Contours Of Conflict Research Articles

Economic Rents and the Contours of Conflict in the Data-Driven Economy

In the era of continuous and steadily accelerating technological change that started with the industrial revolution, economies and societies were repeatedly transformed in ways that can be linked to ownership of the essential and scarce factor of production of the day and command of the economic rents that flow to that factor. While history allows many narratives to be spun, the contours of conflict, both internal and between states, can be seen as aligned with the contest over rents – from the wars of territorial acquisition of the feudal era when land was the main source rents, to the wars of mercantilist expansion when the economies of scale generated by the machinery of mass production became the main source of rent, to the resource-rent-fuelled oil wars of the modern era, and in recent decades the proliferating conflicts over intellectual property. With the digital transformation we are seeing the emergence of a new type of economy – the data-driven economy, in which data is the essential factor of production. Data generates massive rents, fuels the rise of superstar firms, and generates powerful incentives for strategic trade and investment policy. The emergence of this new economy signals a new era of conflict, on new battlegrounds, with new tools or weapons, between new coalitions within and amongst countries. This conflict is already upon us. The vast rents prospectively at play in the data-driven economy arguably constitute a major (perhaps the major) trigger for the open trade and technology war between the United States and China. They also are at the heart of the brewing conflicts over taxation of digital platform firms. This note describes the contours of the conflicts that are to be expected with the digital transformation as it realigns interests, compares these expectations with actual developments, and comments on the implications for the rules-based system of international commerce.

‘WORKER CONTROL’ IN THE AUSTRALIAN OIL INDUSTRY

Institutions of the state, in the form of industrial tribunals, were in the past entrenched in the development of the detailed labour process in Australian workplaces. This paper explores a case where the NSW Industrial Commission came to actively structure the contours of the effort bargain at a NSW oil refinery in the late 1970s. Importantly the activities of the tribunal influenced the deliberate choices of management and workers at the refinery resulting in a particular type of conflict taking shape at this workplace. There emerged a set of polarised industrial tactics centred on the assertion of ‘workers control’ by the operator's union and moves to restrict this control by company management. These tactics provided limited scope for genuine co-operation between management and workers at this workplace. The presence of the industrial tribunal was not merely a mediating factor in the development of these industrial tactics and consequently the particular nature of conflict that emerged. Rather the New South Wales Industrial Commission came to be an important determinant in shaping conflict and co-operation at the refinery. The evidence from this case suggests that, in particular places at particular historical moments, the activities of the state actively structure the detailed labour process and the contours of conflict at work.

Contours of Conflict in the 21st Century

Contours of Conflict in the 21st Century

Popular Liberalism and Indian Servitude: The Making and Unmaking of Ecuador’s Antilandlord State, 1845–1868

Popular Liberalism and Indian Servitude: The Making and Unmaking of Ecuador’s Antilandlord State, 1845–1868