The Political Economy of Transition: Socio-Ecological Change in Medellin & Antioquia

COVID-19大流行极大地改变了人们对工作的看法（Hodder，2020）。大规模的社会经济变化，包括休假工资、在家工作安排和关于什么是“关键工人”的辩论，都表明工作是有可塑性的，可以通过人类行动加以改变。尽管在更广泛的文献中研究不足，但人类机构在工作中所起的决定性作用在整个流行病期间一直令我着迷。在美国，这种决心表现为对工作和工作条件的抵制。一场重新兴起的工会运动动员起来，反对恶劣的工作条件和扣留劳动力，向雇主发起挑战。仅在2021年10月，就有超过100，000名美国工人参加了工业行动（相比之下，2010年全年有44，500名美国工人参加了罢工），评论员认为这标志着权力从企业到劳动力的重大转变（Thorbecke，2021; Economist，2021）。与此同时，对工作这一概念的抵制也在发展。在线社区，如“R/反工作”，旨在揭露“有偿工作作为收入分配制度的根本不足和全面问题”，已经见证了追随者和媒体报道的大幅增长（埃利希，2021年未分页）。反工作团体已经发展到如此程度，以至于高盛（Goldman Sachs）等主要金融机构将其指定为劳动力市场参与的“长期风险”（金融时报，2022年）。本项目旨在探索和批判性地评估这两个运动的发展和潜力。研究报告在COVID-19大流行期间，美国工会和反工作运动在多大程度上以及为什么发展壮大。使用“现实世界”和数字民族志方法的创新组合来收集关于工会和反工作运动的数据。批判性地评估这些社会运动作为抵抗形式所产生的影响，调查它们的影响和改变未来工作的潜力。根据这些动向，确定全球工作可能采取的未来方向。文献综述本研究将为“工作危机”的争论提供一个新的视角。当前的文献可以追溯到Frey和Osborne的论文《就业的未来》（2013年; Hester，2018年），它假设了一种现有的和不断加速的状况，即工人越来越多地被迫从事不稳定的工作，这支撑了一种看似无处不在的工作自动化风险（Mason，2015年; West，2018年; Smith，2020年）。重要的是，这场危机被定义为一个“自动”客观的技术过程，源于取代就业的技术进步和总体经济发展（Brynjolfsson & McAfee，2014; Srnicek &威廉姆斯，2016; Bastani，2018）。因此，现有的工作未来方法忽视了主观性和人为干预的作用，而倾向于技术决定论，这与大流行的现实相矛盾（Dinerstein & Pitts，2021年第6页）。因此，这些文献未能解释斗争和抵制对改变我们与工作的关系可能产生的影响。这产生了一个一维的叙述，有可能阻碍政治和社会呼吁大流行后“更具包容性”的复苏，因为1）忽视了劳工运动和人类机构对改变“工作”的影响，2）对关于大规模自动化和工作未来的假设不加质疑（门多萨，2020;斯宾塞，2018）。为了减轻这一风险，本项目将研究在大流行期间出现的具体工作阻力。在概念上，我将借鉴“作为批判社会理论的政治经济学批判”的理论方法来完成这个项目。

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically transformed perceptions of work (Hodder, 2020). Wide-scale socioeconomic changes, including furlough pay, work-from-home arrangements and debates about what constitutes a "key-worker" have demonstrated that work is malleable, and can be transformed through human action. The determining role which human agency maintains with regards to work, although under-researched across the wider literature, has fascinated me throughout the pandemic. In the United States, this determination has taken the form of resistance against work and working conditions. A resurged trade union movement has mobilised against poor working conditions and withheld labour in a challenge to employers. During October 2021 alone, over 100,000 US workers participated in industrial action (By contrast, 44,500 US workers went on strike in the entirety of 2010), with commentators suggesting that this marks a significant shift in power from business to labour (Thorbecke, 2021; Economist, 2021). At the same time, resistance to the very notion of work has developed. Online communities such as "R/Anti-work," which aim to expose a "fundamental inadequacy and sweeping problem with paid work as a system of income allocation," have witnessed substantial growths in following and media coverage (Ehrlich, 2021 unpaginated). Anti-work groups have grown to such a degree that major financial institutions, such as Goldman Sachs, have designated them as a "long-term risk" to labour market participation (Financial Times, 2022). This project seeks to explore and critically assess the growth and potential of these two movements.Research QuestionTo what extent, and why, have trade union and anti-work movements in the USA grown and developed during the COVID-19 pandemic.This research question is underpinned by three objectives:1. To use an innovative combination of 'real-world' and digital ethnographic methods to collect data on trade union and anti-work movements.2. To critically assess the impact that these social movements have had as forms of resistance, investigating their influence and potential to transform the future of work.3. To identify the prospective directions which work may take globally, in light of these movements. Literature ReviewThis research project will offer a novel contribution into debates concerning the "crisis of work." The current literature, which can be traced back to Frey and Osborne's paper The Future of Employment (2013; Hester, 2018), posits an existing and accelerating state of affairs in which workers are increasingly forced into precarious employment, buttressed a seemingly ubiquitous risk of job automation (Mason, 2015; West, 2018; Smith, 2020). Importantly, this crisis is framed as an 'automatic' objective technical process stemming from job-replacing technological advancement and overarching economic developments (Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2014; Srnicek & Williams, 2016; Bastani, 2018). As such, existing approaches to the future of work neglect the role of subjectivity and human intervention in favour of a technological determinism which has been contradicted by the realities of the pandemic (Dinerstein & Pitts, 2021 p.6). The literature therefore fails to account for the influence that struggles and resistances can have on changing our relationship to work. This produces a one-dimensional narrative which risks impeding the political and social calls for a "more inclusive" post-pandemic recovery by 1) ignoring the influence that labour movements and human agency can have on changing 'work,' and 2) leaving unchallenged the assumptions made about mass automation and the future of work (Mendoza, 2020; Spencer, 2018). To mitigate against this risk, this project will research the concrete resistances to work which have developed during the pandemic. Conceptually, I will draw on the 'critique of political economy as a critical social theory' theoretical approach to accomplish this project.