Infowork · Workers' organization in the informal sector

The research proposal aims at offering new insights into precarious workers’ self-organising and collective resistance under globalised capitalism. Through in-depth ethnographic studies in the informal sector economy of the city of Buenos Aires, the research will explore the forms, methods, alliances and organizational models, used by workers to counter-oppose their precarious working and income conditions. Precariousness, informality, fragmentation, insecurity and inequality are becoming increasingly dominant patterns of employment not just in a developing country like Argentina but also across Europe. Within this context, further strengthened by the current economic crisis, not just the Lisbon strategy of making Europe competitive through more and better jobs needs to be reviewed but also makes reality predictions of a ‘brazilianization’ of dominant economies, seen as increasingly dominated by an economic scenario based on informality and precariousness . Thus, in this perspective the analysis of informal work in the city of Buenos Aires may reflect a not far too distant future for the social cohesion and employment conditions of Europe, calling governments and social institutions to take action. At the same time, it invites trade unions to move beyond purely institutional policy making roles and toward strategies and actions to enlarge the representation of workers in precarious employment.