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Workshop on 'Subcontracting Labour in Asia: Historical And Global Perspectives'
22 - 24 November 1999 Bangkok, Thailand
Jan Lucassen / Ratna Saptari
CLARA - IISH - IIAS
Provisional Programme
The Workshop on Subcontracting Labour in Asia: Historical and Global
Perspectives will be held from 22 to 24 November 1999 at the Chulalongkorn
University Social Research Institute in Bangkok, Thailand. We have selected
papers focusing on labour in subcontracting arrangements in Europe and
Asia, past and present, with a special emphasis on labour relations
at the lowest end of the subcontracting linkage.
Background and Aim:
Subcontracting labour has a long-standing history, maybe as long as
the history of monetized and wage economies. Therefore, intra-Asian
and Asian-European economies offer great opportunities for comparisons.
These comparisons have implications for our understanding of the situation
today, because unilinear predictions about the marginalization of subcontracting
labour have clearly proven wrong. Our purpose here is to obtain a more
integrated understanding of subcontracting labour in the past and present,
Europe and Asia.
The papers should be able to address several ongoing debates both in Europe and
in Asia as outlined below:
a) Conventional wisdom regarding paths of development of subcontracting :
Debates on paths of development on labour relations takes the evolutionary
view on the development of subcontracting: the expansion and contraction
of subcontracted labour relations follows several succeeding phases.
However this is not true for both the European and Asian cases. What
we would like to do is to show various paths different countries and
regions have followed and to find out which factors have influenced
these diverse developments and what the nature of labour relations in
these arrangements have been. How can we explain the fact that not all
employers all of the time recur to subcontracting but may use direct
employment instead? How can we explain the fact that workers do not
always prefer direct employment over subcontracting relations?
b)Debates on free and unfree labour:
Some forms of subcontracted labour have been conceptually linked with
unfree labour which then places this topic closely to the debates on
'free' and 'unfree' labour. These debates however, have often revealed
the blurred lines between the two, especially in the case of indentured
labour, where subcontracting relations do occur quite often. We should
try to understand the nature of the market linkages and the relative
autonomy of each side in terms of resources, and their political position.
Many analyses of subcontracting point to the advantages of the system
for the employers. However, if we study any place at a particular moment
in time, we encounter extremely varying degrees of exploitation of subcontracting
relations where there is a mix of subcontracting and direct employment
or even unfree labour. What is the nature of individual- or group-based
labour relations under these types of (subcontract) arrangements?
c)Challenging Dichotomies of Workplace And Home:
Since one form of subcontracting is the putting out system where part
of the production is done in the homes of the workers or the supervisors,
several debates have emerged regarding the links between workplace and
home. How sharp are the boundaries between 'workplace' and 'home' between
'production' and 'reproduction'? How has putting out increased the segmentation
and differentiation among workers? How has this affected power relations
within the household? How has it affected the emergence or non-emergence
of class consciousness among homeworkers?
d)Labour Movements and Subcontracting Labour
How have subcontracting relations, both in Europe and Asia, affected
and been affected by labour movements? The relocation of the place of
production has always been seen as undermining the labour movement and
their struggle to improve working conditions. This has often caused
competition and conflict among workers themselves. Unions have often
disregarded or excluded subcontracted workers from their constituency.
What types of options do workers in subcontracting arrangements have
to improve their bargaining position individually or collectively?
e)Questions of Methodology:
Comparisons of different forms of subcontracting relations may be static
and typological. Nevertheless, as a first necessary step it seems a
rewarding exercise to select similar situations and historical developments
which have occurred in different parts of the world and subsequently
in discussing the interpretative frameworks used. We must however first
ask ourselves what we are comparing. Although it may seem self-evident
we must constantly remind ourselves to distinguish between form and
function. The same forms may have different functions in different contexts;
likewise the same functions may be manifested in different forms. An
even more difficult question is how do we explain differences in work
organization, both objectively and subjectively, by comparisons through
time, space and industrial sectors?
Contact Persons: Dr. Ratna Saptari or Prof. Jan Lucassen
International Institute of Social History Cruquiusweg 31 1019 AT Amsterdam
tel. +31-20-66.858.66 fax. +31-30-66.541.81
e-mail: chlia@iisg.nl
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