Work and Livelihoods: History, Ethnography and Models in Times of Crisis

238 Pages·2016·2.145 MB·English

by  Susana Narotzky (editor), Victoria Goddard (editor)

Work and Livelihoods
This volume presents a global range of ethnographic case studies to explore
the ways in which—in the context of the restructuring of industrial work,
the ongoing financial crisis, and the surge in unemployment and precari-
ous employment—local and global actors engage with complex social pro-
cesses and devise ideological, political, and economic responses to them. It
shows how the reorganization and re-signification of work, notably shifts
in the perception and valorization of work, affect domestic and community
arrangements and shape the conditions of life of workers and their families.
Victoria Goddard is Professor and National Teaching Fellow at the Anthro-
pology Department at Goldsmiths.
Susana Narotzky is Professor of Social Anthropology at the Universitat de
Barcelona, Spain.
Routledge Studies in Anthropology
27 The Anthropology of Postindustrialism
Ethnographies of Disconnection
Edited by Ismael Vaccaro, Krista Harper and Seth Murray
28 Islam, Standards, and Technoscience
In Global Halal Zones
Johan Fischer
29 After the Crisis
Anthropological thought, neoliberalism and the aftermath
James G. Carrier
30 Hope and Uncertainty in Contemporary African Migration
Edited by Nauja Kleist and Dorte Thorsen
31 Industry and Work in Contemporary Capitalism: Global Models,
Local Lives?
Edited by Victoria Goddard and Susana Narotzky
32 Anthropology and Alterity
Edited by Bernhard Leistle
33 Mixed Race Identities in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific
Islands
Edited by Farida Fozdar and Kirsten McGavin
34 Freedom in Practice
Edited by Moises Lino e Silva and Huon Ward
35 Work and Livelihoods
History, Ethnography and Models in Times of Crisis
Edited By Susana Narotzky and Victoria Goddard
Work and Livelihoods
History, Ethnography and Models
in Times of Crisis
Edited by
Susana Narotzky and
Victoria Goddard
First published 2017
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2017 Susana Narotzky and Victoria Goddard
The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been
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ISBN: 978-1-138-81398-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-74780-4 (ebk)
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Contents
List of Figures viii
Acknowledgments ix
List of Contributors x
1 Work and Livelihoods: An Introduction 1
VICTORIA GODDARD
SECTION I
Past, Present and Future: Generations in Times of Crisis 29
2 Lost Generations? Unemployment, Migration
and New Knowledge Regimes in Post EU Poland 31
FRANCES PINE
3 Credentialism and Recommendations: The Bases of the
Reproduction of the Metallurgical Working Class
in Contemporary Argentina 46
LAURA PERELMAN AND PATRICIA VARGAS
4 Continuity and Disruption: The Experiences of Work
and Employment across Three Generations
of Steelworkers in Volta Redonda 60
GONZALO DÍAZ CROVETTO
SECTION II
Continuities and Discontinuities 75
5 Post-Fordist Work Organization and Daily Life from
a Gender Perspective: The Case of FIAT-SATA in Melfi 77
FULVIA D’ALOISIO
vi Contents
6 Opening the Black Box of Employability: Change
Competence, Masculinity and Identity of Steelworkers
in Germany and the UK 93
VERA TRAPPMANN
7 Employment Precariousness and Social Reproduction
in the Shipbuilding Industry of Piraeus 109
MANOS SPYRIDAKIS
SECTION III
Lives of Worth 121
8 Regimes of Value and Worthlessness: How Two
Subaltern Stories Speak 123
DON KALB
9 Post-industrial Landscape: Space and Place in the Personal
Experiences of Residents of the Former Working-class
Estate of Ksawera in Będzin 137
KAZIMIERA WÓDZ AND MONIKA GNIECIAK
SECTION IV
The Politics of Resistance 155
10 Workers and Populism in Slovakia 157
JURAJ BUZALKA AND MICHAELA FERENCOVÁ
11 ‘A Trojan Horse in Our Midst’: The Saturn Plant
and the Disorganization of Autoworkers in the US 172
SHARRYN KASMIR
12 Getting by Beyond Work, or the Intertwining of Production
and Reproduction among Heavy Industry Workers
and Their Families in Ferrol, Spain 187
IRENE SABATÉ MURIEL
Contents vii
Afterword 203
Making Difference: Concluding Comments on Work
and Livelihoods 205
SUSANA NAROTZKY
Index 217
Figures
4.1 Generations at CSN, Volta Redonda. 69
9.1 The ruins of the crèche facilities, Ksawera Estate. 142
9.2 The former mine infrastructure: the canteen and restaurant
buildings, Ksawera Estate. 143
9.3 The derelict swimming pool of the “Zagłębianka” sports
complex. 143
9.4 Będzin Ksawera railway station. 144
9.5 The new urban landscape: the “Pogoria” hypermarket. 149
Acknowledgments
The chapters in this edited volume were originally presented at a confer-
ence held in Barcelona in February 2012, which concluded an EU FP7
funded collaborative research project (MEDEA—Models and their Effects
on Development Paths: An Ethnographic and Comparative Approach to
Knowledge Transmission and Livelihood Strategies). We wish to thank the
European Union’s Seventh Framework as well as the University of Barce-
lona and the ARCS-DGR program of the Generalitat de Catalunya for their
support in organizing the conference. We wish to thank the doctoral stu-
dents at the University of Barcelona who helped organize the conference,
in particular Gemma Anton, Jaime Palomera and Diana Sarkis. We would
like to thank as well the many colleagues whose participation in the confer-
ence enriched the debate. In addition to the contributors to this volume, we
would mention Flavia Lessa de Barros, Paz Benito del Pozo, Carmen Bueno,
Arianna Dal Forno, Andrea Fumagalli, Enrico Gibellieri, Elena González-
Polledo, Rosana Guber, Costis Hadjimichalis, Douglas Holmes, Gustavo
Lins Ribeiro, Ubaldo Martínez Veiga, Edoardo Mollona, David Ost, Luis
Reygadas, Lydia Morris, Jonathan Parry, and Gavin Smith. We are grateful
to the staff at Goldsmiths, University of London and to the University of
Barcelona, and the Fundació Bosch Gimpera for the support and assistance
they provided the MEDEA project. Finally, we would like to acknowledge
the encouragement and guidance offered by staff at the European Com-
mission, in particular Ronan O’Brien, Maria del Pilar González Pantaleón,
Marie Ramot and Ivkov Stoyan.
We also take this opportunity to thank friends and colleagues for their
encouragement, inspiration and critique over years of collaborative work
and intense debate. To our families, our gratitude for their understanding
when pressing deadlines have diverted our energies away from the support
and care they deserve.