This article aims to refresh class analysis in order to develop a better understanding of different modalities of reproduction of labour quite often without economic and social security in different historically specific contexts. It draws attention to the pertinence of exploring the ways in which the individuals comprising a particular movement experience specific moments of collective will formation within an authoritarian state form. In this regard, it focuses on the implications of the privatization of SEEs since the 2000s for workers who were made redundant and deprived of their social rights. On the basis of a field research with more than 100 former workers of TEKEL (a major privatized SEE) who staged a resistance to the AKP government’s offer of precarious employment status during the winter of 2009–10, the article provides a critical evaluation of this momentous experience pondering why such a moment of collective will formation failed to pave the ground for the development of a counter-hegemonic strategy. While aiming to assess the impact of this common experience on the ex-workers’ awareness of their class belonging who actually carried the brunt of the neoliberal assault on their economic and social well-being, the article argues that the particular employment policy did not simply introduce informalization into public sector but functioned as a labour containment strategy by the AKP government.
Decentralization is generally accepted as one of the defining or distinguishing features of the third wave of democratic transition in Latin America. Decentralization, in fact, is commonly understood as an index and an agent of democratization. This article tests this optimistic perspective inherent in the literature and examines the effects of decentralization policies on the design of local development programs in a northern state of Mexico, Chihuahua. The case of Chihuahua shows that, although decentralization policies have expanded local participation in policy design and making, they have failed to bring equal access to local state power by various local social groups. After the decentralization of development programs, internationalized local capitalists have gained privileged access to political power. Thus, decentralization can easily be a vehicle of class domination and may not be a panacea for unequal power relationships in local politics.
Résumé
Il est généralement admis que la décentralisation fait partie des traits déterminants ou distinctifs de la troisième vague de transition démocratique en Amérique latine. En fait, elle est couramment appréhendée comme indice et agent d'une démocratisation. Cet article met à l'épreuve cette perspective optimiste propre à la littérature, et étudie les incidences des politiques de décentralisation sur la conception des programmes de développement local dans un État du nord du Mexique, Chihuahua. Ce cas montre que, même si les politiques de décentralisation ont étendu la participation locale au sein des processus de conception et de décision des politiques publiques, elles n'ont pas réussi à ce que divers groupes sociaux locaux accèdent égalitairement au pouvoir à l'échelon de l'État local. Après la décentralisation des programmes de développement, les capitalistes locaux de stature internationale ont acquis un accès privilégié au pouvoir politique. La décentralisation peut donc facilement être un instrument de domination de classe, et ne pas se révéler la panacée en cas de relations de pouvoir inégales en matière de politiques locales.
<p>A continuación presentamos dos visiones sobre la obra de Boaventura de Sousa: la primera de la socióloga mexicana Raquel Sosa, y la segunda de la socióloga turca Aylin Topal.</p><p>Boaventura de Sousa Santos es hoy, probablemente, el sociólogo más conocido del mundo. Ha logrado transitar de su formación filosófica a los estudios culturales, los derechos humanos y, más tarde, a los movimientos sociales y las cuestiones ambientales. En una era de especialistas, no es frecuente encontrar a alguien que pueda involucrarse en tantas áreas del conocimiento y logre reconocimiento como una persona con una visión consistente y profesional en todos los asuntos de su interés.</p>
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