Ross Perlin: Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy
Ross Perlin: Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy
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罗斯·佩林（Ross Perlin）：实习国家：如何在美丽新经济中一无所获、学不到什么
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发表时间：
2012
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通讯作者：
T. Brass
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作者：
T. Brass
罗斯·佩林实习生国家：如何在勇敢的新经济中零赚少学，凡尔索：伦敦，2011年，+258pp：9781844676866 14.99[英镑](Hbk)这本杂志的读者不需要说服就能明白新自由主义已经变得多么“狂野”。首先，资本削弱了在政治上(反罢工立法、破坏工会、就业外包、共产主义的垮台、“新工党”的崛起)和意识形态(宣传空洞的“名人”、取代马克思主义分析的“文化转向”)的反对能力，然后资本继续对整个国家进行资产剥离(私有化、欧元区经济危机)。因此，原本可用于教育、卫生、基础设施、公共部门就业或福利计划投资的资源被转移到离岸避税天堂。媒体对此类事态发展的客观性的任何伪装早已不复存在，因为胆小的采访者优先听取市场(银行家、寡头、对冲基金经理、投机者和金融家)的意见，在主张进一步放松监管和紧缩的千万富翁首席执行长面前卑躬屈膝。这场逐底竞赛的一个“野性”方面可能不那么为人所知，那就是它对资本主义社会生产关系的影响。新自由主义导致了针对性别的兼职工作的兴起，这一点是没有争议的；不太常见的是关于其他工作安排(血汗工厂、不自由)的信息，这些安排影响到不同类别的劳动力(移民、青年)。仅出于这一原因，罗斯·佩林的这本书在经验上很有用，但在理论上存在缺陷，这是我们对资本主义正在转变其劳动力的方式的一种可喜的补充。实习生是临时的无薪或低薪的年轻工人，主要是大学生，他们在强迫形式的控制下长时间辛勤工作(第16-17、112、141页)。随着美国和欧洲的资本主义企业越来越多地用这种廉价的短期合同工取代全职员工(永久的、有工会组织的、高薪的)，佩林描绘了实习的兴起。通过坚持通过工作经验获得的学分，大学和学院为学生工作者的无穷无尽的供应提供了燃料(83或93)。从通过学费支付实习费用到现在，随着公司拍卖他们的实习机会，学生必须与其他人竞争才能获得实习机会。尽管实习生鼓吹赋权(获得技能、行使自主权、迈向高薪永久就业的一步)，但实习生做的只是卑微的工作，报酬很少或没有报酬，很少获得全职工作(第23-4、29、70、91页)。这本书的弱点是理论和政治上的：佩林试图解释实习的兴起，并提出解决方案。虽然剥削和削减成本是公认的，但无薪实习倾向于从心理因素(“缺乏尊重”)或人力资本(第126-7,129页)的角度进行经济学分析。佩林认为实习是对资本主义规范的背离，并将补救措施定位于资本主义本身。人们对实习的描述各不相同，如“系统已经脱轨”、“爆炸失控”、“扭曲市场的不公平优势”，其结果是“被操纵的市场”(pp.XVI、4、62、140)。Perlin(第141页)观察到，因为实习“不遵循其他就业市场的正常动态”，所以没有什么比实习市场的供求模式更不自然的了。佩林避开了阶级斗争的方法，但令人困惑的是，尽管它起源于学术界，但研究人员和政策制定者对实习保持沉默，或对此视而不见(pp。XIII，29)，这一观点忽视了一个相当明显的原因：许多具有类似剥削性工作安排的高级学者共谋的长期历史(=研究助理)。他的解决方案--“通过执行现有法律来恢复一个公平、竞争的体系”(pp.…
Ross Perlin Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy, Verso: London, 2011, xviii + 258 pp: 9781844676866 14.99 [pounds sterling] (hbk) Readers of this journal need no convincing as to just how 'feral' neoliberalism has become. Having first undermined the ability to oppose politically (anti-strike legislation, union busting, employment outsourcing, the fall of communism, the rise of 'New Labour') and ideologically (the promotion of vacuous 'celebrity', the 'cultural turn' displacing Marxist analysis), capital then proceeded to asset-strip entire nations (privatisation, economic crisis in the euro zone). Resources that would otherwise be available for investment in education, health, infrastructure, public-sector jobs or welfare programmes were accordingly diverted to off-shore tax havens. Any pretence at media objectivity about such developments has long-since vanished, as craven interviewers privilege the opinions of 'the markets' (bankers, oligarchs, hedge-fund managers, speculators and financiers), grovelling before multi-millionaire CEOS who advocate yet more deregulation and austerity. A 'feral' aspect of this race to the bottom that is perhaps not as well known concerns the impact on capitalist social relations of production. That neoliberalism entails the rise of gender-specific part-time working is not disputed; less commonplace is information about other working arrangements (sweatshops, unfreedom) affecting different categories of labour (migrants, youth). For this reason alone, this empirically useful but theoretically flawed book by Ross Perlin is a welcome addition to our knowledge of the way capitalism is transforming its workforce. Interns are temporary unpaid or low-paid young workers, mostly college students, who toil for long hours under coercive forms of control (pp. 16-17, 112, 141). Perlin charts the rise of internships, as capitalist enterprises in the US and Europe increasingly replace full-time employees (permanent, unionised, well-paid) with this kind of cheap, short-term contract labour. By insisting on academic credits gained through work experience, universities and colleges fuel the endless supply of student workers (83ff., 93). From paying for a placement via tuition fees, a student is now expected to have to bid against others to get one, as companies auction their internships (145ff.). Despite a rhetoric of empowerment (acquiring skills, exercising autonomy, a step towards well-paid permanent employment), interns do no more than menial tasks, receive little or no payment, and rarely obtain full-time jobs (pp. 23-4, 29, 70, 91). The weaknesses of the book are theoretical and political: the attempt by Perlin both to account for the rise of internship, and to suggest a solution. Although exploitation and cost-cutting are acknowledged, unpaid internship tends to be analysed economically in terms of psychologistic factors ('a lack of respect') or human capital (p. 126-7, 129). Perlin sees internship as a deviation from the capitalist norm, and locates remedies within capitalism itself. Internship is described variously as a 'system that has gone off the rails', an 'explosion gone haywire', an 'unfair advantage [that] distorts markets', the result being a 'manipulated marketplace' (pp. xvi, 4, 62, 140). Because internships 'don't follow the normal dynamics of the rest of the job market', Perlin (pp. 141) observes, nothing is 'less natural than patterns of supply and demand in the internship marketplace'. Eschewing a class-struggle approach, Perlin is baffled by the fact that, despite its origins in academia, researchers and policy-makers remain silent about internship or look the other way (pp. xiii, 29), a view that overlooks a rather obvious cause: the long history of complicity by many senior academics with similarly exploitative working arrangements (= research assistants). His solution--'to restore a fair, competitive system' by means of enforcing existing laws (pp. …