Ronaldo Munck

The Precariat: A View from the South

Abstract The term ‘precariat’—a precarious proletariat—has achieved considerable prominence in recent years and is probably now ripe for critical deconstruction. It also needs to be situated in terms of a genealogy that includes the marginality debates of the 1960s, the later informal sector problematic and the ‘social exclusion’ optic that became dominant in the 1980s. I will argue that the concept is highly questionable both as an adequate sociology of work in the North and insofar as it elides the experience of the South in an openly Eurocentric manner. In terms of political discourse I think we should avoid the language of ‘dangerous class’, as deployed by Guy Standing to situate workers politically in the policy world as though frightening the ruling classes was a strategy for transformation.

Globalisation, Governance and Migration: an introduction

Abstract Migration exposes a central inconsistency in neoliberal globalisation because, if capital, money, information and knowledge should all flow freely across the globe, then why not people? This broad introductory survey begins with a critical review of perspectives that pose migration as a global governance problem and the migrant as a potential terrorist. It then moves on to interrogate the sometimes facile declarations that we are living in the age of migration without setting this in either historical or geographical context. It explores the gender, race and class dimensions of migration, which is in reality a far from homogenous flow. Then, after opening up the migration/development problematic to move it beyond a zero-sum game, it ends with a review of the limitations of the dominant migration management paradigm. It advocates throughout a Southern perspective on migration in contrast to the Northern bias of the dominant discourses. This is a necessary step, I would argue, for moving towards a holistic critical analysis of migration on a global scale.

Global Civil Society: Myths and Prospects

Is the concept of “global civil society” a Sorelian-type myth that captures intuitively an emergent political project? Or is it, rather, a discursive political terrain open to many interpretations, not all of which might be progressive? A radical democratic content would be one way of filling out the “empty signifier,” which “global civil society” is, but not the only one.

Globalization and Democracy: A New "Great Transformation"?

The relationship between democracy and development is (re)considered to set the scene for the pressing contemporary issue of how globalization might affect democracy and vice versa. To move beyond simplistic binary oppositions, we turn to the work of Karl Polanyi who famously posited a dual movement of market expansion on one hand matched by increasing social control over it on the other hand. We see how globalization, at one and the same time, creates a growing process of social exclusion within and between nations but also the social movements that will contest it and seek to democratize it.

Globalization and contestation: A Polanyian problematic

Abstract The Polanyian problematic presents us with a unified, complex, and dialectical means to interpret globalization and its social contestation by diverse social and political forces. For Karl Polanyi (1886–1964), globalization as we know it would probably be conceived of as an extension of the ‘one big self-regulating market’ he discerned in his day, while his belief that ‘simultaneously a counter-movement was afoot’ provides an interpretative lens to examine the various facets of the counter-globalization movement. The Polanyian problematic of modern history as a ‘double movement’, whereby market expansion and social protection respectively lead phases, provides a useful antidote to all forms of economic reductionism when dealing with globalization on the one hand and political voluntarism with regard to contestation on the other. Basically, globalization is a human construct, and it can thus be deconstructed by society.

Civic Engagement and Global Citizenship in a University Context: Core business or desirable add-on?

Can civic engagement become a ‘core business’ of the contemporary university, or is it an attractive ‘add-on’ that is not affordable in the current economic climate? Contemporary universities often play an important role in local community development and, as such, have the opportunity to develop civic engagement strategies to sit alongside teaching and research strategies. Yet the contemporary university is also internationally engaged, and the strategy of educating graduates to become global citizens could also become part of the key functions of ‘socially embedded’ universities. Ronaldo Munck explains how Dublin City University is attempting to negotiate the requirements of the economy with the demands of citizenship.

The "Modern" Military Dictatorship in Latin America The Case of Argentina (1976-1982

Argentina is the anchor of the continent, and more specifically of the Inter-American system. This country is necessarily important for any one who studies the strategy of the Free World. Argentina is the battlefront of the hemisphere [General Gordon Summer, President of the Inter-American Defence Council, October 1977] .

Migration, Work, and Citizenship in the New World Order

Any consideration of global migration in relation to work and citizenship must necessarily be situated in the context of the Great Recession. A whole historical chapter—that of neoliberalism—has now closed and the future can only be deemed uncertain. Migrant workers were key players during this phase of the global system, supplying cheap and flexible labour inputs when required in the rich countries. Now, with the further sustainability of the neoliberal political and economic world order in question, what will be the role of migration in terms of work patterns and what modalities of political citizenship will develop? While informalization of the relations of production and the precarization of work were once assumed to be the exception, that is no longer the case. As for citizenship we posit a parallel development of precarious citizenship for migrants, made increasingly vulnerable by the global economic crisis. But we are also in an era of profound social transformation, in the context of which social counter-movements emerge, which may halt the disembedding of the market from social control and its corrosive impact. While the global economic situation remains largely in flux there is a broad consensus that the economic model prevailing in the 30 years prior to 2008 has now come to an end. The embedded liberalism of the Keynesian era had ceased to be effective in the mid 1970s and now the efficient market model of neoliberalism is seen to be exhausted as a viable model for sustained capital accumulation. Massive state intervention was needed to stave off the imminent collapse of the banking system. A massive counter-cyclical effort was mounted, and there were even calls for a ‘return to Keynes’. Business as usual was not an option, and there were calls for a financial regime change. The much more integrated global system created by globalization resulted in a truly global crisis even if some zones recovered more quickly. A Latin American style 1990s’ structural adjustment policy which would have simply unloaded the crisis on the population was not viable politically in the affluent North. Thus the present economic contradictions will continue and probably deepen. At best there will be a stable equilibrium established with little sign of a new expansive phase of capitalist accumulation (at least in the affluent North) on the horizon.

Globalization, Crisis and Social Transformation: A View from the South

The dominant narrative around the unfolding capitalist crisis is firmly focused on the dominant economies, and in particular the US. This is understandable given that the proximate causes of the crisis lie in the imperial heartlands and crisis resolution measures taken there will have a global impact. But a ‘view from the South’ is needed to redress the balance and prevent the decimation of global majority likelihoods being presented as mere collateral damage. The first section below tackles the crisis from a global (globalization) perspective emphasizing its impact in the South and what that it might mean in terms of political prospects. I then go on to develop a hybrid Karl Polanyi/Antonio Gramsci theoretical lens on counter-movements based on their writings responding to the last systemic capitalist crisis in the 1930s. Finally, I turn to the ways in which the international labour movement and the subaltern or post-colonial worlds are contesting the terrain vacated by unregulated market capitalism. As Gramsci would say the old is dying but the new has not yet been born. La narrativa dominante alrededor de la crisis capitalista revelada, está firmemente enfocada a las economías dominantes, y particularmente E.E.U.U. Esto es comprensible, dado que las próximas causas de la crisis yacen en la región central imperial y las medidas de resolución de la crisis que se tomaron allí tendrán un impacto global. Pero se necesita un ‘punto de vista desde el sur’ para compensar el equilibrio y prevenir la devastación de las posibilidades de las mayorías globales presentadas como simple daño colateral. La primera sección abajo trata la crisis desde una perspectiva global (globalización), enfatizando su impacto en el sur y lo que eso puede significar en términos de prospectos políticos. Luego procedo con el desarrollo de una lente teórica híbrida de Karl Polanyi/Antonio Gramsci sobre movimientos opuestos en base a sus escritos que responden a la última crisis capitalista sistémica en la década de 1930. Finalmente, vuelvo a las maneras en las cuales el movimiento laboral internacional y los mundos subalternos o postcoloniales están disputando el terreno vacío por el mercado capitalista sin regulación. Como Gramsci diría, lo viejo se está muriendo, pero lo nuevo no está aún por nacer.

Mutual Benefit Societies in Argentina: Workers, Nationality, Social Security and Trade Unionism

In the ‘pre-history’ of Argentinas labour movement lie the mutual-benefit societies. Although these associations embraced almost half of the workers of Buenos Aires at the time of the Centenario (1910) little is known about them. The article explores the main parameters shaping the development of the mutual benefit societies, their relationship to the immigrant communities and their role in relation to social security. It traces, finally, the ambiguous relationship between the mutual benefit societies and the emergence of Peronist trade unionism in the mid-1940s.