Revisiting the Urban Question in the Age of the New Urban Crisis: The (Re)Production of the Regime of Flexible Accumulation

Scholars have recently remarked upon the emergence of what Richard Florida has termed The New Urban Crisis, a global phenomenon whereby cities are being lumped into winners and losers, with inequality rising in the winner cities where real estate prices are pushing out those who most need access to the opportunities hoarded within. In this article, I argue that the new urban crisis is not a crisis of the city per se but is itself a symptom of greater crises occurring at the level of global capitalism. By revisiting Castells’ The Urban Question, I read the new urban crisis as a product of how the urban social structure fits into the reproduction of capitalism on a global scale, arguing that, under the regime of flexible accumulation, the urban social structure is asked to reproduce two distinct circuits of capital accumulation set loose by the transition to post-industrialism: accumulation via production and accumulation via finance. These distinct circuits of accumulation utilize the elements of urban social structures differentially, often at cross purposes. This produces continued crises in the reproduction of capitalism, as well as continually shifting relations between elements of the urban social structure, producing a plurality of urban forms.

The Anthropology of Special Economic Zones (Free Ports, Export Processing Zones, Tax Havens)

Special economic zones (SEZs) are a key manifestation of neoliberal globalization. As of 2020, more than 150 nations operated more than 5,400 zones. The combined workforce of factories and service industries in bonded warehouses, export processing zones (EPZs), free trade zones (FTZs), science parks (SPs), regional development zones (RDZs), economic corridors (ECs), and other types of SEZs exceeds one hundred million. These figures include tax havens, offshore financial centers, and free ports. Neoliberal academics and researchers from international organizations say that this has been a long time coming, as the freedom offered in the zones was integral to being human and first implemented in free ports of the Roman Empire. Critical social scientists, among them many anthropologists, have instead identified the zones as products of a 1970s rupture from Keynesian welfarism and Fordist factory regimes to neoliberal globalization and post-Fordist flexible accumulation. Since the early 21st century, scholarship in anthropology has expanded this critical stance on worker exploitation in SEZs toward a historical analysis of SEZs as pacemakers of neoliberal manufacturing globalization since the 1940s. A second strand of ethnographies uses a postmodern lens to research the zones as regimes that produce neoliberal subjectivities and graduated sovereignty.

A LEGALIZAÇÃO DA BARBÁRIE: a reforma trabalhista e as novas relações de trabalho no Brasil

THE BARBARIES LEGALIZATION: labor reform and new labor relations in BrazilLA LEGALIZACIÓN DE LAS BARBARÍAS: reforma laboral y nuevas relaciones laborales en BrasilRESUMOEste artigo discute as principais mudanças na legislação trabalhista brasileira a partir da entrada em vigor da Lei N°13.467/2017, denominada de reforma trabalhista. Considera essa alteração legislativa como resposta da classe hegemônica brasileira às mudanças estruturais no capitalismo globalizado no bojo da denominada reestruturação produtiva [caracterizada pela ascensão do neoliberalismo e pela substituição do fordismo pelo modelo de acumulação flexível]. A metodologia utilizada constituiu-se em pesquisa bibliográfica e consulta a bases de institucionais [PNAD-contínua e CAGED]. Conclui que a reforma trabalhista tem se configurado num mecanismo de precarização do trabalho no Brasil, caracterizado pelo crescimento do trabalho intermitente, da informalidade e da subutilização, além de restringir o acesso à justiça do trabalho.Palavras-chave: Trabalho; Neoliberalismo; Precarização.ABSTRACTThis article discusses the main changes in Brazilian labor legislation from the entry into force of Law No. 13,467/2017, called labor reform. It considers this legislative change as a response from the Brazilian ruling class to the structural changes in globalized capitalism within the so-called productive restructuring (characterized by the rise of neoliberalism and the replacement of Fordism by the flexible accumulation model). The methodology utilized consisted of bibliographic research and consultation of institutional bases [PNAD-continuous and CAGED]. It concludes that the labor reform has been configured in a mechanism of work precariousness in Brazil, characterized by the growth of intermittent work, informality and underutilization, in addition to restricting access to labor justice.Keywords: Work; Neoliberalism; Precariousness.RESUMENÉste artículo argumenta los principales cambios en la legislación laboral desde la entrada en vigor de Ley N°13.467/2017, denominada reforma laboral. Considere este cambio legislativo como respuesta de la clase hegemónica brasileño a los cambios estructurales en el capitalismo globalizado en el bulto de la denominada reestructuración productiva [caracterizada por la ascensión del neo-liberalismo y por el reemplazo del fordismo por el modelo de acumulación flexible]. La metodología utilizada constituye en busca bibliográfica y consulta la bases institucionales [PNAD-continua e CAGED]. Concluye que la reforma laboral tiene si configurado en un mecanismo precario del trabajo en Brasil, caracterizado por el crecimiento del trabajo intermitente, de la informalidad y subutilización, además de restringir acceso a la justicia laboral.Palabras clave: Trabajo; Neoliberalismo; Precariedad.

COLONIALIDADE, GÊNERO E MERCADO DE TRABALHO: UM DIÁLOGO ENTRE A BIOPOLÍTICA E A NECROPOLÍTICA

Faz-se uma leitura da classe trabalhadora no contexto moderno-colonial utilizando-se das categorias da biopolítica de Foucault e necropolítica de Mbembe. Tais categorias são utilizadas como metodologia de análise dos fenômenos na periferia do capitalismo. Os resultados demonstram que, a produção de valores sempre foi relacionada ao trabalho vivo, contudo, com o advento da reestruturação produtiva, baseada na acumulação flexível, as empresas, descartaram a mão-de-obra (agora sobrante ao capitalismo), além do fato dos trabalhadores que mantiveram seus empregos, passaram a acumular diversas funções. Portanto, identificou-se que a precarização da vida tem incidido sobre a classe trabalhadora, submetida, cada vez mais, a novas formas de exploração da força de trabalho, sendo que na biopolítica inserem-se os trabalhadores formais e na necropolítica, os informais. Isso porque, o padrão que rege a sociedade capitalista é baseado nos valores de troca de mercadorias, logo, o sujeito não inserido nesse processo, é desnecessário para o sistema.Palavras-chave: Classe Trabalhadora. Biopolítica. Necropolítica.COLONIALITY, GENDER AND LABOR MARKET: A DIALOGUE BETWEEN BIOPOLITICS AND NECROPOLITICSA reading of the working class in the modern-colonial context is made using the categories of Foucault's biopolitics and Mbembe's necropolitics. Such categories are used as a methodology for analyzing phenomena on the periphery of capitalism. The results show that the production of values has always been related to live work, however, with the advent of productive restructuring, based on flexible accumulation, companies have discarded labor (now under capitalism), in addition to the fact of the workers who kept their jobs, started to accumulate several functions. Therefore, it was identified that the precariousness of life has affected the working class, which is increasingly subjected to new forms of exploitation of the workforce, with formal workers in the biopolitics and informal workers in the necropolitics. This is because, the standard that governs capitalist society is based on the exchange values of goods, therefore, the subject not inserted in this process, is unnecessary for the system.Keywords: Working class. Biopolitics. Necropolitics.

Diasporic Sexual Citizenship: Queer Language, (Im)Possible Subjects, and Transfiliation

This chapter reviews scholarship on queer language in the diaspora through the lens of flexible accumulation and neoliberal citizenship. The relevance of these ideas to queer linguistic data is illustrated through an analysis of ethnographic fieldwork with 2Fik (pronounced “Toufik”), a French citizen of Moroccan descent and multidisciplinary artist living in Québec, Canada. Queer diasporic speakers like 2Fik stake claims of belonging to multiple spatiotemporalities, drawing on new intersectional possibilities involving families of origin, various local communities, and still wider diasporic terrains—for example, the Maghrebi homeland(s), French society and Francophone global cities, and the broader global and often queer North Atlantic. Yet the use of flexible language(s) associated with “queer diasporic citizenship” differs from previous examples in the extant scholarship. 2Fik’s use of performance and virtual-mediated spaces questions the response to his invitations to participate in a diasporic citizenry, highlighting elements of hypersubjectivity, dis-identification, transgressive filiation (transfiliation), and dissidence.

A Máquina e a Enxada: Economia moral e acumulação flexível no território das confecções em Pernambuco, Brasil

Resumo: Procuramos analisar neste artigo um conjunto de práticas realizadas por trabalhadores situados em espaços rurais no âmbito do universo das confecções de vestuários no interior do estado brasileiro de Pernambuco. O Polo de Confecções do Agreste de Pernambuco compreende-se como um aglomerado constituído majoritariamente por micro e pequenas empresas caracterizado por sua estrutura descentralizada em que a produção de peças de roupas se dá sob regime de subcontratação arregimentando grande número de mão de obra informal e familiar. Dessa forma, nos chama a atenção como se combina uma ordem moral camponesa com práticas que caracterizam a acumulação flexível do capitalismo. No nosso entender, a forma como o trabalho familiar é utilizado mobiliza uma economia moral de forma a engendrar relações não mercantis na produção e comercialização de mercadorias. Dialogando com dados tirados de nossa pesquisa realizada no município de Surubim, discutimos as tensões que envolvem as várias estratégias de reprodução social tecidas por unidades familiares com os diferentes padrões de acumulação de capital.Palavras-chave: Agricultores Familiares. Economia Moral. Estratégias de Reprodução Social. Polo de Confecções do Agreste de Pernambuco. Trabalho MACHINE AND HOE: MORAL ECONOMY AND FLEXIBLE ACCUMULATION IN TERRITORY OF MANUFACTURE IN PERNAMBUCO, BRAZILAbstract: We analyze in this article a set of practices performed by workers located in rural spaces within the universe of clothing manufacturing within the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. The Polo de Confecções do Agreste de Pernambuco is understood as a cluster composed mainly of micro and small enterprises characterized by its decentralized structure in which the production of garments is under subcontracting regimenting large informal and family labor. It strikes us how a peasant moral order is combined with practices that characterize the flexible accumulation of capitalism. In our view, the way family work is used mobilizes a moral economy in order to engender nonmarket relations in the production and marketing of goods. Dialogue with data taken from our research conducted in the city of Surubim, we discuss the tensions surrounding the various strategies of social reproduction woven by family units with different patterns of capital accumulation.Keywords: Family Farmers. Polo de Confecções do Agreste de Pernambuco. Social Reproduction Strategies. Moral Economy. Work

Strategies of Flexible Accumulation and Perceived Employment Insecurity: Is There a Connection?

Existing research on perceived employment insecurity tends to focus on perceptions of job insecurity (a worker’s perception of how vulnerable their position is with their current employer). This study examines perceived labor market insecurity (a worker’s assessment of their job prospects in the broader labor market) alongside perceived job insecurity. The author uses individual-level General Social Survey and publicly available state-level data from 1977 to 2012 to determine and identify strategies of flexible accumulation (e.g., deindustrialization, deunionization, and financialization) that may be associated with these outcomes. The findings indicate that these strategies are associated with greater levels of perceived job insecurity but are not significant for perceived labor market insecurity, which is only positively associated with unemployment at the state level. The author also finds that individual-level factors such as income and part-time status have differing effects for each outcome. In a time characterized by higher levels of employer-employee detachment, these findings have important implications for the study of employment insecurity.

Rationalized aging

There are approximately 4.4 million direct-care workers in the United States. Comprising the labor of nurses, home health aides, certified nursing assistants, personal attendants, and companions to the elderly, direct-care work constitutes one of the fastest-growing labor niches in the United States. Within the commodified caregiving sector, cost-cutting imperatives to subdivide care labor introduce insalubrious complications for patients by cleaving – or attempting to do so – their physical needs from their emotional and relational needs, a process that I label ‘rationalized aging’. In this essay, I reflect on my experiences as a paid elder companion in New York City to argue that this process of subdivision combines earlier nineteenth-century rationalization strategies with neoliberal regimes of flexible accumulation and to highlight the consequences of subdivision in this sector both for care workers and for the patients in their care.