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Is Labour Still a Relevant Category for Praxis? Critical Reflections on Some Contemporary Discourses on Work and Labour in Capitalism

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  • Amrita Chhachhi
  • Saumyajit Bhattacharya

Abstract

type="main"> There has been an erosion in the use of ‘labour’ as a key concept of critical reflection in contemporary capitalism. Parallel to this development, there has been a significant debasement of labour rights and the concomitant rise of a discourse that delegitimizes the criticality of labour and labour rights. This essay attempts to identify and critique some of these discourses in the sphere of work, labour and labour rights. In particular, it critically examines three varied perspectives — one neoliberal and two radically opposed to that — and argues that in spite of their contrasting ideologies, they resonate with each other and, overtly or covertly, carry out the task of delegimization of a labour-centred discourse and the paradigm of labour rights. These ‘radical’ discourses, the essay argues, obfuscate the essence of capitalist exploitation and alienation either by an emphasis on fragmentary peculiarities immanent in the capitalist accumulation process or by the architecture of grand false constructs, which gets enmeshed within and subsumed by certain essential tendencies of contemporary capitalism. The essay argues in favour of a return to a discourse centred on labour and labour rights, albeit in a more comprehensive manner — not merely as an approach to assessing the diverse forms of working conditions and institutionalized practices, but more crucially as constituting what Marx conceptualized as the ‘real abstract’ in the vicissitudes of the capitalist accumulation process.

Suggested Citation

  • Amrita Chhachhi & Saumyajit Bhattacharya, 2014. "Is Labour Still a Relevant Category for Praxis? Critical Reflections on Some Contemporary Discourses on Work and Labour in Capitalism," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(5), pages 941-962, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:45:y:2014:i:5:p:941-962
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Timothy Besley & Robin Burgess, 2004. "Can Labor Regulation Hinder Economic Performance? Evidence from India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 91-134.
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    4. Fallon, Peter R & Lucas, Robert E B, 1991. "The Impact of Changes in Job Security Regulations in India and Zimbabwe," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 5(3), pages 395-413, September.
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    2. Joshua Greenstein, 2020. "The Precariat Class Structure and Income Inequality among US Workers: 1980–2018," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 52(3), pages 447-469, September.
    3. Nick Bernards, 2018. "The Truncated Commercialization of Microinsurance and the Limits of Neoliberalism," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 49(6), pages 1447-1470, November.
    4. Surbhi Kesar, 2022. "Nature and Pattern of Subcontracting Linkages in the Informal Economy in India: Implications for Possibilities of Economic Transformation," Working Papers 254, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK, revised Dec 2022.
    5. Colin C. Williams & Friedrich Schneider, 2016. "Measuring the Global Shadow Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 16551.

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