CERIC Seminar Series: "Mobility Power, State and the ‘Sponsored Labour Regime’ in Saudi Capitalism"
Presented by Dr Anita Hammer (King’s College London, UK) and Dr Ayman Adham (Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia).
Wednesday, 6th November (14:00), SR 1.31, Maurice Keyworth Building, Leeds University Business School.
Abstract
This article draws on the ‘double indeterminacy of labour power’, a key conceptual development in labour process theory, to examine mobility power in Saudi Arabia. State control over the mobility of migrant workers is crucial to the labour process and the wider political-economy of Saudi Arabia. However, little is known about mobility-effort bargaining and the specific forms of mobility power in the Saudi context. This article argues that not only is mobility-effort bargaining at the core of capital-labour relations in Saudi Arabia but that different sponsors/agents of control variably control mobility and effort. Importantly, the control exercised by the state, capital and other sponsors over migrants’ mobility is not absolute. Developing mobility power further, the article details the multiplicity of mobilities and labour contracts to delineate a ‘sponsored labour regime’. It highlights the underexplored role of the state, and other agents of control, in conceptualising mobility-effort bargaining.
Work, Employment and Society Volume 37, Issue 6, December 2023, Pages 1497-1516 https://doi.org/10.1177/09500170221080373
Dr Anita Hammer is a Reader in International Employment Relations at King’s College London. She researches work, employment, and labour struggles in the Global South, in particular India and the Middle East. Anita draws upon history, political economy, and labour process analysis to examine informal and precarious work, the impact of climate change on the ‘future of work’, and policy debates on Just Transition. Recent books include Global Rupture: Neoliberal Capitalism and the Rise of Informal Labour in the Global South (Brill, 2023) and The Political Economy of Work in the Global South: Reflections on Labour Process Theory (Bloomsbury, 2020).
Dr Ayman Adham is an Associate Professor at Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia. Ayman draws on contemporary debates on comparative capitalism and labour process analysis. His research is concerned with the specificities of state-capital-labour relations in Saudi Arabia and issues of labour market segmentation, Kafala and Saudisation, working conditions, and the role of tasattur among others.
