Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Labor Geography of Financial Service Restructuring in Colombia

尽管近几十年来全球金融服务业的增长是惊人的，但相对而言，很少有学术关注劳动力参与的地理维度以及全球经济变化对人们日常生活的影响。这个博士论文研究项目将探讨全球金融资本流动增加对发展中国家服务工作者生活的影响。通过这个项目要回答的关键问题是：在全球金融资本日益流动的时代，地方力量的作用是什么？职业重组、身份变化、工人组织形式和抵抗之间的关系是什么？实地考察将持续9个月。第一阶段的重点是对波哥大四大银行的高级代表进行一系列深入访谈，讨论外国资本流动对哥伦比亚金融服务劳动力市场的影响。第二阶段将从中央统一工会（Central Unitaria de Trabajadores）的劳工组织者的角度审视重组。第三阶段对工人的访谈将阐明工作性质和空间的变化与妇女如何看待自己作为政治行动者之间的关系。对服务工作和工会程序的参与观察也将用于阐明金融服务生产与工会谈判的关系。本研究将为理解全球金融重组如何与从地方到全球的政治进程交织在一起做出理论和实证贡献。通过综合劳动地理学、批判发展地理学和批判女性主义理论对劳动关系的研究，该项目将产生跨学科的理论视角。本研究通过对不断变化的就业条件和公民参与形式的空间分析，将经济生产和政治代表的概念联系起来，并将探讨雇主、工会会员和工人如何通过他们的工作经验来解释政治经济的范围及其在其中的作用。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。

Although the growth of global financial service industries has been phenomenal in recent decades, relatively little scholarly attention has been given to geographic dimensions of labor force participation and the impacts of global economic changes on people's everyday lives. This doctoral dissertation research project will explore the ways in which increasing flows of global financial capital impact the lives of service workers in developing countries. Critical questions to be answered through this project are: What is the role of local forces in an era of increasing flows of global financial capital? and What is the relationship between the restructuring of occupations, changing identities, and forms of worker organization and resistance? Fieldwork will be conducted over a nine-month period. The first phase will focus on a set of in-depth interviews with senior representatives of the top four banks in Bogota concerning the impact of foreign capital flows on financial services labor markets in Colombia. The second phase will examine restructuring from the perspective of labor organizers of the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores. Interviews with workers in the third phase will elucidate the relationship between changes in the nature and spaces of work and how women perceive of themselves as political actors. Participant observation of service work and union proceedings also will be used to illuminate the relations of financial service production and union negotiation. This research will make theoretical and empirical contributions to understanding how global financial restructuring is intertwined with political processes that span scale ranging from the local to global. By synthesizing approaches to labor relations from labor geography, critical development geography and critical feminist theory, the project will generate cross-disciplinary theoretical perspectives. This research connects conceptualizations of economic production and political representation through a spatial analysis of changing terms of employment and forms of civic engagement, and it will explore how employers, unionists and workers interpret the scope of, and their role in, the political economy through their experience of work. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.