Labor Recruitment and Coloniality in the Agricultural Sector

On Plantation Archives, Underclassing, and Postcolonial Masculinities in Switzerland

Bibliographic Data

ID2371052
AuthorsDina Bolokan (0000-0002-8310-0861, University of Basel, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume50
Issue2
Pages255-274
Publication date2024-03-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritical Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0896-9205 • E-ISSN: 1569-1632
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/08969205231185675
OpenAlexW4384201287
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited21

This study provides insights into mechanisms of underclassing in modern society based on interviews with recruiters of agricultural workers in Switzerland. I show that narratives that racialize and ethnicize workers are nurtured by colonial legacies. This reveals that plantation practices and discourses have shaped Switzerland and remain as powerful means of enforcing agricultural racial capitalism. Furthermore, I argue that postcolonial masculinities drive these intersubjective relations. Tracing and situating these postcolonial subject formations on farms allows one to see how caring narratives entangle with a dehumanizing grammar and how this colonial logic is incorporated into social consensus on extractive labor practices. Finally, this reveals how coloniality operates in a postcolonial country that claims political neutrality

Agriculture · Capitalism · Colonialism · Dehumanization · Labor relations · Narrative · Neutrality · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Anthropology · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · History · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Tourism, Volunteerism, and Development

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Open DOIOpen Access