Abstract
This article focuses on a paradigmatic type of knowledge work: informatics. Specifically, it studies the processes of precarity and precariousness taking place in the Argentinian software and information services (SIS) sector. After a brief introduction, it discusses the relevant literature, introducing the concepts of precarity and precariousness. Then it looks at the data relating to employment, exports and wages in the Argentinean SIS sector before moving on to address a key element for understanding precarity: the complexities of unionisation in the SIS sector. Finally, it analyses precariousness in the sector by attempting to characterise the subjectivities of these workers.
Highlights
In the current stage of capitalism, Informational Capitalism, the main form knowledge work takes is that of informational labour (Castells, 1996; Fuchs, 2011; Zukerfeld, 2013)
We present evidence here that suggests that the vast majority of software workers are not covered by a union or, in the best case, are subsumed under unions that have little connection with the SIS sector
Even worse, when the evolution of the purchasing power of their salaries is calculated, we discover that informatics workers are the only category who lost purchasing power over the period 1998–2014
Summary
In the current stage of capitalism, Informational Capitalism, the main form knowledge work takes is that of informational labour (Castells, 1996; Fuchs, 2011; Zukerfeld, 2013). 88 The precariousness of knowledge workers (Part 2): forms and critiques of autonomy and self-representation hand, and more importantly, ideological discourses about autonomy, individual achievement, ‘talent’, entrepreneurship and so on have really shaped these workers’ subjectivity and are a key to understanding their precarisation After this introduction, the second section of this article briefly discusses the relevant literature, introducing the concepts of precarity and precariousness in the context of recent Argentinian economic trends. The Argentinian literature on labour precarity conceived it as a process of degradation of the ‘classic wage relation’ or ‘Fordism’, and defined it in contrast to ‘real jobs’ or ‘typical employment’ (Neffa, Oliveri, Persia & Trucco, 2010:6) These publications typically clustered under the concept of labour precarity unregistered or informal workers, those whose employment was not covered by the legal framework, who were excluded from social security and who lacked union representation. Benefiting from public policies ( the enacting of the Software Law in 2004), its most striking aspect,
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