Charles Umney
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 267686 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Charles Umney |
| PRENOMES | Charles |
| SOBRENOME | Umney |
| ASSINATURA | UMNEY C |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of Leeds |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5757-920X |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 23 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 297 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 22 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2013 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 9 |
What is human augmentation and why does it matter for the sociology of work? A conceptualization of worker-centred augmentation
‘Human augmentation’ commonly refers to ‘smart’ technologies that integrate with the human body, like exoskeletons, wearables, or modifications like retinal implants, increasing its cognitive or physical capacity. Many definitions of it are problematically broad or questionable. Nevertheless, the idea has gained traction in journalistic and policy debates. Evangelists for augmentation may posit a near-superhuman synthesis between humans and machi…
What Does it Mean to be Passionate about Your Job? Three Meanings of ‘Collectively Oriented Passion’ in UK Pubs
This article examines how understandings of passion shape people’s agency at work, through interviews with UK publicans. It addresses calls to rethink how ‘passion’ is conceptualised in the sociology of work. While discourses around passion are often thought to legitimise individualised working practices, the article explores more collective interpretations. It analyses how publicans exercised agency in negotiating externally imposed problems inc…
How Does the Local State Mediate the Relationship Between Technological Change and Work? Evidence from Warehousing in England
The debate on technology and the future of work has so far engaged little with the local state. This is surprising, since the local state's role as a potentially progressive actor in employment relations systems is attracting renewed interest in sociological scholarship. Through a study of warehousing in northern England, we examine how local state actors can mediate the relationship between technological change and work. We show that they often …
Platform Labour Unrest in a Global Perspective
Labour unrest by platform workers is a growing global phenomenon, but several questions require deeper understanding. What motivates platform labour unrest? Which actors and strategies are involved? How does this vary across regions? Systematic answers are hindered by the lack of large datasets. Uniquely, this article analyses a global dataset comprising 1271 instances of platform labour unrest. It reveals two main dimensions of platform labour s…
How Do Young Workers Perceive Job Insecurity? Legitimising Frames for Precarious Work in England and Germany
This article examines the legitimising frames young workers in England and Germany apply to precarious work. Through 63 qualitative biographical interviews, the article shows that most young precarious workers saw work insecurity as an unavoidable fact of life whose legitimacy could not realistically be challenged. Four frames are identified that led to precarious work being seen as legitimate: precarious work as a driver of entrepreneurialism; a…
The changing shape of the Indian recorded music industry in the age of platformisation
Scholars have explored the impact of technological developments on the livelihoods of musicians before digitalisation and in the contemporary age of music streaming platforms. However, a striking gap exists with respect to the Indian music industries which have been conspicuously ignored by scholarship on cultural work. This article contributes towards addressing this gap. First, we show how platformisation is challenging the longstanding dominat…
New social relations of digital technology and the future of work
This introduction sets out the context for the Special Issue and offers an in‐depth reflection on key themes addressed by our contributors. The Special Issue aims to place the social relations of production at the centre of debates about technology and the future of work, and create space for greater critical reflection on what it means to go ‘beyond technological determinism’. We identify ways in which aspects of technological determinism contin…
Labor Unrest and the Future of Work
A global analysis of worker protest in digital labour platforms
This paper presents findings from the Leeds Index of Platform Labour Protest, a database of platform worker protest events around the world which gathers data from online news media reports and other online sources. For the period January 2017 to July 2020, we identified 1,271 instances of worker protest in four platform sectors: ride-hailing, food delivery, courier services and grocery delivery. Our results show that the single most important ca…
Marketization
How do markets function? Who creates, shapes and organizes them? And what do they mean for the relationship between labor and capital? Marketization examines how the state and capital use markets to discipline the working class. Ian Greer and Charles Umney provide a comprehensive overview of the European political economy, from the European Commission to the workplace, to show how neoliberal principles translate into market mechanisms and reshape…
Why isn’t there an Uber for live music? The digitalisation of intermediaries and the limits of the platform economy
Online platforms have disrupted parts of the capitalist economy, but assessing the magnitude of this effect is difficult. Much is known about major platforms, but less about the conditions under which they take over—or fail to take over—a given market. Unlike explanations emphasising slow take‐up by entrepreneurs or worker resistance, we argue that historical and organisational characteristics of markets make them resistant to the platform model.…
Marketisation and regional planning in neoliberal public services
Marxist scholarship has documented the implications of 'neoliberal' reforms to public services. This scholarship often considers these reforms as class projects which have disciplined working populations and created new opportunities for capitalist profit-making. But in this article, we shift emphasis to the internal dysfunction that shapes states' pursuit of market-oriented policy agendas. We place closer focus on the specific levers through whi…
Creative placemaking and the cultural projectariat
Cultural work attracts much sociological interest and is often seen as typifying 'precarity'. However, this scholarship rarely examines how 'placemaking' policy interventions affect the concrete conditions of cultural work. We study a major recent public/private policy intervention in the United Kingdom: Hull City of Culture 2017. This intervention embodied a multifaceted set of policy logics, combining the desire to boost arts participation, wit…
Class Matters
Social class remains a fundamental presence in British life in the twenty-first century. It is woven into the very fabric of social and political discourse, undiminished by the end of mass industry; unaugmented despite the ascendancy of 'ordinary working people' and other substitute phrases. Absent from this landscape, however, is any compelling Marxist expression or analysis of class. In Class Matters, Charles Umney brings Marxist analysis out o…
The state and class discipline
This article looks at two related labour market policies that have persisted and even proliferated across Europe both before and after the financial crisis: wage restraint and punitive workfare programmes. It asks why these policies, despite their weak empirical records, have been so durable. Moving beyond comparative-institutionalist explanations which emphasise institutional stickiness, it draws on Marxist and Kaleckian ideas around the concept…
In, Against and Beyond Precarity
In this Foreword to the special issue 'In, Against and Beyond Precarity' the guest editors take stock of the existing literature on precarity, highlighting the strengths and limitations of using this concept as an analytical tool for examining the world of work. Concluding that the overstretched nature of concept has diluted its political effectiveness, the editors suggest instead a focus on precarization as a process, drawing from perspectives t…
Insertion as an alternative to workfare
Many governments have tightened the link between welfare and work by attaching conditionality to out-of-work benefits, extending these requirements to new client groups and imposing market competition and greater managerial control in service delivery – principles typically characterized as ‘workfare’. Based on field research in Seine-Saint-Denis, we examine French ‘ insertion’ schemes aimed at disadvantaged but potentially job-ready clients, cha…
Moral economy, intermediaries and intensified competition in the labour market for function musicians
This article examines the labour market for 'function' musicians in London. It shows how the market encompasses a chain of relationships between clients, intermediaries and musicians, considering how the idea of 'moral economy' - a subject of revived interest in employment sociology - fits empirical reality. It shows that function musicians have created a strong moral economy regulating the distribution of opportunities and resources within bands…
The labour market for jazz musicians in Paris and London
This article examines the normative expectations freelance jazz musicians have about the material conditions of live performance work, taking London and Paris as case studies. It shows how price norms constitute an important reference point for individual workers in navigating the labour market. However, only rarely do they take ‘stronger’ form as a collective demand. Two further arguments are made: first, that the strength of norms varies very w…
That's the Experience
This article looks at early-career jazz musicians working in London. It links sociological literature on precarity and the life course with a more specific focus on the process of establishing a career in music. It shows how participants sought to embrace and sometimes even manufacture greater precarity in their working lives, and how they contextualized it as part of the life course. Their ability to manage precarity in this way, however, was gr…
Creative labour and collective interaction
This article explores the types of work undertaken by jazz musicians in London, categorizing their activities using two axes derived from debates over 'creative labour'. Firstly, the extent to which different jobs offer scope for creative autonomy and, secondly, the extent to which they involve collective as opposed to individualized working relationships. It focuses on the process of becoming established on the London 'scene', presenting qualita…
We are the union
In, Against and Beyond Precarity
In this Foreword to the special issue 'In, Against and Beyond Precarity' the guest editors take stock of the existing literature on precarity, highlighting the strengths and limitations of using this concept as an analytical tool for examining the world of work. Concluding that the overstretched nature of concept has diluted its political effectiveness, the editors suggest instead a focus on precarization as a process, drawing from perspectives t…
That's the Experience
This article looks at early-career jazz musicians working in London. It links sociological literature on precarity and the life course with a more specific focus on the process of establishing a career in music. It shows how participants sought to embrace and sometimes even manufacture greater precarity in their working lives, and how they contextualized it as part of the life course. Their ability to manage precarity in this way, however, was gr…
Creative labour and collective interaction
This article explores the types of work undertaken by jazz musicians in London, categorizing their activities using two axes derived from debates over 'creative labour'. Firstly, the extent to which different jobs offer scope for creative autonomy and, secondly, the extent to which they involve collective as opposed to individualized working relationships. It focuses on the process of becoming established on the London 'scene', presenting qualita…
The labour market for jazz musicians in Paris and London
This article examines the normative expectations freelance jazz musicians have about the material conditions of live performance work, taking London and Paris as case studies. It shows how price norms constitute an important reference point for individual workers in navigating the labour market. However, only rarely do they take ‘stronger’ form as a collective demand. Two further arguments are made: first, that the strength of norms varies very w…
Platform Labour Unrest in a Global Perspective
Labour unrest by platform workers is a growing global phenomenon, but several questions require deeper understanding. What motivates platform labour unrest? Which actors and strategies are involved? How does this vary across regions? Systematic answers are hindered by the lack of large datasets. Uniquely, this article analyses a global dataset comprising 1271 instances of platform labour unrest. It reveals two main dimensions of platform labour s…
New social relations of digital technology and the future of work
This introduction sets out the context for the Special Issue and offers an in‐depth reflection on key themes addressed by our contributors. The Special Issue aims to place the social relations of production at the centre of debates about technology and the future of work, and create space for greater critical reflection on what it means to go ‘beyond technological determinism’. We identify ways in which aspects of technological determinism contin…
How Do Young Workers Perceive Job Insecurity? Legitimising Frames for Precarious Work in England and Germany
This article examines the legitimising frames young workers in England and Germany apply to precarious work. Through 63 qualitative biographical interviews, the article shows that most young precarious workers saw work insecurity as an unavoidable fact of life whose legitimacy could not realistically be challenged. Four frames are identified that led to precarious work being seen as legitimate: precarious work as a driver of entrepreneurialism; a…
Insertion as an alternative to workfare
Many governments have tightened the link between welfare and work by attaching conditionality to out-of-work benefits, extending these requirements to new client groups and imposing market competition and greater managerial control in service delivery – principles typically characterized as ‘workfare’. Based on field research in Seine-Saint-Denis, we examine French ‘ insertion’ schemes aimed at disadvantaged but potentially job-ready clients, cha…
Moral economy, intermediaries and intensified competition in the labour market for function musicians
This article examines the labour market for 'function' musicians in London. It shows how the market encompasses a chain of relationships between clients, intermediaries and musicians, considering how the idea of 'moral economy' - a subject of revived interest in employment sociology - fits empirical reality. It shows that function musicians have created a strong moral economy regulating the distribution of opportunities and resources within bands…
The state and class discipline
This article looks at two related labour market policies that have persisted and even proliferated across Europe both before and after the financial crisis: wage restraint and punitive workfare programmes. It asks why these policies, despite their weak empirical records, have been so durable. Moving beyond comparative-institutionalist explanations which emphasise institutional stickiness, it draws on Marxist and Kaleckian ideas around the concept…
Why isn’t there an Uber for live music? The digitalisation of intermediaries and the limits of the platform economy
Online platforms have disrupted parts of the capitalist economy, but assessing the magnitude of this effect is difficult. Much is known about major platforms, but less about the conditions under which they take over—or fail to take over—a given market. Unlike explanations emphasising slow take‐up by entrepreneurs or worker resistance, we argue that historical and organisational characteristics of markets make them resistant to the platform model.…
We are the union
Creative labour and collective interaction
This article explores the types of work undertaken by jazz musicians in London, categorizing their activities using two axes derived from debates over 'creative labour'. Firstly, the extent to which different jobs offer scope for creative autonomy and, secondly, the extent to which they involve collective as opposed to individualized working relationships. It focuses on the process of becoming established on the London 'scene', presenting qualita…
That's the Experience
This article looks at early-career jazz musicians working in London. It links sociological literature on precarity and the life course with a more specific focus on the process of establishing a career in music. It shows how participants sought to embrace and sometimes even manufacture greater precarity in their working lives, and how they contextualized it as part of the life course. Their ability to manage precarity in this way, however, was gr…
The labour market for jazz musicians in Paris and London
This article examines the normative expectations freelance jazz musicians have about the material conditions of live performance work, taking London and Paris as case studies. It shows how price norms constitute an important reference point for individual workers in navigating the labour market. However, only rarely do they take ‘stronger’ form as a collective demand. Two further arguments are made: first, that the strength of norms varies very w…
Insertion as an alternative to workfare
Many governments have tightened the link between welfare and work by attaching conditionality to out-of-work benefits, extending these requirements to new client groups and imposing market competition and greater managerial control in service delivery – principles typically characterized as ‘workfare’. Based on field research in Seine-Saint-Denis, we examine French ‘ insertion’ schemes aimed at disadvantaged but potentially job-ready clients, cha…
Moral economy, intermediaries and intensified competition in the labour market for function musicians
This article examines the labour market for 'function' musicians in London. It shows how the market encompasses a chain of relationships between clients, intermediaries and musicians, considering how the idea of 'moral economy' - a subject of revived interest in employment sociology - fits empirical reality. It shows that function musicians have created a strong moral economy regulating the distribution of opportunities and resources within bands…
Class Matters
Social class remains a fundamental presence in British life in the twenty-first century. It is woven into the very fabric of social and political discourse, undiminished by the end of mass industry; unaugmented despite the ascendancy of 'ordinary working people' and other substitute phrases. Absent from this landscape, however, is any compelling Marxist expression or analysis of class. In Class Matters, Charles Umney brings Marxist analysis out o…
The state and class discipline
This article looks at two related labour market policies that have persisted and even proliferated across Europe both before and after the financial crisis: wage restraint and punitive workfare programmes. It asks why these policies, despite their weak empirical records, have been so durable. Moving beyond comparative-institutionalist explanations which emphasise institutional stickiness, it draws on Marxist and Kaleckian ideas around the concept…
In, Against and Beyond Precarity
In this Foreword to the special issue 'In, Against and Beyond Precarity' the guest editors take stock of the existing literature on precarity, highlighting the strengths and limitations of using this concept as an analytical tool for examining the world of work. Concluding that the overstretched nature of concept has diluted its political effectiveness, the editors suggest instead a focus on precarization as a process, drawing from perspectives t…
Creative placemaking and the cultural projectariat
Cultural work attracts much sociological interest and is often seen as typifying 'precarity'. However, this scholarship rarely examines how 'placemaking' policy interventions affect the concrete conditions of cultural work. We study a major recent public/private policy intervention in the United Kingdom: Hull City of Culture 2017. This intervention embodied a multifaceted set of policy logics, combining the desire to boost arts participation, wit…
A global analysis of worker protest in digital labour platforms
This paper presents findings from the Leeds Index of Platform Labour Protest, a database of platform worker protest events around the world which gathers data from online news media reports and other online sources. For the period January 2017 to July 2020, we identified 1,271 instances of worker protest in four platform sectors: ride-hailing, food delivery, courier services and grocery delivery. Our results show that the single most important ca…
Marketization
How do markets function? Who creates, shapes and organizes them? And what do they mean for the relationship between labor and capital? Marketization examines how the state and capital use markets to discipline the working class. Ian Greer and Charles Umney provide a comprehensive overview of the European political economy, from the European Commission to the workplace, to show how neoliberal principles translate into market mechanisms and reshape…
Why isn’t there an Uber for live music? The digitalisation of intermediaries and the limits of the platform economy
Online platforms have disrupted parts of the capitalist economy, but assessing the magnitude of this effect is difficult. Much is known about major platforms, but less about the conditions under which they take over—or fail to take over—a given market. Unlike explanations emphasising slow take‐up by entrepreneurs or worker resistance, we argue that historical and organisational characteristics of markets make them resistant to the platform model.…
Marketisation and regional planning in neoliberal public services
Marxist scholarship has documented the implications of 'neoliberal' reforms to public services. This scholarship often considers these reforms as class projects which have disciplined working populations and created new opportunities for capitalist profit-making. But in this article, we shift emphasis to the internal dysfunction that shapes states' pursuit of market-oriented policy agendas. We place closer focus on the specific levers through whi…
The changing shape of the Indian recorded music industry in the age of platformisation
Scholars have explored the impact of technological developments on the livelihoods of musicians before digitalisation and in the contemporary age of music streaming platforms. However, a striking gap exists with respect to the Indian music industries which have been conspicuously ignored by scholarship on cultural work. This article contributes towards addressing this gap. First, we show how platformisation is challenging the longstanding dominat…
New social relations of digital technology and the future of work
This introduction sets out the context for the Special Issue and offers an in‐depth reflection on key themes addressed by our contributors. The Special Issue aims to place the social relations of production at the centre of debates about technology and the future of work, and create space for greater critical reflection on what it means to go ‘beyond technological determinism’. We identify ways in which aspects of technological determinism contin…
Labor Unrest and the Future of Work
Platform Labour Unrest in a Global Perspective
Labour unrest by platform workers is a growing global phenomenon, but several questions require deeper understanding. What motivates platform labour unrest? Which actors and strategies are involved? How does this vary across regions? Systematic answers are hindered by the lack of large datasets. Uniquely, this article analyses a global dataset comprising 1271 instances of platform labour unrest. It reveals two main dimensions of platform labour s…
How Do Young Workers Perceive Job Insecurity? Legitimising Frames for Precarious Work in England and Germany
This article examines the legitimising frames young workers in England and Germany apply to precarious work. Through 63 qualitative biographical interviews, the article shows that most young precarious workers saw work insecurity as an unavoidable fact of life whose legitimacy could not realistically be challenged. Four frames are identified that led to precarious work being seen as legitimate: precarious work as a driver of entrepreneurialism; a…
What is human augmentation and why does it matter for the sociology of work? A conceptualization of worker-centred augmentation
‘Human augmentation’ commonly refers to ‘smart’ technologies that integrate with the human body, like exoskeletons, wearables, or modifications like retinal implants, increasing its cognitive or physical capacity. Many definitions of it are problematically broad or questionable. Nevertheless, the idea has gained traction in journalistic and policy debates. Evangelists for augmentation may posit a near-superhuman synthesis between humans and machi…
What Does it Mean to be Passionate about Your Job? Three Meanings of ‘Collectively Oriented Passion’ in UK Pubs
This article examines how understandings of passion shape people’s agency at work, through interviews with UK publicans. It addresses calls to rethink how ‘passion’ is conceptualised in the sociology of work. While discourses around passion are often thought to legitimise individualised working practices, the article explores more collective interpretations. It analyses how publicans exercised agency in negotiating externally imposed problems inc…
How Does the Local State Mediate the Relationship Between Technological Change and Work? Evidence from Warehousing in England
The debate on technology and the future of work has so far engaged little with the local state. This is surprising, since the local state's role as a potentially progressive actor in employment relations systems is attracting renewed interest in sociological scholarship. Through a study of warehousing in northern England, we examine how local state actors can mediate the relationship between technological change and work. We show that they often …
Political science (16 obras) · Law (15 obras) · Sociology (15 obras) · Economics (9 obras) · Employment and Welfare Studies (9 obras) · Law (9 obras) · Cultural Industries and Urban Development (7 obras) · Digital Economy and Work Transformation (7 obras) · Labor Movements and Unions (7 obras) · Politics (6 obras)