Catálogo de publicaciones - revistas

<jats:p> Precarious work is increasingly considered the new ‘norm’ to which employment and social protection systems must adjust. This article explores the contradictions and tensions that arise from different processes of normalisation driven by social policies that simultaneously decommodify and recommodify labour. An expanded framework of decommodification is presented that identifies how the standard employment relationship (SER) may be extended and flexibilised to include those in precarious work, drawing examples from a recent study of precarious work across six European countries. These decommodification processes are found to be both partial and, in some cases, coexisting with activation policies that position precarious work as an alternative to unemployment, thereby recommodifying labour. Despite these challenges and contradictions, the article argues that a new vision of SER reform promises greater inclusion than alternative policy scenarios that give up on the regulation of employers and rely on state subsidies to mitigate against precariousness. </jats:p>

<jats:p> In recent years sociological research on labour in Argentina has re-flourished. This revival has seen a turn towards the Anglo-Saxon and international traditions of workplace and trade union studies, but it has been generally one-sided, focusing on the relatively successful experiences of trade unions’ organized workers in formal sector workplaces. This has represented a considerable departure from the pre-2001 crisis research’s agenda that focused on unemployment, poverty and the new forms of community based organizations generated by workers in non-work situations. The return to the institutionalized sphere in the analysis of work issues can be partially explained by the changes in the economic and political environment alongside the return to ‘normality’ of the capital–labour relationship. However, it also signals a tendency in labour studies, in Argentina and beyond, of using the union form as the main organizational frame of reference in the analyses of conflict and workers’ representation. </jats:p>

<jats:p> The article identifies how tensions between different levels of worker solidarity helped shape the possibilities of collective action in automobile and related sector trade unions in Argentina. It advances the framework proposed by Morgan and Pulignano in two ways. First, it highlights the interrelation of both the complementarities and the tensions between different solidarity practices. Second, it extends the understanding of how these solidarity practices connect the workplace and community. The contribution is based on thematic analysis of interviews with trade union leaders, representatives and activists that shed light on solidarities produced, as well as tensions and complementarities between them. This is contextualised by the impact of crisis in the automobile sector after 2015, showing how increased worker vulnerabilities affected emergent solidarities. Overall, the article demonstrates the significance of these dynamics for understanding the continued resilience and limitations of trade unions in Argentina and beyond. </jats:p>