Labour futures: A comparative study of precarious labour and cooperative enterprise in Kampala and Dar es Salaam

劳动力未来：坎帕拉和达累斯萨拉姆不稳定劳动力与合作企业的比较研究

• 批准号: ES/W011468/1
• 负责人: Michaela Collord
• 金额: $ 28.52万
• 依托单位: University of Nottingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FW011468%2F1
• 关键词: Labour; futures; comparative; study; precarious

Informal or "precarious" labour - associated with insecure work, low pay and poor conditions - is on the rise globally. This trend raises pressing questions about the future of work. Who will work, under what conditions, for whom? These questions are particularly salient in Africa where informal labour accounts for an estimated 86 percent of total employment. Moreover, nowhere is the informal workforce growing faster than in the region's expanding cities.In response to this labour precarity, a large body of work emphasises the need for more formal sector employment; however, precarity persists across both the formal and informal economies of the global south and, increasingly, the global north too. Meanwhile, 'formalization' efforts yield mixed results with no clear impact on poverty levels. The proposed research adopts an alternative emphasis, building on work examining self-organising as a means for the precariously employed to secure better working conditions. This line of inquiry also raises important questions about how, especially in the authoritarian contexts that prevail in much of Africa, collective action can help redress the power imbalances that disadvantage workers relative to private sector and allied state actors. Various forms of worker collective action-including trade unions, worker associations and the like-have produced mixed results in the past. This study will examine the specific role of co-operative (co-op) organising in mitigating the adverse conditions that perpetuate workers' precarity. Through a comparative study of urban co-ops in Kampala and Dar es Salaam, the commercial capitals of Uganda and Tanzania, the research will determine whether and how these groups enhance the economic security and organisational power of their members. By focusing on co-ops, the research will address an important empirical gap in the literature. Co-ops remain an understudied topic, and this despite their expansion and diversification within urban informal economies, including in Africa amidst a recent co-op "revival". Co-ops are also of growing interest to policymakers, and yet their efficacy in tackling urban poverty and insecure employment remains poorly understood.For its conceptual framing, the research will adapt a "power resource approach" from labour studies. It will analyse how the success of workers' co-op organising depends on their "structural power", their "associational power" and their strategic position within the wider political landscape. This three-part focus will create room to help advance related scholarly debates, namely: (1) on informal workers' position within the wider economic system, whether marginal or potentially more decisive in shaping economic outcomes; (2) on the distinctive power resources that co-op organising may provide, specifically how democratic ownership may distinguish co-ops from other kinds of worker self-organising like unions; and (3) on the significance of worker collective action within the larger urban political arena, notably its potential to create more inclusive politics within otherwise authoritarian contexts. In this way, the proposed research will offer a fresh contribution to literatures on informal labour and co-ops plus urban and authoritarian politics, in the process clarifying the relationship between bottom-up collective action and top-down strategies of authoritarian political dominance. For evidence, the study will examine four co-op case studies, two from each city. These will be selected from transport and trade because of these sectors' economic centrality, their tendency to grow along with a growing urban workforce, and the prevalence of casualised labour conditions. The case study analysis will draw on a strategic mix of methods and sources. It will use original survey data as well as interviews and archival data to examine the co-ops' organisational histories and the experience and work-life histories of their members.

非正规或“不稳定”劳动力-与工作不稳定、工资低和条件差有关-在全球范围内呈上升趋势。这一趋势对未来的工作提出了紧迫的问题。谁将在什么条件下为谁工作？这些问题在非洲尤其突出，因为非正规劳动力估计占总就业的86%。此外，没有任何地方的非正规劳动力增长速度比该地区不断扩张的城市更快。针对这种劳动力不稳定性，大量工作强调需要更多的正规部门就业;然而，全球南方的正规和非正规经济体都存在不稳定性，全球北方也越来越多。与此同时，“正规化”的努力产生了好坏参半的结果，对贫困水平没有明显的影响。拟议的研究采用了另一种强调，建立在工作检查自我组织的手段，为不稳定的就业，以确保更好的工作条件。这一调查路线还提出了一些重要问题，特别是在非洲大部分地区盛行的专制环境下，集体行动如何有助于纠正相对于私营部门和结盟的国家行为体而言工人处于不利地位的权力不平衡。过去，各种形式的工人集体行动，包括工会、工人协会等，产生了好坏参半的结果。本研究将探讨合作社（合作社）组织在减轻使工人的不稳定性永久化的不利条件方面的具体作用。通过对乌干达和坦桑尼亚的商业首都坎帕拉和达累斯萨拉姆的城市合作社进行比较研究，研究将确定这些团体是否以及如何增强其成员的经济安全和组织力量。通过关注合作社，研究将解决文献中的一个重要的经验差距。合作社仍然是一个研究不足的主题，尽管它们在城市非正规经济中扩大和多样化，包括在非洲最近合作社的“复兴”中。政策制定者对合作社的兴趣也越来越大，但人们对合作社在解决城市贫困和就业不稳定方面的功效仍知之甚少。在概念框架方面，本研究将采用劳动力研究中的“权力资源方法”。它将分析工人合作社组织的成功如何取决于他们的“结构性权力”，他们的“结社权力”以及他们在更广泛的政治格局中的战略地位。这三个部分的重点将创造空间，以帮助推进相关的学术辩论，即：（1）在更广泛的经济体系中，非正式工人的地位，无论是边缘或潜在的更具决定性的塑造经济成果;（2）在合作社组织可能提供的独特的权力资源，特别是民主所有权如何区分合作社与其他类型的工人自我组织，如工会;（3）工人集体行动在更大的城市政治竞技场中的重要性，特别是它在其他独裁环境中创造更包容政治的潜力。通过这种方式，拟议的研究将提供一个新的贡献，文献上的非正式劳动和合作社加上城市和威权政治，在这个过程中澄清自下而上的集体行动和自上而下的战略威权政治统治之间的关系。作为证据，该研究将研究四个合作案例研究，每个城市两个。将从运输和贸易中选出这些部门，因为这些部门是经济中心，它们的增长趋势沿着城市劳动力的增长，以及普遍存在的劳动条件多样化。案例研究分析将利用各种方法和来源的战略组合。它将使用原始调查数据以及访谈和档案数据来研究合作社的组织历史及其成员的经验和工作生活史。