Dimensions of Precarity

Dr. Verna Dinah Viajar M.A.

doi:10.5771/9783957104243

Summary

This study argues that the spaces, limits and strategies in organising domestic workers are informed and shaped by a country’s political economy and labour regime. It is guided by the theoretical frameworks of Robert Cox’s Neo-Gramscian action framework and Social Reproduction Theory in its analysis. These frameworks of analysis illuminate the relations of social forces engendered through the particular relations of production and reproduction, and they provide the conceptual tools with which to explain the dimensions of precarity and organising strategies that shape and constrain the spaces involved in organising migrant domestic workers. This study proposes that the interlocking dimensions of precarity perpetuate and result in the cycle of disempowerment, disposability and exclusion of migrant domestic workers in Malaysia.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2023
ISBN-Print: 978-3-98542-049-0
ISBN-Online: 978-3-95710-424-3
Publisher: Nomos, Baden-Baden
Series: Labor and Globalization
Volume: 27
Language: English
Pages: 273
Product type: Book Titles

Titelei/Inhaltsverzeichnis No access Pages 1 - 20
The Context, Terrain and Parameters of the Study No access Pages 21 - 21
1. Organizing Migrant Domestic Workers: The Case of Malaysia No access
2. 1. Constraints and Limits to Activism in Malaysia No access
  2. Exploring Strategies in MDWs Organizing: The TUNGO Collaborations No access
  3. Paid Domestic Work and Global Neoliberal Capitalism: Shifts and Displacement of Female Labour No access
3. Literature on Organizing Domestic Workers: A Brief Review No access
4. Research Questions No access
5. Key Arguments of the Research No access
6. Scope and Parameters of the Study No access
7. Structure and Flow of Discussion of the Study No access
1. Problematizing Political Inquiry Using the Ontological and Epistemological Framework No access
2. 1. Trade Unions, NGOs and Workers’ Consciousness No access
  2. The Labour Movement vis-a-vis the New Social Movement Debate No access
3. 1. Fieldwork and Research Settings No access
  2. Limitations in the Field No access
  3. Data-Collection No access
4. Conclusion No access
1. Problematizing Concepts on Power in Relation to Hegemony and Critical Theory No access
2. Neo-Gramscian’s Dialectics of Historical Structures: A Framework of Action No access
3. Social Reproduction Theory on Power, Production and a Gendered World Order No access
4. State-Civil Society Relations and the Subaltern in Neo-Gramscian Perspective No access
5. Organizing Hyper-Precarious Workers in a Neo-Liberal World Order No access
6. Redefi ning the Possible, Possibilities for Class Formation? No access
7. Sources of Workers’ Power and Strategies of Empowerment No access
8. 1. Reframing Empowerment and Support as Analytical Frames in MDW Organizing Strategies in Malaysia No access
  2. Victims-Based and Rights-Based Activism in Malaysia No access
  3. Dimensions of MDW Organizing Currents and Terrains in Malaysia No access
9. Conclusions No access
. Modernizing Malaysia: Shaped by the Past, the Old and the New No access Pages 95 - 95
1. Introduction No access
2. 1. Historical Markers Shaping Malaysia’s Political Economy No access
  2. Post-Independence Economic Strategies from Late 1950s to 1980 No access
  3. The Mahathir Economic Period (1981-2003) No access
  4. Neoliberal Economic Reforms Towards the Knowledge Economy No access
3. Liberalization, Gendered Labour Market and Political Economy No access
4. Party Politics in Malaysia No access
5. Malaysia’s Contested Development, State Formation and the Global Capitalist Order No access
6. 1. Contemporary Approaches on Trade Union-NGO Relations No access
  2. Contextualizing State-Civil Society Relations on Malaysian Political- Economy No access
7. Conclusion No access
1. Introduction No access
2. Approaching Labour Control Regimes in Asia No access
3. The State of Malaysia’s Labour Control Regime No access
4. Malaysia’s Labour Regime on Migration No access
5. Gendered Construction of Labour Control Aff ecting MDWs No access
6. The Malaysian Trade Union Movement and Organizing Migrant Workers No access
7. Conclusions No access
Strategies of Domestic Workers’ Organizing: Constraints, Spaces and Prospects No access Pages 149 - 149
1. 1. The Protagonists, Actions and Programs No access
  2. Key Issues of MDWs and Responses of Trade Unions and NGOs in Malaysia No access
  3. Dimensions of Precarity of MDWs in Malaysia No access
2. 1. Negotiation, Representation and Organizing of Domestic Workers No access
  2. Typology of Strategies of Empowerment and Support No access
  3. Empowerment Strategies in the Context of Dimensions of Precarity: Challenges in Organizing Migrant Domestic Workers No access
3. 1. Trade Union Organizing of Migrant Workers in Malaysia No access
  2. Filipino Migrant Workers Organizing in Malaysia No access
4. 1. Towards a Multi-layer, Multi-dimension, Hybrid Organizing Strategy? No access
5. 1. Applying the Workers Power Resource Approach in Malaysia No access
  2. Sources of Workers Power and Alternative Political Vision No access
6. Conclusion No access
1. Trade Unions and NGOs: Roles, Relations and Tensions No access
2. Harmonious Relations: The Absence of Tensions Due to the Absence of Collaboration? No access
3. Changing Relations, Changing Mindset and Developing Collaborations No access
4. Contentions and Contestations No access
5. Beyond the Tensions, Spaces for Collaboration No access
6. 1. The Malaysian State Confronting its Relations towards Migrant-Sending Countries No access
  2. The Malaysian State and its Relations to Sending Countries No access
  3. Employers and Recruitment Agencies No access
  4. Employers and the Malaysian State No access
  5. Employers and Domestic Workers Inside the Household No access
  6. Organize Employer Interests: “Employers Don’t Know How to Act as Employers” No access
7. Institutions, Policies, Stakeholders’ Relations: Implications on Trade Union-NGO Relations and Organizing MDWs No access
8. Conclusion No access
1. Introduction: The “Unorganizable” Myth, Constraints and Spaces in Organizing No access
2. Constraints and Spaces in MDW Organizing in Malaysia No access
3. Strategies of MDW Organizing in Empirical Findings No access
4. Policy Implications No access
5. Limitations and Directions for Future Research No access
6. Conclusion No access
Appendices No access Pages 257 - 264
References No access Pages 265 - 273