Ambiguities and Paradoxes of the Decent Work Deficit

Bonded Migrants in Tamil Nadu

Datos Bibliográficos

ID23239682
AutoresIsabelle Guérin (0000-0002-4476-0074, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement), Subramanian Ponnarasu (0000-0003-1689-9332, French Institute of Pondicherry), Govindan Venkatasubramanian (0000-0002-0949-898X, French Institute of Pondicherry), Sébastien Michiel (0000-0003-4221-4739, Université Bordeaux Montaigne), Sébastien Michiels
Año2012
Volumen3
Número1
Fecha de publicación2012-02-20
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaGlobal Labour Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1918-6711 • E-ISSN: 1918-6711
EditorialMcMaster University Library (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.15173/glj.v3i1.1115
OpenAlexW2170594753
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas10
Referencias citadas16

This paper examines the brick kiln industry in Tamil Nadu as a case study to highlight the discrepancy between normative categories of decent work and workers’ experiences and subjectivities. It highlights the extreme vulnerability of circular migrants while stressing the diversity of circulation channels and how these are both shaped by and constitutive of distinct eco-type systems and village economies. The paper also shows how employers and labour recruiters exploit many different forms of agricultural decline, and how they influence and take advantage of workers’ constraints, expectations and aspirations. It is argued that debt bondage in the brick industry is supported by the decline in agricultural labour and lack of social protection but also partly by the growing consumption needs of labourers. Paradoxically, increasing aspirations for equality and integration are helping to reproduce the conditions for capitalist exploitation and extraction of surplus value.

Agriculture · Brick · Economics · Economy · Geography · Market economy · Normative · Political science · Precarity · Sociology · Tamil · Value (mathematics) · Vulnerability (computing) · Work (physics) · Employment and Welfare Studies · Indian Economic and Social Development · Law · Political Economy and Marxism