Pablo Pérez-Ahumada
Biographic Data
| ID | 211412 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Pablo Pérez-Ahumada |
| GIVEN NAMES | Pablo |
| FAMILY NAME | Pérez-Ahumada |
| SIGNATURE | PÉREZ-AHUMADA P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Chile |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0410-0725 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 33 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 24 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Between Authoritarian Legacies and the Emerging Revitalization
This article analyzes how the politico-economic and institutional changes imposed by the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) have affected Chilean trade unionism. It explores how the Plan Laboral de 1979 (1979 Labor Plan) and the political repression dismantled the base of trade union power built over much of the 20 th century and how this has limited labor power since the transition to democracy. Through a historical and analytical revi…
Class Solidarity or Representation Gaps? Union Attitudes Among Formal and Informal Workers in Argentina and Chile
This article examines whether formal and informal workers in Argentina and Chile hold different attitudes toward labor unions. Engaging debates on labor-market dualism and union revitalization, we assess the representation gap hypothesis—which expects weaker union support among outsiders—against the class solidarity hypothesis, which anticipates broadly similar orientations across labor-market positions. Using original 2025 survey data from both …
The conditioning power of class
In an age of deepening inequality, most sociological research has examined how perceptions of injustice motivate collective action. This article reverses that perspective to explore how participation in collective action shapes attitudes toward income inequality—and how this process is shaped by class. Using nationally representative panel data from Chile (2016–2023), we analyze perceptions of fair pay gaps between top managers and unskilled work…
Why are union members more willing to strike and protest than non-union members? Evidence from Argentina and Chile
Empirical studies have shown that union members are more likely to participate in collective actions than nonunion members. However, we still know little about the mechanisms that explain why this occurs. In this article, we aim to fill this gap in the literature. Using data from the World Values Survey for Argentina and Chile (2006–2018), we employed the Karlson–Holm–Breen mediation analysis to analyze the degree to which the relationship betwee…
Política de clases y confianza en los sindicatos en América Latina
En este artículo, estudiamos qué factores individuales y contextuales explican la confianza en los sindicatos latinoamericanos. Utilizando datos de Latinobarómetro (2018-2020), mostramos que la confianza en los sindicatos es mayor entre personas de clase trabajadora y clase media asalariada, así como entre quienes se identifican con la izquierda y confían más en las instituciones políticas. A nivel contextual, la confianza es mayor en países neo-…
Trust in unions drives egalitarianism
Despite the fundamental role of unions in reducing economic inequality, social psychology still needs to incorporate the systematic study of unions concerning the contemporary theories of intergroup inequality. In this study, we do so by testing the reciprocal relationship between trust in unions and social‐dominance orientation egalitarianism (SDO‐E) over time. Using data from the Longitudinal Social Survey of Chile, which is a panel study with …
Subjective inequality and attitudes to labor unions
Relaciones industriales y protestas en plataformas digitales. Una comparación Chile-Argentina
En los últimos años, las protestas de repartidores/as de plataformas digitales se han multiplicado en el mundo. Sin embargo, los estudios que expliquen la evolución desigual de estas movilizaciones en distintos contextos nacionales aún son escasos. Este artículo compara la actividad de protesta de repartidores/as de plataformas en Argentina y Chile entre 2018 y 2023. Sostiene que el argumento centrado en las condiciones de trabajo o las decisione…
Identity Investments
Conflits du travail dans des contextes de fragmentation et de pluralisme syndical. Analyse empirique du cas du Chili
L'incidence des grèves au Chili a considérablement augmenté depuis la fin des années 2000. Dans cet article, nous analysons l'activité de grève en nous concentrant sur un aspect clé du modèle chilien de relations de travail: le pluralisme syndical. Sur la base d'une enquête représentative des entreprises du secteur privé, nous estimons des modèles de régression logistique qui indiquent que le pluralisme syndical augmente significativement la prob…
La sociología en Chile a 50 años del golpe
of a disciplinary field
Trade union strength, business power, and labor policy reform
In this article, I explain why pro-labor reforms succeed or fail. Focusing on the cases of Argentina and Chile, I show that labor reforms are more successful in extending trade union rights when unions successfully build associational power and employers are less able to do so. Consistent with this argument, a quantitative analysis of time-series cross-sectional data from 78 countries suggests that the level of class power disparity is negatively…
Class identity in times of social mobilization and labor union revitalization
Over the past decade, there has been a revival of social protest and labor union activity in Chile. In this article, we examine the effects of this phenomenon to analyze its influence on working-class identity. Using International Social Survey Programme surveys from 2009 and 2019, we investigate whether class location and union membership affect people's subjective identification with the working class and how that effect may have changed over t…
Clase, política y percepción del conflicto de clases en Chile
En la última década, Chile ha experimentado un renacer de la política contenciosa, cuyo punto más alto se observó durante el Estallido Social de octubre de 2019. Una serie de investigaciones han estudiado la revitalización de las protestas en Chile, mostrando cómo ellas son el resultado del malestar generado por los altos niveles de desigualdad socioeconómica y de poder del país. A pesar de esto, pocas investigaciones han analizado cómo los chile…
Anita Hammer and Adam Fishwick, The Political Economy of Work in the Global South
Why Is It So Difficult to Reform Collective Labour Law? Associational Power and Policy Continuity in Chile in Comparative Perspective
Since Chile returned to democracy in 1990, centre-left governments have tried to reform the provisions on collective bargaining, strikes and unions established by the Pinochet dictatorship. Between 2015 and 2016 President Michelle Bachelet made the latest attempt to reform them. Despite favourable conditions, the changes were modest. This article explains why this is so. Drawing upon the notion of 'associational power' and through comparisons wit…
The Service Industry, Private-sector Employment and Social Class in Chile
For decades, analysts believed that the expansion of the service sector would lead to a 'middle-class' society. By the late 20th century, class analysts and labour process scholars called into question this argument. They showed that distinctions such as that between 'white-collar' and 'blue-collar' work failed to capture the dynamics of control and exploitation within production. Nevertheless, in Chile and other parts of Latin America, research …
Social classes, economic sector sand changes in the chilean social structure, 1992 and 2013
According to recent research studies, a central characteristic of Chilean society is its mesocratization, in other words the sustained growth of the middle class. This article tests that thesis empirically, using Erik O. Wright’s class model and the shift-share analysis technique to study the changes that occurred in Chile’s class structure in two periods 1992–2003 and 2003–2013. The study concludes that the idea of mesocratization is questionabl…
The identity of class in Latin America
Class identity is a key mechanism in the explanation of class-based collective action. For decades, this was particularly relevant in Latin America, where objective class inequality was persistent and there was a long history of collective action, originating in the workplace and expressed through unions and labor parties. Despite persistent inequalities in the region, since the 1990s scholars increasingly claimed that the relation between object…
The intersection between class and gender and its impact on the quality of employment in Chile
This study explores the impact of the intersection between class and gender on the quality of employment in Chile. The method used to measure social class position is based on the work of Erik O. Wright, while, for the quality of employment, a multidimensional measurement was used, including one index for objective working conditions and two indices for subjective ones (motivation on the job and the perception of control over work processes). The…
The End of a Traditional Class Distinction in Neoliberal Society
For several decades, the distinction between 'white-collar' (non-manual) and 'blue-collar' (manual) work occupied a central place in the analysis of working-class consciousness. According to many scholars, the expansion of non-manual employment was key to dismantling traditional working-class identities. Although several analysts noted the irrelevance of the white-collar/blue-collar distinction as a determinant of class consciousness, the most re…
Class consciousness in a mature neoliberal society
Encontrando lo que nunca estuvo perdido. Conciencia de clase y conflicto de clases en el régimen neoliberal chileno
In this research I examine the patterns of class conflict in contemporary Chilean society. To do so I focus on how the different social classes support dissimilar sociopolitical orientations towards several class-related issues. In particular, this research draws on the literature on class consciousness to analyze three main components of people’s class consciousness: 1) Class identity, 2) Perceptions of class conflict, 3) Attitudes toward state …
The mercantile form of value and its place in Marx's theory of the commodity
This paper reinterprets Marx's theory of the form of value in the context of his theory of the commodity. Building on the unresolved tension between Marx's concept of value and the specific character of the labour constituting itself as value in his theory of commodity production, it is argued that Marx's is actually a theory of the mercantile form of value. Thus, it becomes evident that the process of realisation of material production in commod…
The identity of class in Latin America
Class identity is a key mechanism in the explanation of class-based collective action. For decades, this was particularly relevant in Latin America, where objective class inequality was persistent and there was a long history of collective action, originating in the workplace and expressed through unions and labor parties. Despite persistent inequalities in the region, since the 1990s scholars increasingly claimed that the relation between object…
Class consciousness in a mature neoliberal society
Why Is It So Difficult to Reform Collective Labour Law? Associational Power and Policy Continuity in Chile in Comparative Perspective
Since Chile returned to democracy in 1990, centre-left governments have tried to reform the provisions on collective bargaining, strikes and unions established by the Pinochet dictatorship. Between 2015 and 2016 President Michelle Bachelet made the latest attempt to reform them. Despite favourable conditions, the changes were modest. This article explains why this is so. Drawing upon the notion of 'associational power' and through comparisons wit…
The End of a Traditional Class Distinction in Neoliberal Society
For several decades, the distinction between 'white-collar' (non-manual) and 'blue-collar' (manual) work occupied a central place in the analysis of working-class consciousness. According to many scholars, the expansion of non-manual employment was key to dismantling traditional working-class identities. Although several analysts noted the irrelevance of the white-collar/blue-collar distinction as a determinant of class consciousness, the most re…
Política de clases y confianza en los sindicatos en América Latina
En este artículo, estudiamos qué factores individuales y contextuales explican la confianza en los sindicatos latinoamericanos. Utilizando datos de Latinobarómetro (2018-2020), mostramos que la confianza en los sindicatos es mayor entre personas de clase trabajadora y clase media asalariada, así como entre quienes se identifican con la izquierda y confían más en las instituciones políticas. A nivel contextual, la confianza es mayor en países neo-…
The intersection between class and gender and its impact on the quality of employment in Chile
This study explores the impact of the intersection between class and gender on the quality of employment in Chile. The method used to measure social class position is based on the work of Erik O. Wright, while, for the quality of employment, a multidimensional measurement was used, including one index for objective working conditions and two indices for subjective ones (motivation on the job and the perception of control over work processes). The…
Relaciones industriales y protestas en plataformas digitales. Una comparación Chile-Argentina
En los últimos años, las protestas de repartidores/as de plataformas digitales se han multiplicado en el mundo. Sin embargo, los estudios que expliquen la evolución desigual de estas movilizaciones en distintos contextos nacionales aún son escasos. Este artículo compara la actividad de protesta de repartidores/as de plataformas en Argentina y Chile entre 2018 y 2023. Sostiene que el argumento centrado en las condiciones de trabajo o las decisione…
Trade union strength, business power, and labor policy reform
In this article, I explain why pro-labor reforms succeed or fail. Focusing on the cases of Argentina and Chile, I show that labor reforms are more successful in extending trade union rights when unions successfully build associational power and employers are less able to do so. Consistent with this argument, a quantitative analysis of time-series cross-sectional data from 78 countries suggests that the level of class power disparity is negatively…
Class identity in times of social mobilization and labor union revitalization
Over the past decade, there has been a revival of social protest and labor union activity in Chile. In this article, we examine the effects of this phenomenon to analyze its influence on working-class identity. Using International Social Survey Programme surveys from 2009 and 2019, we investigate whether class location and union membership affect people's subjective identification with the working class and how that effect may have changed over t…
Social classes, economic sector sand changes in the chilean social structure, 1992 and 2013
According to recent research studies, a central characteristic of Chilean society is its mesocratization, in other words the sustained growth of the middle class. This article tests that thesis empirically, using Erik O. Wright’s class model and the shift-share analysis technique to study the changes that occurred in Chile’s class structure in two periods 1992–2003 and 2003–2013. The study concludes that the idea of mesocratization is questionabl…
The mercantile form of value and its place in Marx's theory of the commodity
This paper reinterprets Marx's theory of the form of value in the context of his theory of the commodity. Building on the unresolved tension between Marx's concept of value and the specific character of the labour constituting itself as value in his theory of commodity production, it is argued that Marx's is actually a theory of the mercantile form of value. Thus, it becomes evident that the process of realisation of material production in commod…
Encontrando lo que nunca estuvo perdido. Conciencia de clase y conflicto de clases en el régimen neoliberal chileno
In this research I examine the patterns of class conflict in contemporary Chilean society. To do so I focus on how the different social classes support dissimilar sociopolitical orientations towards several class-related issues. In particular, this research draws on the literature on class consciousness to analyze three main components of people’s class consciousness: 1) Class identity, 2) Perceptions of class conflict, 3) Attitudes toward state …
Class consciousness in a mature neoliberal society
The intersection between class and gender and its impact on the quality of employment in Chile
This study explores the impact of the intersection between class and gender on the quality of employment in Chile. The method used to measure social class position is based on the work of Erik O. Wright, while, for the quality of employment, a multidimensional measurement was used, including one index for objective working conditions and two indices for subjective ones (motivation on the job and the perception of control over work processes). The…
The End of a Traditional Class Distinction in Neoliberal Society
For several decades, the distinction between 'white-collar' (non-manual) and 'blue-collar' (manual) work occupied a central place in the analysis of working-class consciousness. According to many scholars, the expansion of non-manual employment was key to dismantling traditional working-class identities. Although several analysts noted the irrelevance of the white-collar/blue-collar distinction as a determinant of class consciousness, the most re…
The identity of class in Latin America
Class identity is a key mechanism in the explanation of class-based collective action. For decades, this was particularly relevant in Latin America, where objective class inequality was persistent and there was a long history of collective action, originating in the workplace and expressed through unions and labor parties. Despite persistent inequalities in the region, since the 1990s scholars increasingly claimed that the relation between object…
Social classes, economic sector sand changes in the chilean social structure, 1992 and 2013
According to recent research studies, a central characteristic of Chilean society is its mesocratization, in other words the sustained growth of the middle class. This article tests that thesis empirically, using Erik O. Wright’s class model and the shift-share analysis technique to study the changes that occurred in Chile’s class structure in two periods 1992–2003 and 2003–2013. The study concludes that the idea of mesocratization is questionabl…
The Service Industry, Private-sector Employment and Social Class in Chile
For decades, analysts believed that the expansion of the service sector would lead to a 'middle-class' society. By the late 20th century, class analysts and labour process scholars called into question this argument. They showed that distinctions such as that between 'white-collar' and 'blue-collar' work failed to capture the dynamics of control and exploitation within production. Nevertheless, in Chile and other parts of Latin America, research …
Clase, política y percepción del conflicto de clases en Chile
En la última década, Chile ha experimentado un renacer de la política contenciosa, cuyo punto más alto se observó durante el Estallido Social de octubre de 2019. Una serie de investigaciones han estudiado la revitalización de las protestas en Chile, mostrando cómo ellas son el resultado del malestar generado por los altos niveles de desigualdad socioeconómica y de poder del país. A pesar de esto, pocas investigaciones han analizado cómo los chile…
Anita Hammer and Adam Fishwick, The Political Economy of Work in the Global South
Why Is It So Difficult to Reform Collective Labour Law? Associational Power and Policy Continuity in Chile in Comparative Perspective
Since Chile returned to democracy in 1990, centre-left governments have tried to reform the provisions on collective bargaining, strikes and unions established by the Pinochet dictatorship. Between 2015 and 2016 President Michelle Bachelet made the latest attempt to reform them. Despite favourable conditions, the changes were modest. This article explains why this is so. Drawing upon the notion of 'associational power' and through comparisons wit…
Conflits du travail dans des contextes de fragmentation et de pluralisme syndical. Analyse empirique du cas du Chili
L'incidence des grèves au Chili a considérablement augmenté depuis la fin des années 2000. Dans cet article, nous analysons l'activité de grève en nous concentrant sur un aspect clé du modèle chilien de relations de travail: le pluralisme syndical. Sur la base d'une enquête représentative des entreprises du secteur privé, nous estimons des modèles de régression logistique qui indiquent que le pluralisme syndical augmente significativement la prob…
La sociología en Chile a 50 años del golpe
of a disciplinary field
Trade union strength, business power, and labor policy reform
In this article, I explain why pro-labor reforms succeed or fail. Focusing on the cases of Argentina and Chile, I show that labor reforms are more successful in extending trade union rights when unions successfully build associational power and employers are less able to do so. Consistent with this argument, a quantitative analysis of time-series cross-sectional data from 78 countries suggests that the level of class power disparity is negatively…
Class identity in times of social mobilization and labor union revitalization
Over the past decade, there has been a revival of social protest and labor union activity in Chile. In this article, we examine the effects of this phenomenon to analyze its influence on working-class identity. Using International Social Survey Programme surveys from 2009 and 2019, we investigate whether class location and union membership affect people's subjective identification with the working class and how that effect may have changed over t…
Trust in unions drives egalitarianism
Despite the fundamental role of unions in reducing economic inequality, social psychology still needs to incorporate the systematic study of unions concerning the contemporary theories of intergroup inequality. In this study, we do so by testing the reciprocal relationship between trust in unions and social‐dominance orientation egalitarianism (SDO‐E) over time. Using data from the Longitudinal Social Survey of Chile, which is a panel study with …
Subjective inequality and attitudes to labor unions
Relaciones industriales y protestas en plataformas digitales. Una comparación Chile-Argentina
En los últimos años, las protestas de repartidores/as de plataformas digitales se han multiplicado en el mundo. Sin embargo, los estudios que expliquen la evolución desigual de estas movilizaciones en distintos contextos nacionales aún son escasos. Este artículo compara la actividad de protesta de repartidores/as de plataformas en Argentina y Chile entre 2018 y 2023. Sostiene que el argumento centrado en las condiciones de trabajo o las decisione…
Identity Investments
Why are union members more willing to strike and protest than non-union members? Evidence from Argentina and Chile
Empirical studies have shown that union members are more likely to participate in collective actions than nonunion members. However, we still know little about the mechanisms that explain why this occurs. In this article, we aim to fill this gap in the literature. Using data from the World Values Survey for Argentina and Chile (2006–2018), we employed the Karlson–Holm–Breen mediation analysis to analyze the degree to which the relationship betwee…
Política de clases y confianza en los sindicatos en América Latina
En este artículo, estudiamos qué factores individuales y contextuales explican la confianza en los sindicatos latinoamericanos. Utilizando datos de Latinobarómetro (2018-2020), mostramos que la confianza en los sindicatos es mayor entre personas de clase trabajadora y clase media asalariada, así como entre quienes se identifican con la izquierda y confían más en las instituciones políticas. A nivel contextual, la confianza es mayor en países neo-…
Between Authoritarian Legacies and the Emerging Revitalization
This article analyzes how the politico-economic and institutional changes imposed by the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) have affected Chilean trade unionism. It explores how the Plan Laboral de 1979 (1979 Labor Plan) and the political repression dismantled the base of trade union power built over much of the 20 th century and how this has limited labor power since the transition to democracy. Through a historical and analytical revi…
Class Solidarity or Representation Gaps? Union Attitudes Among Formal and Informal Workers in Argentina and Chile
This article examines whether formal and informal workers in Argentina and Chile hold different attitudes toward labor unions. Engaging debates on labor-market dualism and union revitalization, we assess the representation gap hypothesis—which expects weaker union support among outsiders—against the class solidarity hypothesis, which anticipates broadly similar orientations across labor-market positions. Using original 2025 survey data from both …
The conditioning power of class
In an age of deepening inequality, most sociological research has examined how perceptions of injustice motivate collective action. This article reverses that perspective to explore how participation in collective action shapes attitudes toward income inequality—and how this process is shaped by class. Using nationally representative panel data from Chile (2016–2023), we analyze perceptions of fair pay gaps between top managers and unskilled work…
Political science (18 works) · Labor Movements and Unions (13 works) · Economics (12 works) · Law (12 works) · Politics (12 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Labour economics (7 works) · Social class (7 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (7 works) · Epistemology (6 works)