Table of Contents
Preface
Michael Löwy
List of Tables and Figures
Introduction
Part 1 The Formation of the Reversal
1 The Spectre of the People
The Sociology of Modernisation Encounters the Working Class
Unions in Peripheral Fordism
Populism and the Migrant Precariat
Between the Archaic and the Modern: An Ethnography of the Precariat
Working-Class Archaeology: Populism in Reverse
From Fordist Mirage to the Politics of the Precariat
Final Considerations
2 The Fatalism of the Weak
Sociology of Applied Work: The Limits of Bureaucratic Unionism
Public Sociology of Work: Towards Working-Class Independence
The Precarious Hegemony of Peripheral Fordism
From Populism to Social Discontent (and Vice-versa)
Critical Sociology of Work: Discontent as Disalienation
For a Sociology of Working-Class Discontent
Final Considerations
Part 2 The Transformation of Hegemony in Reverse
3 The Smile of the Exploited
Work and Politics in São Bernardo
The Despotic Factory Regime and the Metalworker Precariat
Peons 1: From Contingent Consciousness to Necessary Consciousness
Peons 2: From the Union Bureaucracy to the Metalworker Vanguard
Peons 3: From Rank-and-File Rebellion to Strike Waves
Precarious Hegemony: The Return of Bureaucratic Power?
Final Considerations
4 The Anguish of the Subalterns
Post-Fordism and the Neoliberal Company
A Peripheral and Post-Fordist Precariat
Discontent and Consent in the Call-Centre Industry
Unionism in the Telemarketing Sector
Lulista Hegemony: Between Social Discontent and Active Will
Telemarketers: The Reverse of the Reverse
Final Considerations
Conclusion: "Let's Play That?"
Interventions
1 Dilma and the Brazilian Utopia
2 Unrest in the Kitchen
3 Chronicle of an Unforgettable Month
4 For a Sociology Worthy of June
5 Rosa Parks in Itaquera
6 The Most Visible Colour
7 Challenging Hegemony
8 The Era of Pillage
9 The End of Lulism and the Palace Coup in Brazil
Bibliography
Index
