Индустриален труд и възпроизводство на бедност сред румънските роми: времеви измерения и социални неравенства
Industrial Labour and Reproduction of Poverty among the Rumanian Roma: Temporal Dimensions and Social Inequalities

Summary/Abstract: This article traces the formation of a flexible industrial workforce in the Maramures region of northwestern Romania and the effects of reindustrialization on poor local communities, their mobility and social reproduction. It focuses on the productive and reproductive aspects of reindustrialization that lead to different forms of flexibility and labour circulation. The text rejects simplistic linear accounts of global industrial development that present industrial labour as the end point of a transition from informal to stable work. Instead, I argue that extreme poverty is reproduced despite and alongside reindustrialization. Based on empirical research conducted with Romanian Roma in the city of Baia Mare and its surroundings, I explore the interplay between precarious living conditions, flexible working arrangements, and social reproduction. As industrial workers, Roma have regular contracts and access to social benefits, but contrary to expectations, this does not lead to financial security and improved living conditions. They therefore often resort to seasonal mobility to compensate for the difficult physical conditions in the factory and limited financial security. The paper looks specifically at how industrial labour becomes flexible due to the needs of social reproduction that are in conflict with the needs of capital, and how this intersects with mobility and seasonal work. It demonstrates why this is not a tolerated exception but an inherent condition of the relationship between capital and labour.

• Details
• Contents