Capital Labor Research Articles

Class formation and capital accumulation in the countryside: Artisanal and small‐scale gold mining in South Kivu, DR Congo

AbstractTo date, the expansive social science literature on artisanal and small‐scale mining (ASM) in Africa has received little attention from scholars of agrarian political economy. This paper attempts to bridge this gap, based on an in‐depth study of ASM in South Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The main argument is that the capital–labour social relation underpinning ASM in South Kivu has facilitated the emergence of a capitalist managerial class of dynamic and prosperous rural Congolese. This class has, in turn, been driving increasing sectoral productivity via technological assimilation and capital formation, while also making commercial and productive investments in other, non‐mining sectors. Drawing from the findings, the common conceptualisation of African ASM as a low productivity, subsistence activity is questioned, and the perception in the existing literature that African ASM miners and foreign mining corporations are not in competition for the same mineral deposits is challenged.

Unemployment, tax competition, and tax transfer policy

AbstractThe reduction of capital tax rates witnessed over the past two decades has been motivated by the wish to boost investment and reduce unemployment. Previous models of tax competition have explored the consequences for capital allocation in great detail, but have mostly been silent on the employment effects due to the assumption of a perfect labor market. To address the impact of tax competition on employment and public good provision, this paper reconsiders the analysis in the presence of a labor market imperfection that generates unemployment. We incorporate a wage rigidity and intergovernmental transfers financed by the labor income tax into the standard tax competition model to explore the outcome of federal–state policy interaction. The key factors in determining the efficiency are the capital–labor substitutability/complementary and the cost of the efficient level of public good supply relative to the ability of the labor income to generate revenue. When the labor income tax is insufficient for financing, there can only be efficiency if the aggregate externality is negative—but this outcome is only one of multiple equilibria. We also show that federal government leadership is effective to provide public goods efficiently by state governments if capital and labor are substitutes.

Labour in Pandemic Capitalism

Abstract This article aims to point out some of the main destructive trends in relation to the working class that, although not caused by the covid-19 pandemic, are being widely intensified amid this health crisis. Thus, the intention is to show that the antisocial metabolism of the capital system has been developing ‘laboratories’ to experiment with labour, driven by large corporations and digital platforms, of which ‘Uberised work’ and remote working from home are examples, and that these trends have tended to expand in the post-pandemic period, further aggravating the precarious conditions of the working class on a global scale. Long working hours, intense forms of exploitation and the complete lack of labour rights constitute some of the main proofs of these precarious conditions, resulting in the elimination of large sectors of the working class that have become superfluous and disposable, thus increasing unemployment.

Articulations of workplace precarity: Challenging the politics of segmentation in warehouse logistics

As critical nodes for global commodity flows, warehouses are an important example of segmented labour regimes which partition workers into groups with different conditions of security or its opposite, precarity. An emerging literature on warehouse work has tended to place segmentation in the context of managerial despotism based upon low wages, high labour turnover and job insecurity. However, the literature has, thus far, tended to pay comparatively less attention to workers’ collective resistance and its relationship to intra-labour divisions reproduced through segmentation. In refocusing attention to this problem, this article addresses the theoretical status of intra-labour groups, the nature of horizontal worker-to-worker relations, and their interaction with workers’ social identities and vertical capital–labour relations. It argues that the Gramscian concept of articulation provides the most promising frame for understanding these networked relations and for addressing how the politics of segmentation can be challenged by building common cause among divided workers.

Becoming Horse–Capitalism and the Human Identity: An Analysis of Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You

The aim of the article is to dissect the phenomenon of capitalist labor in the US as depicted in Boots Riley’s film Sorry to Bother You (2018). The primary focus of the article is the film’s rendering of the creation of horse humans which the article reads as a metaphor for class relations in the modern society. First, the article analyzes the film’s plot in the context of the cultural assumptions and beliefs connected with the figure of the horse. Next, it draws on Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of “becoming-animal” in order to unveil the revolutionary potential possibly latent in hybridization. Finally, after commenting on the ways in which capitalism weaponizes technological development, the article inscribes the notion of hybridization into the nature-culture dichotomy.

Communities of skill in the age of capitalism: Handloom weavers in twentieth-century United Provinces, India

AbstractThe role of skills has been eclipsed in the transition from an agrarian-craft economy rooted in hand-labour in small households to a modern political economy where productive work takes place outside the household, in offices and factories. Yet the ideological erasure of skilled work should not be confused with its actual disappearance. Precisely because such work was typically construed as private and unimportant, the embedded hierarchies and skills that shaped the handloom weaving industry in the North Indian province of United Provinces under colonial rule could escape systematic conversion to capitalist structures. Skill as human capital constituted the capitalist labour processes in the modern handloom industry, not as an abstract act, but as a historical experience. Handloom workers were reproduced, generationally, socially, and hierarchically, through the passing on of skilled labour within the unorganized informal sector of handloom weaving. Thus the stuff of community skills should move beyond its projection as either ‘endangered’ or ‘regressive’ to explore its access to capitalist structures and the exploitative networks that contain, transmit, and enable the production of skills.

Nothing But Workers: Reading Class Struggle In Diamela Eltit’s Mano de obra

In this essay I study the supermarket in Diamela Eltit’s Mano de obra as a site of class struggle. Despite readings that see in the novel a representation of post-work society, several scholars have noted that Mano de obra can be productively read as a novel that explores the centrality of labour in present-day capitalism. In this article I suggest that Eltit’s novel offers, at the level of form, a powerful reflection on labour exploitation as mediated by the sale and purchase of labour-power. I emphasise two processes that the novel registers in relation to the neoliberal working-day: the changes in the inward notation of time brought about by the expansion of the service industry, and the compenetration between the disciplinary practices of the workplace and the affective structures of the household. I conclude the essay by showing how the punctuation of the novel, in particular the overabundance in the use of parentheses, gives formal expression to the fundamental reality hidden behind the sale and purchase of labour-power: the dispossession of the worker from her own living body.

Ladies Aid as Labor History

AbstractIn the Arabic-speaking mahjar (diaspora), the plight of the working poor was the focus of women’s philanthropy. Scholarship on welfare relief in the interwar Syrian, Lebanese, and Palestinian diaspora currently situates it within a gendered politics of benevolence. This article reconsiders that frame and argues for a class-centered reassessment of “ladies aid” politics exploring the intersections of women’s relief with proletarian mutual aid strategies. Founded in 1917, the Syrian Ladies Aid Society (SLAS) of Boston provided food, shelter, education, and employment to Syrian workers. SLAS volunteers understood their efforts as mitigating the precarities imposed on Syrian workers by the global capitalist labor system. Theirs was both a women’s organization and a proletarian movement led by Syrian women. Drawing from SLAS records and the Syrian American press, the article centers Syrian American women within processes of working-class formation and concludes that labor history of the interwar mahjar requires focus on spaces of social reproduction beyond the factory floor.

Towards Export-Led Growth in the West Africa Sub Region Economies

The policy of import substitution dominated developing economies especially Sub-Sharan African countries up till 1970. The focus later shifted to pursuing growth through increased export. Recently, countries of the West Africa Sub-region are clamoring for a revisit of growth through import substitution policies. This study therefore delved into the question of whether ECOWAS countries should go for import substitution growth strategy, or to develop strategy that promotes export-led growth, following the law of comparative advantage or a considerable mix of the two strategies. Using an export-augmented neoclassical production function, the study tested how relevant is the Export-led Growth Hypothesis for the ECOWAS sub-region over the period 1980-2014.
 Evidence does not offer a strong support for the Hypothesis in the short run but a strong evidence for improved capital stock and labor causing growth. However, long-run results suggest a significant relationship between export and growth but currently negative. A likely explanation of this negativity is that although exports, in the West African sub-regions has the tendency of increasing growth in the long run along with other factors of production, the present conditions of export, especially manufactured and agricultural exports, is experiencing a kind of “Import surge”. That is the import content of exports is high and the local content is low, thus reducing the spillover or multiplier effects. This was confirmed by the strong bilateral causality between export and import discovered in this study. A policy mix of import substitution and export promotion strategies was recommended for countries in this sub-region. Policies that will promote technological innovation in manufacturing and linkages with local suppliers alongside incentives to produce towards export are imperative. Production towards export should be focused on manufactured and agricultural products where each country has the highest comparative advantage so as to reduce the import content of the export.

Talking about human formation at the interface with identity and difference

This paper want to discuss and to present reflections on human formation, on the matter of identity and difference, in a school curriculum that seeks not only professional training for the capitalist labor market, but also the socialization and subjectivation of the individual. This is a bibliographical study, a dialogue with the concepts of Cestari (2014), Severino (2006), Biesta (2012) and Silva, (2001; 2014). The provocations established in this work are not intended to elicit ready-made solutions, but rather to point out reflections on the educational objectives regarding the formation of the being, permeated by identity and difference. What is proposed in this space is to provoke cogitations that enable everyone involved in education to think and rethink their actions and practices at educational matter.

Tobacco Industry Agglomeration and Industrial Pollution Emission: Nonlinear Test Based on Panel Data

In the past 40 years, the agglomeration of tobacco industry plays a vital role in economic growth in China. Meanwhile, the rapid economic development has paid serious environmental and energy costs.Based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2005 to 2015, this paper uses the differential GMM method to empirically test the relationship between the agglomeration of tobacco industry and industrial pollution emissions. The study found that the spatial agglomeration of the tobacco industry has a significant negative impact on industrial wastewater, sulfur dioxide and industrial dust emissions. Capital labor, enterprise scale, and pollution control investmentall have a significant impact on pollution emissions.Therefore, the increase in the agglomeration of China’s tobacco industry is conducive to reducing industrial pollution emissions.

Living differently? A feminist-Bourdieusian analysis of the transformative power of basic income

This article examines the idea that basic income has transformative power. It does so by scrutinising Erik O. Wright’s theory of transformation from a feminist-Bourdieusian perspective. Rather than assuming a direct link between basic income and actors’ turning away from the capitalist labour market, this is a perspective that emphasises conditions of possibilities for practices beyond paid work and employment. To explore actors’ practices, I analyse how basic income would interact with both the objectified social structures and incorporated dispositions – above all, with actors’ dominant disposition to paid work. I argue that for basic income to transform capitalism, a transformation of the habitus is needed.

Cube Fest 2022

Cube Fest 2022

Impact of industrialization on China’s regional energy security in the New Era

This research is one of the very few studies that seeks to examine the association between China’s industrial development and its energy sustainability. It does so by discussing the impact of industrialization on energy security in the new era, during which the focuses of industrialization and energy security in China have changed. The former has shifted from quantity-based expansion to quality-based growth, while the latter has shifted from supply security to comprehensive security, including matching security. Since researchers have paid little attention to evaluations of industrialization and energy security from the perspective of the new era, this study aims to address this gap. An empirical study on the impact of industrialization on energy security is conducted, taking 30 provinces in China as research objects. The findings show that China’s energy supply security and consumption security have improved but that its matching security has deteriorated, which will eventually lead to an overall deterioration in energy security. Industrialization, however, can improve levels of energy security, supply security, and consumption security. Moreover, green technology efficiency and the capital–labor ratio both can improve levels of energy security and supply security, the former can also improve the level of consumption security and the latter can also improve the level of matching security. In contrast, an increase in GDP per capita inhibits energy security, supply security, consumption security, and matching security. This study will be helpful for policymakers seeking to resolve the issue of energy sustainability in the context of industrialization in China’s new era.

Dynastic aura: Proximity to the powerful and its promise in corporate South Korea

This article discusses the experiences of high-level managers at a South Korean conglomerate named ‘Sangdo’ who worked within the corporate group’s head office under the owner-executive family. These highly credentialled professionals were attracted to the idea of working directly under or alongside an elite, wealthy corporate dynasty who both owned the conglomerate and were its top executives. Rather than seeing this as a site of inherent conflict between the familial and the professional, I describe how the idea of working alongside and for such elites was enhanced by a ‘dynastic aura’. Through the concept of dynastic aura, I highlight how, in South Korea, families that own business groups are objects of public fascination, particularly as indicators of the future of the economy. In the context of Sangdo, I describe how managers were drawn to the potential of working with a new generation of Sangdo ownership, who sought to centralize and systematize expertise within a holding company. I show how this aura figuratively wore off for managers as they came to understand that ownership was just as entangled in the corporate form – not necessarily above or outside of it – as they were. The article highlights how certain aspects of kinship (such as dynasties and generational succession) still animate capitalist labour, even for non-family members. Additionally, the article calls attention to the way that actors engage with and understand powerful actors in their own right, going beyond accounts of anthropologists’ own direct encounters with the powerful.

Wealth distribution and skills generation under public and private education systems

Purpose This paper aims to understand the differing impacts of wealth distribution on human capital accumulation and skilled-unskilled labour generation under three educational paradigms as follows: private, public and a system of mixed education. Design/methodology/approach The authors use an overlapping generations model. Findings The wealth dynamics show that both in the private education system and public education system, there are two possible outcomes- stagnation and steady growth depending on the efficiency of the education system, skill premium and other parameters. The choice of the education system through voting is discussed. It is found that skilled workers would always vote for private education whilst unskilled workers vote for private education if public education expenditure of the economy is low. Research limitations/implications The study is subject to several limitations. This paper considers the rate of interest and wage rate to be exogenously given, and thus ignores the general equilibrium effects. The authors do not consider the labour-leisure choice. The introduction of labour leisure choice in the model would alter many of the results. The authors do not consider heterogeneous ability across individuals. The analysis of the differential efficiency of the different education systems needs further, rigorous research. Also, this paper does not consider other occupations such as entrepreneurship and self-employment. This paper considers the labour demand function to be perfectly elastic, and hence, does not consider any demand constraint. What happens if bequests are taxed? What happens if parents are not altruistic? These questions may be addressed in future research. Social implications If the proportion of tax paying skilled labour is low in any country, pure public education may not be able to generate sustained human capital growth. For countries with a sufficiently large proportion of skilled labour, the public education system would be successful. On the other hand, if skill premium is low or the education system is poorly managed private education system may fail too. Originality/value Whilst investigating the effects of public vs private education on growth and development in the presence of unequal wealth distribution, The authors have tried to address a few questions. First, why the public education system has been successful in skill accumulation in developed countries whilst it has failed to do so in less developed countries? Second, why do some countries with mostly privately run educational institutions perform much better in human capital production whilst others do not? Third, in an economy with unequal wealth distribution, what are the factors that result in public or private education as a voting equilibrium outcome?

The moral economy of labour and resistance to commoditisation in the Matagalpa highlands of Nicaragua

ABSTRACT Nicaraguan campesinos partially resist the commoditisation of labour through different ways of valuing, pricing and prioritising their work. Resistance is enabled by everyday practices, moral ideologies and social norms regarding labour exchange. Moral norms simultaneously enable safety nets for emergencies and the destitute, and allow people to participate in capitalist labour markets with a degree of autonomy. However, these moral economies disguise class and gender conflicts. This article breaks down the idea that market exchanges are only profit-seeking and gift-giving is solely the product of mutuality: labour exchanges are a contested battlefield, where exploiters can portray themselves as helpers.

Research on High-Quality Development Efficiency and Total Factor Productivity of Regional Economies in China

Different from the developmental mode of western developed countries, China’s economy has changed from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development, where the people’s growing needs for better lives can be met, embodying this new concept of development. The aim of our study is to evaluate the high-quality development efficiency and total factor productivity (TFP) of regional economies in China, and to explore the characteristics of spatial-temporal pattern evolution and their influencing factors. By using the slacks-based measure of directional distance functions (SBM-DDF) model, based on the undesirable output perspective, the high-quality development efficiency and TFP of regional economies in China, from 2000 to 2018, are evaluated in this paper. The exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) and Tobit models are then used to identify the spatial-temporal correlation patterns and influencing factors of high-quality development efficiency and TFP. The key results show the following: (1) from 2001 to 2018, the greatest high-quality development efficiency and TFP belonged to China’s eastern region and the least to its central region. (2) U and inverted-U trend lines show that high-quality development efficiency has significant regional difference in the east–west direction, presenting a significant feature of spatial imbalance. (3) Government, urbanization rate, and marketization level play a positive role in their impact of TFP, whereas financial development, infrastructure, foreign direct investment, and capital labor ratio play a negative one.

Evaluating the Dynamic Energy Production Efficiency in APEC Economies

This study introduces the translation adjustment model of Seiford and Zhu (2002) into dynamic DEA models to measure and analyze the dynamic energy efficiency of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies from 2010 to 2014. The APEC economies are divided into annual energy and overall energy efficiency ratings, and improvement directions are proposed for the different variables. With the proposal of magnitude, this study discusses the changes in intertemporal conversion variables and proposes suggestions for improvement. Finally, this study analyzes the implications of energy investment and the efficiency policies of APEC economies. The results show that economies with the lowest overall energy efficiency ratings have great potential for improvement. Reducing capital stock, labor, fossil fuel consumption, and CO2 emissions while increasing GDP can increase energy efficiency ratings. However, economies do not want to reduce the state’s capital stock, and labor and population birth adjustments are difficult. Energy efficiency can only start by adjusting the consumption of fossil fuels, CO2 emissions, and GDP. The results indicate that to improve energy efficiency and reduce fossil fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, economies are expected to increase their GDP unless they enact cuts through policy and technical approaches, appropriately adjust their energy policies, and actively develop new energy technologies to effectively reduce CO2 emissions and achieve optimal energy efficiency.

Tectonic Microphonics

“Tectonic Microphonics” explores the politics of seismologists’ use of the microphone to listen to the deep, elusive sounds of the Earth in the years around 1900. It argues that seismological representatives of three emerging nation-states and empires—Italy, Japan, and Britain—used the microphone to lay claim to elusive geophysical data, encrypted in fleeting, earthly sounds. It suggests that seismologists’ enhanced knowledge of the subterranean movements of the Earth, a purported consequence of their microphonic aurality, represented a form of geopolitical currency. Such powers of prediction were viewed as an important index of national security and scientific development: the microphone thus represented an opportunity for occupants of seismic geographies (like Italy and Japan) to overcome what Deborah Coen has referred to as the “deterministic geography of security and risk” that, for some geologists, reduced them to the status of “barbarians.” At the same time, this article demonstrates that valorizing the civilizing consequences of this form of technologically mediated aurality relied upon extractive ecologies of capitalism and exploitative human labor that were often obscured by scientific users and their global networks of collaborators and enablers. As the article's concluding section shows, these activities came on the heels of the birth of one of the earliest ideas of the Anthropocene, circulated in the writings of an Italian geologist as a term for the agency of white, European, “steam-powered” men (a circumscribed Anthropos) over the Earth, its fossil resources, and its less-than-human laborers. This article concludes by arguing that the microphone established a standard of anthropogenic aurality fit for the birth of the age of the Anthropocene.