Camino a la informacionalización y la plataformización del trabajo en un retrato inglés: reseña de Sorry We Missed You (Ken Loach, 2019)

Este texto reseña la película Sorry We Missed You (2019) dirigida por Ken Loach. Particularmente, se enfoca en la caracterización de las tendencias del trabajo hacia la informacionalización y plataformización en el capitalismo actual, cuyo grado de penetración se observa en distinta medida en las historias de los protagonistas, representando éstas una buena antesala de su pleno impacto.

Una regia sociale: l’impegno di Ken Loach

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"Você Não Estava Aqui": As Consequências do Esvaziamento dos Postos de Trabalho Formal na Inglaterra

Trata-se da resenha do filme “Você Não Estava Aqui” (2019) dirigido por Ken Loach e distribuído nacionalmente pela Vitrine Filmes, que conta a rotina de uma família da classe média de Newcastle (Inglaterra) que, em virtude do pós-Thatcherismo e da crise mundial de 2008, se encontra em uma situação delicada de precariedade trabalhista e social. Por meio de representações contidas na obra, é possível perceber as consequências negativas da precarização do trabalho para a coesão social. Utilizando o cinema como o único mecanismo capaz de reunir um realismo fictício e uma linguagem artística, a produção cinematográfica traz debates importantes para os campos sociológicos e historiográficos da atualidade.

‘I’m Talking But No One Is Listening’

Even though Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s term ended in 1990, the reverberations of her policies have lingered on in British politics, culture and social life. This paper discusses the legacy of Thatcher within the soundscapes present in the 2016 social realist film I, Daniel Blake (dir. Ken Loach). By looking at the effects of Thatcher’s policies and how they are made audible in working class communities, this paper ultimately questions whether her presence has truly disappeared. In employing the fields of hauntology and sound studies as an approach to Thatcherism, this study sonifies the voices of the past, and questions how they will echo in the future.

Uberização, ode à crise e precarização: desempenho, cansaço e colonização do tempo

O artigo discute perspectivas contemporâneas relacionadas ao mundo do trabalho e a intensidade das transformações práticas, teóricas e discursivas no contexto da ordem capitalista neoliberal que invocam, por um lado, a noção de liberdade, autonomia, flexibilização e incentivo ao empreendedorismo e, por outro, redimensionam o âmbito da precarização configurando uma ordem facetada por reformas trabalhistas e sociais que reduzem o espaço de direitos. Referencia-se o processo de uberização do trabalho, a noção de cansaço, colonização de tempo 24/7 e a incrustação da precarização de categorias amplas e significativas de trabalhadores. Procura-se observar de que maneira os fatores elencados associam-se à legitimação, cristalização, incentivo e acentuação da falta de limites com relação à exploração e desestabilização das condições de trabalho na atualidade. Conclui-se que a tecnologia inaugura novos padrões e processos de trabalho e estes são permeados por empregos precários, mal remunerados e instáveis afetando de forma ampla a vida dos trabalhadores uberizados, para além da esfera laboral. Os recursos metodológicos do texto perpassam por recortes teóricos das obras de Antunes (2020, 2018, 2009), Abílio (2020, 2019a, 2019b), Crary (2016) e Han (2017), além de aportes midiáticos e artísticos para referenciar a realidade das condições e experiências do trabalho na atualidade: a série Years and years (2019) produzida pela BBC e HBO, o curta-documentário Vidas Entregues (2019) de Renato Prata Bitar, o filme Você não estava aqui (2019) dirigido por Ken Loach e o quadro modernista de Goya, O sono da razão produz monstros.

From In Two Minds to MIND: The circulation of ‘anti-psychiatry’ in British film and television during the long 1960s

This article explores the circulation of ‘anti-psychiatry’ in British film and television during the long 1960s, focusing on the controversial BBC television play In Two Minds (1967) and its cinema remake Family Life (1971). These films were inspired by R. D. Laing's ideas on the aetiology of schizophrenia, and were understood as uniting the personal and political motivations of progressive film-makers (Ken Loach, Tony Garnett, David Mercer) and progressive psychiatrists (Laing, David Cooper, Aaron Esterson). Drawing upon practitioner interviews with producer Garnett and director Loach, and extensive archival research on the production and reception of these films , this article contests previous scholarship on the popular circulation of anti-psychiatry and the movement's perceived polarisation from mainstream British psychiatry. While the reception of In Two Minds and Family Life did intensify an adversarial relationship between ‘rebel’ anti-psychiatrists and hard-line behaviourists such as William Sargant, the wider psychiatric field largely welcomed the films' contributions to mental health awareness and used the publicity to counter the idea of a ‘battle’ within the profession. This included leading UK mental health organisation the National Association for Mental Health looking to Loach and Laing as models for engaging contemporary audiences as it rebranded to MIND in 1972 . This article contributes to historical understandings of the complex interactions between the fields of media and mental health, as well as recent scholarship challenging the idea of a clear split between anti-psychiatry and British medical orthodoxy.

Ken Loach and the Comedians: The Politics of ‘Acting’

This article explores a gap in the scholarship on Ken Loach's film-making, focusing on his casting of comedians in central roles and the specific impacts of such casting strategies across Loach's work. While the relevance of such casting to Loach's project has been anecdotally acknowledged in criticism, this article recommends a more systematic historical and aesthetic approach. After summarising the theoretical considerations around acting as a practice and its ‘problem’ within Loach's terms, I consequently look at the broader institutional and political contexts of actor preparation training and casting in British television and film since Loach's emergence as a director in the 1960s, and the relevance of comedian casting within these. Drawing on a sample of Loach's films, I then offer a more systematic analysis of how the comedian's body, voice and action signify, examining how such ‘realist’ performances respond to the cultural conventions of ‘trained’ actor practice, as well as the narrative and broader institutional conventions of comedy performance in mainstream film.

Legal Consciousness and Administrative Justice

This chapter draws attention to the ways in which the study of legal consciousness can provide added depth to studies of administrative justice. Perhaps surprisingly, given the prevalence of the former, it has yet to have much impact on the field of administrative justice. Drawing attention to the state of the art in legal consciousness studies, as well as those studies which do explore the interaction between legal consciousness and administrative justice, the chapter considers the possibilities raised and issues which have been addressed. The chapter develops its argument about the significance of the interaction by analysing the Ken Loach film I, Daniel Blake, arguing that cultural artefacts themselves can hold clues as to legal consciousness. Through that analysis, the chapter explores themes of systemic injustice, resistance and justice seeking in the interactions between the film’s protagonist and the administrative machinery of the welfare state.