ICDD Breakfast Talk: Decent Work in the port industry: resilience of social dialogue

Conceptual and empirical analysis of world of work, and "decent work", have for long remained within the remit of mainstream essentialist (institutionalist) understanding; a reification of optimistic and normative assumptions surrounding decent work agenda. As impact of globalization deepens, the world of work remains a "contested terrain"; posing challenges for a rigorous conceptualization and analysis of neo-liberal hegemony of the world of work.

While some scholars of the post-neoliberal strands have focused on decent work agenda as framework to "redress" the "deficits" embedded in neo-liberal workplaces, a reconceptualization of decent work discourse provides a critical analytical tool, to further understand the "hegemony" of contemporary workplace, even in the context of on-going neo-liberal "damage repairs".

Drawing on political economy framework, the paper offers a critical perspective to understanding the diverse and embedded dimensions of social relations of production in contemporary workplace, and the" indecencies". A re-interpretation of "institutional hegemony" provides a nuanced "sense-making", and thus, account for the implications and "damages" of neo-liberal tendencies on work and labor.

Oluesegun Oladeinde is a Lecturer/Researcher at Bells University of Technology, Ota, Nigeria and the coordinator of the Bells University Center for Advancement. He holds a PhD in Sociology of Work and Labour Process from Rhodes University, South Africa (2011). His PhD thesis was entitled "Management and the Dynamics of Labour Process: Study of Workplace Relations in an Oil Refinery, Nigeria".

Venue:

Kassel: ICDD, Kleine Rosenstr. 3 (5th floor), seminar room

More information on the Breakfast Talks:
www.uni-kassel.de/einrichtungen/international-center-for-development-and-decent-work-icdd/events/2018-recent-and-upcoming/icdd-breakfast-talks.html