The Chains of Exploitation: A Theoretical and Empirical Exploration

This paper sets a new empirical agenda for exploitation theory, through the notion of chains. Exploitation generally offers three attractive properties compared to more commonly used concepts—inequality and domination—in that it is simultaneously distributive, relational, and openly counterfactual, yet it remains an underexplored notion. While both Marxist and neoclassical traditions focus on dyadic relations—either worker-employer or through market exchange—most exploitative situations bear several relational components, where agents can simultaneously stand as exploited and exploiters. Building on a sociological-relational tradition, we identify four chains—I (connected), L (hinged), V (dual) and C (complicit)—which we argue represent the elementary structures of exploitation. We then contend that this meso-level approach, complementary to individual-transactional and structural accounts, bears potential for sociological analysis and then explore how these chains materialize in various economic sites—within the production unit, on the market, in the domestic sphere, and by the state.