On Coerced Labor

Vito, Christian G. De

doi:10.1163/9789004316386

Cited by 22 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 3 publications

(13 reference statements)

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“…Thousands of Asian indentured labourers, the ‘coolies’, were moved around the globe under often inhuman conditions to replace slave labour after the abolition of slavery (Allen 2014; Meagher 2008; Northrup 1995). Such exploitative labour relations and global infrastructures of violence clearly demonstrate continuities with colonial slavery (Breman 1989; van der Linden and Rodríguez García 2016; Zeuske 2015) and premodern forms of bonded servitude (Behal and van der Linden 2006; Bush 2000; Klein 1993).…”

Section: The Longue Durée Of Precarious Labour: Accumulation By Precamentioning

confidence: 99%

Southeast Asian Trajectories of Labour Mobility: Precarity, Translocality, and Resilience

Tappe

Nguyen

2019

TRaNS

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Within and across Southeast Asian national borders, there has been a growing circulation of labour, capital, people, and goods. Meanwhile, urbanisation, agrarian changes, and liberal economic restructuring have been drawing a large section of the rural population into mobile economies and trade networks. This special issue explores the linkage between mobility and the growing precaritisation of labour resulting from neoliberalised development policies, nationalist citizenship regimes, and discourses, and arbitrary state power. Arguably, the consequent insecurity and uncertainty have profound implications for the social and economic life of migrant labourers. Although these conditions engender dangers and risks, they also hold possibilities for crafting translocal livelihoods and social relations. In this introduction, we investigate the diverse trajectories of labour migration in Southeast Asia through a critical discussion on the concept of ‘precarity’ that underscores the resilience of labour migrants despite the precarious conditions of their lives. The special issue suggests that, while precarious labour has long been part of regimes of control and exploitation in the region, precarity today is shaped by the blurry boundaries between the legal and the illegal, between local and global lives, and between different worlds of belonging.

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Section: The Longue Durée Of Precarious Labour: Accumulation By Precamentioning

confidence: 99%

Southeast Asian Trajectories of Labour Mobility: Precarity, Translocality, and Resilience

Tappe

Nguyen

2019

TRaNS

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“…The term that is most often used to denote such labour relationships is unfree labour (Andrijasevic and Novitz, 2020;Banaji, 2010;Barrientos, 2013;Barrientos et al, 2013;Brass, 1999Brass, , 2011Brass, , 2017Frantz, 2013;Fudge, 2018;Gore and LeBaron, 2019;Kothari, 2013;LeBaron, 2015;LeBaron and Phillips, 2019;Lerche, 2007;Morgan and Olsen, 2014;Strauss and McGrath, 2017;Rioux et al, 2020;LeBaron and Phillips, 2019). Other terms such as neo-bondage (Breman, 1996;Mezzadri, 2017), modern/new/contemporary slavery (Bales, 2012;International Labour Organization (ILO), 2017;McGrath, 2013aMcGrath, , 2013bMiers, 2000), bonded labour (Damir-Geilsdorf, 2016;Srivastava, 2005) or forced/coerced labour (Allamby et al, 2011;ILO, 2017;Lerche, 2007;Phillips, 2013;Phillips and Mieres, 2014;Strauss, 2012;Van der Linden and Rodríguez García, 2016;Verité, 2014) are less frequently used. The main reason the term unfree labour is so widely used is the fact that slavery and forced labour are legal categories.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unfree Wage Labour

Breznik

2023

Critical Sociology

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The article develops the concept of ‘unfree wage labour’ that refers to a situation in which a worker must (temporarily and conditionally) give away possession of his labour power to a third party who then sells it to the buyers of labour power. From the perspective of contract freedom and legal equality, it seems irrelevant whether a worker sells his or her labour power to an employer or to an intermediary. However, there is no doubt that labour intermediation increases the economic dependence and social subordination of workers. First, given that the intermediary negotiates with the employer, the worker has a lower ability to influence the terms of employment. Second, given that he or she is a contract worker, they have a lower ability to engage in collective action in the company. Undoubtedly, this worker has significantly lower control over her or his working and living conditions. The question arises whether his or her contract freedom lessened to the extent that we can speak of unfree wage labour.

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