Labor and Corporations

CAS 202: Asian Sites, Global Questions II

March 16, 2017
E-Governance and ICTs
Producing efficient, speedy and transparent governance system
Consultative systems for the working of government
Increasing participation from participants, civil society
organizations, corporations, and non-governmental
organizations.

E-government is divided into three forms:

government-to-business (G2B),
government-to-government (G2G),
and government-to-citizens (G2C)
Internet penetration rates in Asia, Mid-2016.
Mobile phone penetration rates in Asia, 2015.
E-participation scores in Asia, 2015 [UN]
E-participation scores in Asia, 2015 [UN]
The Philippines is recognized as the TEXT capital of the world, and
rightfully so. The mobile phone is every Filipinos main accessory,
sending an average of 2 billion SMS /day!
Mass-media, Crowds, and social movements
Public Sphere

Mobilizing

Organizing

Gathering Support

Circulating Information

2001 Coup de Text, Philippines Documenting violations

Mass-media, Crowds, and social movements
Public Sphere

Mobilizing

Organizing

Gathering Support

Circulating Information

Documenting violations
Digitization, privatization and
monopolies

Private Corporations
Pirate or Recycled Modernity
Pirate or Recycled Modernity
and ICT access
Films, Cities, and Capitalism
Films & Pan-Asianism: Asiawood
India China Productions

India South Korea Film circuits

South Korea, Hong Kong, China

Films and Imagined
Communities

Turkey, Tunisia, Beirut,

Egypt, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, India.
1. Globalization since the 1980s has been shaped by informationalization
of manufacturing and service economies [Manuel Castells].
2. The informationalization involves setting up of material networks such
as satellite systems and undersea fibre-optic cables that allow for
transfer of information [radio, cell phones, news, television, data, and so
on].
3. The ICTs are also increasingly enmeshed with governance, business,
communication, and entertainment.
4. There is an increasing privatization of ICT in Asia, allowing
multinational corporations [both Asian and non-Asian] to own ICT
networks [except China and Singapore: state-owned corporations].
5. What does this mean for access to ICTs, imagining communities, and
democracy?
In the context of privatization and
monopolization of ICTs by the State and
Private MNCs:

What are the avenues for democratising

ICTs?

Are piracy and recycled forms of ICTs a

form of democracy?
Entrepreneurial State in Asia
A competition amongst not just
countries but also regions to
attract Foreign Direct Investment
and Multi-National Corporations
in their regions.

TATA Automobile plant moved from Provision of tax benefits and cheap
West Bengal to Gujarat
land through land concessions and
dispossession.

Provision of infrastructure for

setting up industrial networks
[investment in ICT, roads,
acquiring land, digitizing land].
 Setting limits on
minimum wage
in regions to
provide cheap
and skilled labor.

A strong police
and military to
control labor
protests.
Lowering the
minimum wages
below China to
attract Foreign
Direct
Investment.
Corporations and
Impact of Labor in
Asia

Malaysia [Free Trade Zones

for Electronics]
Malaysia [Free Trade Zones for Electronics,
1970s]
The modernization of
agricultural economies in
1970s towards export-
oriented plantation
economy.
Malaysia [Free Trade Zones for Electronics,
1970s]

A shift towards export-oriented

industrial growth.

1970s oil crisis pushed US, Europe

and Japan to look for cheaper labor.

Between 1970-1980 Malaysian

government set up 9 Free-Trade-
Zones.

Hiring at least 40 percent Malays.

1. From peasant workers to industrial
workers + autonomous work to
capitalist discipline.

2. An international division of labor.

3. Reproducing gender and ethnic

hierarchies.

4. Feminization of work. The oriental girl

with nimble fingers for detailed work.

5. Short-term contracts to keep the flow of

young women workers.

6. Refusal to unionize workers.

Foxconn
Attracting Foxconn in China
1. Provision of cheap land, tax benefits, infrastructure, and supply
of new and young migrant labor.

2. Strong control over workers organizations and wages to keep

production costs low.

3. Partnering with education departments to provide interns as

free-workers.

4. Opening up new regions for investment Go west policy.

5. Providing Foxconn monopoly over investment as well as labor.

Capitalist Discipline of Work
1. Just in-time production, by setting daily productivity levels.

2. Setting up of dormitories, where laborers live.

3. Specialization of tasks: monotonous and repetitive movements.

4. Exclusion from social networks to avoid lowering productivity.

5. Hierarchy in work: constant supervision by line-supervisors.

6. Reversal in feminization of electronic manufacturing: hiring male

workers for around the clock work.
Spirit Possession

And

Suicides
Graduated Sovereignty
Neoliberal state collaborating with private corporations
by providing infrastructural support and ensuring law
and order, allowing for capital accumulation and
economic growth.

What is the role of the state in such a context?

Is it possible to have universal wages in a globalized world?

What is the role of ICTs?