Labor, capital and resistance: Collective and individual forms of workplace struggle

In this panel, the focus is on the continuity and changes in the conflict between labor and capital and how it is manifested in the everyday life of workers and workplace struggles. 40 years of neoliberal labor market politics have in many ways transformed the Swedish labor market weakening workers as a collective and unions. At the same time, we see both collective and individual responses to the increasing exploitation and overexploitation of workers in the contemporary racialized capitalism, both in Sweden and transnationally.

These responses and struggles have been organized both within and outside traditional union struggles and, in some cases, organized in alliances with other social movements. Therefore, it is also of importance to explore the everyday forms of resistance carried out at workplaces. These new forms of workplace struggles raise a variety of questions that we want to address in this panel.

Theories of intersectionality have been central in order to expand the understanding of the relationship between labor and capital and what shapes it, as well in expanding our understanding of what work is. In addition, intersectional analysis has also contributed to our understanding of workplace struggles and the working life of the working-class. Therefore, we also welcome abstract submissions for papers on intersectional understandings of the relationship between labor and capital as well as intersectional analysis of work, workplace struggles and the working life of the working-class.

Key words

Workplace struggles, exploitation, racial capitalism, working class, workplaces, everyday forms of resistance, intersectionality.

Abstracts can (but are not restricted to) include the following themes:

Collective and individual workplace struggles

The role of unions in workplace struggles or lack of workplace struggles Working life precarity

Neoliberal racialized capitalism

Relationship between workplace struggles and other forms of social struggles Everyday forms of workplace struggles

The role of professionalism in workplace struggles Employer’s strategies to increase exploitation and profits Intersectional analyses of workplace inequality and struggles

Transnational employee’s strategies and worker’s transnational responses.

The intersection between the migration- and the labor regime and how it shapes labor relations and labor struggles.

Paula Mulinari1, Lena Sohl2 and Paulina De Los Reyes3

1Docent , Lektor , Fakulteten För Hälsa Och Samhälle Institutionen För Socialt Arbete, Malmö Universitet

2Doktor , Biträdande Lektor, Sociologi, Södertörns Högskola

3Professor , Professor , Ekonomisk Historia , Stockholms Universitet