw insights from a larger comparative project that examines algorithmic labor control and resistance across ride-hailing platforms (Uber and Lyft), TaskRabbit, and delivery platforms (DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Instacart) in the United States. The project interviewed 50 gig workers between 2017 and 2020. Through a systematic synthesis of primary and secondary materials, this paper contributes to understanding temporalities and work autonomy in the gig economy, and more broadly, flexible workplaces where the boundaries between work and non-work time become blurred.

A rejoinder

In his response to my review of his book, Ulbe Bosma reiterates that high demographic growth and the consequent abundance of surplus labor as well as local systems of labor control were important factors in the peripheralization of Island Southeast Asia. Colonialism itself, he argues, is not responsible for the making of a periphery.

Against Unjust Laws

In Myanmar, the Citizenship Law of 1982 made the Rohingya “stateless.” The Rohingya consider Bangladesh a haven and take to the sea on rickety boats to cross borders. If they do, however, they become “illegal migrants.” Considering such laws unjust, local and international NGOs have been leading struggles to uphold the Rohingyas’ rights in Bangladesh. This article registers the struggles of these organizations against the production of illegality and statelessness. It discusses how they contest and negotiate the thick mix of politics, the local labor control regime, laws, and national regulations, and how in turn the refugees assert their agency through resilience and resistance, individually and collectively.

Digital Agriculture and Labor: A Few Challenges for Social Sustainability

Academic and political debates on the digitalization of agriculture have addressed sustainability mainly from an ecological perspective. Social sustainability, particularly questions of labor, has been largely neglected in the literature thus far. This is particularly problematic since digitalization could fundamentally change farming practices and labor processes on farms, with possibly far-reaching consequences for rural development, rural communities as well as migrant laborers. Looking at the case study of Germany, this article asks how digital technologies are changing labor processes on horticultural and arable farms. The aim of this paper is to bring labor into the debates around agriculture and digitalization and to offer a detailed picture of the impacts of digital technologies on labor in agriculture. The case study builds on fourteen in-depth interviews conducted from June 2020 to March 2021, participant observation, and digital ethnography. The results show new forms of labor control and an intensification of the work process linked to methods of digital Taylorism, as well as risks of working-class fragmentation along age lines. A deskilling of workers or farmers due to digitalization has not been observed. The suggestion of an increased dependency of workers due to the loss of employment opportunities in agriculture is contested. The results stress the importance of designing agricultural policies that foster fair and equitable working conditions.

Chasing Informality: Evidence from Increasing Enforcement in Large Firms in Peru

Evasion of labor market regulations in middle income countries is systemic. This is generally known as informality. In Latin America, where less than 50% of workers are registered with social security, this is a permanent phenomenon and encompasses a variety of economic realities ranging from subsistence self-employment to evasion of certain regulations including social security contributions. In this study we analyze the role of enforcement in curbing informality in large formal firms in Peru, where informality levels are around 70%. Through the Peruvian National Labor Control Superintendence (SUNAFIL) we randomly sent 697 letters to formal Peruvian firms of more than 50 workers, indicating their obligation to enroll workers in social insurance systems (health and pensions). Two types of letters were sent, one with a deterrence message and one emphasizing the benefits of formalization. One year after the letters were sent, we found a positive and statistically significant effect on the number of workers enrolled in social security (9.8% on average). Only strict deterrence messages had a significant impact, and only in very large firms. This evidence suggests that there is room for improvement in compliance with labor regulations through more proactive monitoring and behavioral tools such as reminders, but effects could be concentrated in the largest firms.