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

转型的政治经济学：麦德林的社会生态变化

• 批准号: 2722653
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2722653
• 关键词: Political; Economy; Transition; Socio; Ecological

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.

新冠肺炎的流行已经戏剧性地改变了人们对工作的看法(霍德，2020年)。大规模的社会经济变化，包括休假工资、在家工作的安排以及关于什么是“关键工人”的辩论，都证明了工作是可塑性的，可以通过人类行动来改变。人类机构在工作中所起的决定性作用，尽管在更广泛的文献中没有得到充分的研究，但在整个大流行期间一直让我着迷。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，并扣留工人，以挑战雇主。仅在2021年10月，就有超过10万名美国工人参加了劳工行动(相比之下，2010年全年美国工人罢工4.45万人)，评论人士指出，这标志着权力从企业转向劳动力的重大转变(Thorbecke，2021年；经济学人，2021年)。与此同时，对工作概念本身的抵触情绪也在发展。像“R/反工作”这样的在线社区，旨在揭露“有偿工作作为一种收入分配制度的根本不足和普遍问题”，已经见证了关注者和媒体覆盖率的大幅增长(Ehrlich，2021年，无页)。反工作团体已经发展到了如此程度，以至于高盛等主要金融机构已将其列为参与劳动力市场的“长期风险”(英国“金融时报”，2022)。本项目旨在探索和批判性地评估这两场运动的增长和潜力。研究问题工会和反工作运动在多大程度上以及为什么会在新冠肺炎大爆炸期间发展和发展。这项研究问题基于三个目标：1.使用‘现实世界’和数字人种学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，调查它们对改变未来工作的影响和潜力。根据这些动向，确定全球工作可能采取的未来方向。文献综述本研究项目将为有关“工作危机”的争论提供一种新的贡献。目前的文献可以追溯到Frey和Osborne的论文《就业的未来》(The Future of Employee，2013；Hester，2018)，它假设了一种现有的、不断加速的状况，即工人越来越被迫从事不稳定的工作，支撑了似乎无处不在的工作自动化风险(Mason，2015；West，2018；Smith，2020)。重要的是，这场危机被认为是一个“自动”的客观技术过程，源于取代就业的技术进步和总体经济发展(Brynjolfsson&McAfee，2014；SRNicek&Williams，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，而偏向于一种与大流行的现实相矛盾的技术决定论(Dinestein&Pitts，2021年，第6页)。因此，文献没有考虑到斗争和抵抗对改变我们的工作关系可能产生的影响。这产生了一种单向度的叙述，有可能阻碍政治和社会对大流行后“更具包容性”的复苏的呼吁，因为1)忽视了工人运动和人类机构可能对改变“工作”产生的影响，以及2)保持对大规模自动化和工作未来的假设不受挑战(门多萨，2020；斯宾塞，2018)。为了减轻这种风险，该项目将研究在大流行期间形成的对工作的具体抵抗力。在概念上，我将借鉴《政治经济学批判作为一种批判的社会理论》的理论方法来完成这个项目。