INFOWORK

Workers' organization in the informal sector

 Partecipanti

Mappa

 Word cloud

Esplora la "nuvola delle parole (Word Cloud) per avere un'idea di massima del progetto.

 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The research proposal aims at offering new insights into precarious workers’ self-organising and collective resistance under globalised capitalism. Through in-depth ethnographic studies in the informal sector economy of the city of Buenos Aires, the research will explore the forms, methods, alliances and organizational models, used by workers to counter-oppose their precarious working and income conditions. Precariousness, informality, fragmentation, insecurity and inequality are becoming increasingly dominant patterns of employment not just in a developing country like Argentina but also across Europe. Within this context, further strengthened by the current economic crisis, not just the Lisbon strategy of making Europe competitive through more and better jobs needs to be reviewed but also makes reality predictions of a ‘brazilianization’ of dominant economies, seen as increasingly dominated by an economic scenario based on informality and precariousness . Thus, in this perspective the analysis of informal work in the city of Buenos Aires may reflect a not far too distant future for the social cohesion and employment conditions of Europe, calling governments and social institutions to take action. At the same time, it invites trade unions to move beyond purely institutional policy making roles and toward strategies and actions to enlarge the representation of workers in precarious employment.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Examining the precarious self-organising of workers and the collective resistance under globalised capitalism provides new insight into social cohesion and employment conditions.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Informal sectors of the economy contain organisational models that workers use to counter-oppose their work and salary conditions. Factors such as informality, fragmentation, insecurity and inequality are becoming prevalent patterns of employment in Argentina as well as in Europe.

An EU-funded project, 'Workers' organization in the informal sector' (INFOWORK), is looking at the city of Buenos Aires as a primary example of informal employment patterns. As such, it is examining the ways in which workers are able to build a collective organisation despite being dispersed, unprotected and unorganised. It is also looking into the resources they have available and what conditions can be favourable.

Theoretical objectives and activities are being used involving labour and labour relations from interrelated disciplines. So far, one of the outcomes from these is a published book that has successfully blended industrial relations with theoretical insights. This is a result of involving interrelated disciplines such as global labour history, the role of women in the work of social reproduction, and social anthropologists' studies on work and value.

Empirical objectives and activities are also being employed. This involves the collection of data from two stages. Sources include observation of assemblies, meetings and collective events, various types of interviews, historical and media archives, contextual information and statistical data. Field work was used to gather insights from workers in 12 organisations from a variety of sectors. Results have already been presented at various conferences.