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I don't understand the quote from Keynes on page 416 about burying bank notes in coal mines. Is there a different analogy someone could suggest to think about this differently? Thanks, Claire Sultan

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Nigel Jeffery 655044
Appel eloquently illustrates her assertion that the global oil market deepens, and is constituted by, racial disparities with her example that oil companies can hire 10 Filipinos for the cost of 1 American - even if they're doing the same job. She also observes that whilst the global price of oil ($/barrel) is standardized regardless of local cost, the price of labour is not. This is an eye-opening paper.

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Nigel Jeffery 655044
Yes, the Keynes quote had me scratching my head. I interpret it as implying that cash is the new coal, so whereas previously coal had represented material wealth mined from the ground, now bank-notes represent material wealth, in and of themselves, that can be 'mined' in the new market economy. Is that it?

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Nigel Jeffery 655044
I found this paper very triggering, which I think is the author's intention, as he admits the use of slavery as a metaphor is 'glib, even frightfully crude' His central argument is that the use of the term 'energy slave' by climate activists is 'meant to provoke' but carries forward 'some undesirable luggage' and so I agree with his conclusion that to prepare for a post-carbon future we will need to use 'the right language', and drop this unhelpful metaphor, whilst still focusing on a socially just energy transition.

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I found this article very effective in the way that it managed to show capitalism's ability to reinforce and thrive off global inequalities - especially those along racial lines. The hierarchical way in which those employed by Laurel Incorporated were paid based 'purely on their passport' highlighted this. Particularly shocking was the fact that, as the author pointed out, these practices, despite being 'messy' and 'indefensible', are part of capitalisms daily life. (658729)

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What I found particularly interesting in Mitchell’s paper was how they discussed the materiality of the oil economy against the immateriality of the limitless economic growth through what I understand to be an accounting ‘trick’. Particularly interesting might be to compare the need for financial liquidity within the US national economy for economic growth, with the economic necessity for transnational labour discussed by Appel in order to create profit. Equally interesting might be to view the 20th/21st c. economic developments sequentially i.e. gold, gold-backed dollars, Bretton Woods, oil-backed dollars, highly complex financial instruments backed by nothing(?). If anyone has some ideas or reading on this that’d be great. Cheers, Ashley (627782)

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A People's Green New Deal - Max Aji, Part 1; Chapter 3 'Energy Use, Degrowth, and the Green New Deal'

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A People's Green New Deal - Max Aji, Part 1; Chapter 3 'Energy Use, Degrowth, and the Green New Deal'

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an interesting book discussing some rhetoric around the carbon economy within current (predominantly) US policy. (627782)

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I struggled a bit with digesting this piece. admittedly I knew nothing about coal extraction, so maybe I missed the point.
I was interested in Rolston's explanation that the miners engage and transform the material around them by working on the mine. And how this can act as a new way to influence their relationship with the companies especially with the decline of unions due to the reduction of miners needed with the development of technology.
I also found the idea of the mine as a sentient being intriguing ('scaring the mine to behave').
To me, both of these ideas invoke the idea of humans and the natural world needing to be seen as integrated/work as one.
(695127)

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This article not only shows how capitalism deepens racial disparities but suggests that it does more than that, that it is it. The wage of 10 Filipinos is that of 1 American, even if they have the same skills if not better. The workers are defined by a 'passport'. which determines how much time they get off. No doubt this occurs in many more markets globally, this is a clear example to show that capitalism is constituted by "racialized and gendered postcolonial disparities". 696262

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Appel demonstrated, through he field work in Equatorial Guinea focusing on subcontracting in the transnational oil industry, that, contrary to the notion that markets deepen inequalities, actually inequalities and racism makes the markets. She argues that, where as the price of oil is standardized for everybody, the wages of workers in the oil fields follow the passport one is holding. This idea of paying workers according to the standard of the wages of their home countries is sarcastic. She has also demonstrated that the oil companies owned by mostly global north countries hide under the guise of hierarchies of skills to pay workers from the global north higher wages and give them better treatment while exploiting workers from the global south. she buys into the notion of "racial capitalism" by Cedric Robinson. Indeed, "Race makes Markets".

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I agree that the Particularly compelling part in Mitchell's account was the illumination of the materiality of the coal and oil networks, how they differ to one and other (in terms of biopolitics, labour, distribution and exploitation) and to the concept of the seemingly boundless 'economy'. I find the quote about 'damage caused by fossil fuels' being an 'addition rather than an impediment to growth' particularly pertinent and harrowing. It seems as if this is the nexus of the corruption between environmentalism and politics when it comes to governmental & corporate management and of fossil fuels, but perhaps I'm reading it wrong! 683385

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This article made me think about the shift from localisation to globalisation.

We saw the power mine workers had to mobilise action within their own communities and unions to demand better workers rights, but the shift to oil and the way it both physically and metaphorically flows through our systems and networks, and through a far larger geography than coal, meant that the working class people who worked in the industry had far less power to change it.

It made me think about what systems are in play in contemporary society that could have the same impact that miners did in disrupting daily life and it got me thinking about the Facebook / WhatsApp / Instagram outage that happened just a few weeks ago - where suddenly so much of the world were without the methods of communication that they normally have. But unlike the miners, this power now lies in a few private companies, not the public, not the majority. Instead of the power to make the systems of our world work being reliant on the people, the people are now reliant on a power that is out of our grasp to change if we wanted to. Just like how the shift to oil meant less democracy for those working in the industry, as a few private companies had a monopoly across markets, the shift to a more globalised world, for everything, including our communication means less democracy, for everyone.

694963

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I found this article fascinating. In the reading that I have done previously on racial capitalism, Ruth Wilson Gilmore had characterised racial capitalism as all of capitalism. What I had read had been concentrated on the North American experience. This article helped me think about how racial capitalism can apply in the global south as well.

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I find this article very interesting and expand my horizon of assessment. I used to use the economic model 'Supply and Demand' to account for the global unequal payment, but Appel used the term 'racial capitalism' to show how social norms can shape people's behaviors and differentiate people in as a material force in daily life. 'You are paid according to your passport', this sentence sadden me as no matter how many skills a person has mastered, he might be still inferior to white people because of skin color. It seems that evolutionism never dies, and worse, it never dies within those who have real power to influence others' life.

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What I found particularly memorable was how obvious the fallacy of hiring the 'best person for the job' was, from the words of one Equatoguinean worker as he spoke of indefinitely being circumscribed to the role of "trainee". It seems nonsensical to be subordinate to someone who was once technically your subordinate for 6 months (or at least someone you were training). Promotion hinged on whiteness. It's frustrating that Appel's case study is one of many endless examples of the irrationality of this kind of economy, and of racism. 695806

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I found the article very detailed but difficult to comprehend. However, I saw the miners who negotiate their relationship in different ways. she also demonstrated the dichotomy in the miners as producers and as humans. Researchers only focus on the miners as producers and they are given numbers but she tried to look at the miners as humans and bring out how the miners themselves dealt with that. Again, I see the carbon economy giving profit to the few owners and exploit the production class.

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694981

This was a very engaging article on racial capitalism.

Appel discusses how workers, no matter if they are doing the same job, are paid differently based on their passport and nationality, inevitably leading to a question of race. Paolo’s testimony in the article was important and frustrating: despite having a key position in a company, he is still paid as a “third-country national”. I agree with Appel’s argumentation that “racism forms the licit life of capitalism”, and am saddened that this is just one example of the capitalistic injustices around the world.

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Appel examines the 'entanglement of bodies, machinery and environments' by describing the anthropomorphic features of of machinery in relation to the land. That 'bodies assume designs and designs assume bodies' referring to the in-built gender disparities with which machinery is made and produced.
Appel also discusses the conceptualisation of race as a means of racial capitalism (ten Filipino workers for every one American) with the view that bodies and people are dispensable.

For me this reading was interesting in regards to the notion that machinery is increasingly being viewed as 'almost human' or anthropomorphised and the workers themselves are viewed as less than, or merely cogs in a wheel.

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I thought this article succinctly captured how capitalism feeds off inequality. Using the oil market as a case study, Appel highlights through her ethnographic research how Paolo frees the firm from guilt of discrimination or racism by stating that they're operating within "the rules of the economy". Appel raises a powerful issue of how the demise of slavery in the US created a labour demand that was "ultimately met through coercive promise of citizenship-for-exploitation to Filipino colonial subjects".
Do you think de-centralised business models such as off-shoring labour and manufacturing exasperate these issues? In my opinion - absolutely. Subcontracting makes traceability harder, enabling firms to discriminate against workers with little to no oversight for capital gain.
Amy - 694871

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I found a lot of this article to be very illuminating and it presented a lot of information I hadn't connected before. I was especially intrigued by the part about labour movements and how industrialization and coal production created a situation where workers could have some control and autonomy and could mobilize, but that changed when things became more oil focused and they could no longer be unsupervised and were not as ‘vital’ to the energy production process. They used to have more expertise but oil shifted that to higher positions. I'm sure a lot of us have studied industrialization and labour movements to some extent but this transition   and the impact it had on the ability of workers to have power was new to me. (695065)

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I really enjoyed the way histories of energy production were discussed in this article and how it encompassed political processes, social responses, and the technicalities of processes. After reading this piece I was thinking again about our discussion last week and the politics of blame or accountability. Mitchell describes the way societies are transformed as a result of (or with) transforming energy extraction and practices. Coal or oil or nuclear energy all have different implications for those involved in its production, but also those who are not directly related to it at all.
The section that discusses the involvement of major oil companies and US foreign policy in the Middle East is incredibly important given the propaganda that many Americans digest as true- believing that US foreign policy is "bringing democracy" to the region. Such complicity still enables this type of intervention without any pushback and reproduces racial stereotypes about the region.
As climate change discourse becomes more common and states look to combat this and find more sustainable resources of energy, there needs to be an understanding of how this is not a neutral field. Accountability doesn't necessary mean asking the North to pay more or find solutions, but continuing to highlight the points Mitchell raises is a key element of this. If those in the global North fail to realize the interconnectedness between energy and politics of other energy producing regions, the likeliness that aims towards sustainable energy continues to reproduce such inequalities is only higher.

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I found Hannah Appel’s article interesting in the ways it approached the ‘rules of the economy’. There are often assumptions about economics that only experts with a particular pro market ideology feel equipped to comment on. This enables processes such as the clearly racist hiring practices in the oil industry to simply be accepted as part of a wider system that is unalterable. 696259

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I like how Appel explains the concept of Racial Capitalism through a very realistic example. I specifically like how the article mentioned that working in these industries had become a tradition, almost "generational" which also pointed towards a kind of "inherited inequality" within these communities.

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Workplace conditions and machinery- Rolston

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Workplace conditions and machinery- Rolston

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I found this article very insightful: it had never occurred to me (although in hindsight it is quite obvious) that miners assess their workplace as any other worker would, including looking at the conditions their workplace is kept: ramps, roads, equipment mediate the relationships between workers and companies.  How these are maintained is an "index of care" which also embodies the directives and constraints under which they have to perform their tasks. I did not find convincing that "calling the human-machine configuration by the name of the operator" signals the miners' desire to be recognised as individuals. We generally tend to attribute agency to the person using a machine (rather than to the machine itself) for instance "X is turning on the driveway" rather than "X's car is turning on the driveway" (which made me reflect on how our language may evolve to adapt to widespread automation in the future). However it is undisputable that the size of the worksite and the miners' ability to know each other's name impact camaraderie and solidarity amongst them, particularly crucial in such a dangerous and unpredictable environment.
(Elena Ruiu 687127)

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The part which fascinated me most about this article was how it linked energy, democracy and globalisation together. As the extraction and distribution of energy produced moved away from localised areas and became transoceanic, carbon-based political democracy has lost its power. My main take away from this is the greater the amount of international networks are made, the more it takes away from the power of everyday people to enact any type of change that would help transition away from the carbon economy as attempts to tackle the climate change issue. It seems very much that the answers lie in the hands of the companies that create this carbon economy, and any rearrangement would have to be top down. Does anyone else have any thoughts about this?
(Roshni, 637370)

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Learning about the miners’ “pit-sense” made me think about how the world would be a much better place if other practices not related to mining also developed this “pit sense”, this constant look-out for how the environment is going to react. In the same way that miners are subject to the immediate dangers of coal crackling down highwalls, other sectors should be mindful of the less immediate but similarly fatal consequences that derive from the changes they cause to the environment, in relation for example to climate change. This “greater understanding of how mines operate and materials move in conjunction with human activities” could be extrapolated outside of the mining sector, by developing a general awareness of how the environment is going to react to any other human activity. (695224)

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I found Appel’s article very efficient in the way she introduces Cedric Robinson’s term, “racial capitalism”, and continues by demonstrating instances based on her ethnographic research in Equatorial Guinea. That 10 Filipinos cost the same as 1 American, that companies choosing Venezuelans because “they’re cheap” or that they “are paid according to [their] passport” as Paolo explains to Hannah, are some examples in the article. When Paolo normalizes the “racialized and gendered postcolonial disparities” by using the word “tradition”, to say that a lot of Filipinos’ generations work in that industry, is what upset me the most.

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I felt like this article showcased the discrepancies in workers’ rights and pay based on nationality and race in an incredibly effective and simple way. Definitely an eye-opener. The whole idea that, “You are paid according to [your] passport,” was something I knew happened but reading about the examples in detail really forced me to reflect on the reality of it. One example that stuck out to me was the Equatoguinean who complained that he had to train a white South African who then became his boss while he remained a trainee. Such blatant discrimination in the work force is more challenging to hide when everyone has the same nationality (say blatant racism or sexism within a workplace in the United States could be reported and prosecuted) though it still happens. But in cases like these, businesses like “Laurel” can get away with openly discriminatory rules and even state, “Companies take advantage of inequality in the economies of the world.” The way Paolo talks about the workers as if they’re a human supply chain was an eye-opener as to how so many businesses view workers from the Global South—a means to an end that must be taken advantage of.

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I found it really interesting how the organization of space in a workplace determines workers social interactions. The ability of coal miners to have agency over their conversation with limited supervision it seems was a key factor in the sort of powerful unions they were able to create. When they moved above ground for oil operations, the supervision over their work robbed them of that agency. Of course workers are controlled through the theft of agency over their time, but physical space in a coal mine can provide unsupervised space for talk/organizing.
687088

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Rolston: on the relationship between labor, resource and the environment

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Rolston: on the relationship between labor, resource and the environment

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Brilliant ethnography by Rolston regarding the implicit human experiences behind resource extraction, and its role within the larger ethical, economic and environmental context. I am especially fascinated by the inherent respect and understanding that the wyoming miners seem to have ("pit-sense") regarding the relationship between the machinery, industry and the environment. It is very interesting to observe the influence of the larger economic context on the miners' sense of risk and agency, and how they realistically navigate through the demands of production. (612049)

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Rolston's article produced an insightful view into the importance of mining, and how the role of mines from a commercial, labour and also a political standpoint. What stood out to me from this extract was linking religion into the political sphere of mining. Whilst, religion had always had a profound effect on politics, it was eye-opening to understand the significance of Tio and what it represents in regard to materiality of mining. Furthermore, it is refreshing to hear the difficulty in obtaining the analysis, and how much work there has been done in analysing this particular subject. (Rammiyan Kesavan, 696524)

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‘Resources are not, they become’ (Zimmerman 1951, borrowed by De Gregori 1987)

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‘Resources are not, they become’ (Zimmerman 1951, borrowed by De Gregori 1987)

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Rolston's article made me think about how in Latin America, among circles concerned with thinking critically about socioenvironmental issues, there’s a growing reluctance to use the word ‘resources’. This is because it is implied in its definition that the material is valuable because of its capacity to be extracted in order to serve human needs (or non-needs … ). Hence the term is anthropocentric, reinforces the society/nature divide, and so on. The word ‘recursos’ (resources in Spanish) is commonly replaced by ‘bienes’ (could be translated into English as ‘goods’). Wondering if there are any similar trends in other parts of the world?

A quote I found today looking further into this idea:

‘We can also argue that other living things have rights apart from their service to us. For the sake of consistency in the use of language, we should not use the term "resources" when we are making specific reference to the rights of other creatures’ (Thomas R. De Gregori 1987)

- María José Jordán (685585)

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Chris Killip’s 'Seacoal' photo series @ Tate Modern

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Chris Killip’s 'Seacoal' photo series @ Tate Modern

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related to this week's subject ...

'The series was shot between 1983 and 1984 in the coastal village of Lynemouth in Northumberland, known for its transient community of so-called ‘sea-coalers’, people who harvested coal washed up on the local beaches from the local coal mines that had once thrived in the area. Killip came across Lynemouth while living in Newcastle in the north-east of England and described how struck he was by the place.' - (https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/killip-alison-brian-and-claire-on-the-beach-p81052)

https://steidl.de/Books/Seacoal-0011215354.html

(685585)

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This is one of a group of ten black and white photographs in Tate's collection from British photographer Chris Killip's series Sea Coal, Lynemouth, Northumberland 1983-4 (Tate - and ). The series was shot between 1983 and 1984 in the coastal village of Lynemouth in Northumberland, known for its transient community of so-called 'sea-coalers', people who harvested coal washed up on the local beaches from the local coal mines that had once thrived in the area. Killip came across Lynemouth while living in Newcastle in the north-east of England and described how struck he was by the place:

When I first saw the beach at Lynemouth in January 1976, I recognised the industry above it but nothing else I was seeing. The beach beneath me was full of activity with horses and carts backed into the sea. Men were standing in the sea next to the carts, using small wire nets attached to poles to fish out the coal from the water beneath them. The place confounded time; here the Middle Ages and the twentieth century intertwined.
(Quoted in Dilnot 2012, p.17.)

For a few years there was sufficient coal being washed ashore for a small community of travellers and ex-miners to live off the harvested coal. Killip started to photograph the people working on the beach at Lynemouth in 1982, after over six years of failed efforts to obtain their consent. Between 1983 and 1984 he lived in a caravan on the sea coal camp and documented the struggle to survive on the beach. His photographs depict individuals handpicking the sea coal, as in Moira Hand-Picking in the very Good Fur Coat 1984 (Tate PP81051) and Brian and Unidentified Man in the Water 1984 (Tate ). Other images are portraits of members of the community in more intimate moments from their daily life, as in Boo and his Rabbit 1984 (Tate P81057) and Sean Leaning against his Truck 1983 (Tate ). A number of the photographs were shown in 1984 at the Side Gallery in Newcastle and others were included in Killip's much acclaimed book In Flagrante, published four years later.

Killip is best known for his extensive series of photographs taken in the north-east of England, such as General North East 1975-9 and Shipbuilding 1972-81 (see Tate -), which focus on the changing industrial landscape and increasingly poverty stricken social and economic climate. Though born on the Isle of Man - which he also photographed (see Tate -) - Killip decided to settle in Newcastle-upon-Tyne when the oil and IMF crises, deindustrialisation and redundancy became the defining conditions of life in northern England. The overriding theme in most of the photographs taken in the north-east is the industrial decline of the manufacturing towns and the social disintegration that resulted in some parts of the country. Killip's working practice is distinctive for the way he immerses himself into the communities he photographs and builds relationships with his subjects over a long period of time. This close level of involvement shows itself through images that are sensitive to the local environment and its inhabitants, as seen in the Lynemouthseries.
Killip is considered one of the most significant photographers to have emerged in Britain in the 1970s, known particularly for his black and white photography and engagement with the communities he photographs. Tate's collection also includes groups of photographs from his series: Isle of Man 1970-3 (Tate P20400-P20422); Huddersfield, Yorkshire 1973-4 (Tate -); General North East 1975-9 and Shipbuilding 1972-81 (see Tate P81021-P81037); Seaside, Tyneside and Wearside 1975-6 (see Tate -); Skinningrove, North Yorkshire 1982-3 (see Tate -P81048); and Pirelli 1989-90 (Tate -, - and ).

Further reading
Chris Killip; Arbeit/ Work, exhibition catalogue, Museum Folkwang, Essen 2012.
Clive Dilnot, 'Chris Killip: The Last Photographer of the Working Class', afterimage, vol.39, May-June 2012.

Simon Baker
February 2014
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.

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'Alison, Brian and Claire on the beach', Chris Killip, 1983, printed 2012-13 | Tate

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Artwork page for 'Alison, Brian and Claire on the beach', Chris Killip, 1983, printed 2012-13 on display at Tate Modern. Killip recalled: 'When I first saw the beach at Lynemouth in January 1976, I recognised the industry above it but nothing else I was seeing.

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“Citizenship-for-Exploitation” :: beyond blue-collar jobs? 

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“Citizenship-for-Exploitation” :: beyond blue-collar jobs? 

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Oh man. This piece was so satisfying to read. Beautifully explained / articulated. The first thing that struck me is how relatable this situation might be to any immigrant in any job across markets. For instance, the psychological trauma created by H1B visa (US market) even for white collar high-end roles. What’s the hit an immigrant is willing to take? Ethics behind employers knowingly differentiating during recruitment.  Powerful phrase: “Rules of the economy: market is not taking advantage of these circumstances, it is constituted by them”.
Harish 695003

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“You are paid according to your passport” is a statement that hits home in a big way. Hannah Appel does a beautiful job in crafting a story for a subject matter like racial capitalism. For someone who comes from a so-called ‘third-world’ country, Paolo’s matter-of-fact assertions of the devaluation of labour, as Appel terms it, are not only emotional to read, but also an eye-opener into the multi-dimensional debilitating effects of everyday capitalism. (Comment posted by Kavita Natarajan; SOAS ID 694599)

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“You are paid according to your passport” is a statement that hits home in a big way. Hannah Appel does a beautiful job in crafting a story for a subject matter like racial capitalism. For someone who comes from a so-called ‘third-world’ country, Paolo’s matter-of-fact assertions of the devaluation of labour, as Appel terms it, are not only emotional to read, but also an eye-opener into the multi-dimensional debilitating effects of everyday capitalism. (Comment posted by Kavita Natarajan; SOAS ID 694599)

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I think the article by Appel shows how capitalism is really rooted in inequality. It has nothing to do with how much you work or your performance but in this case with your passport. There were many good examples in the text like the Finance manager.
I would be interested in reading other articles about this topic that address different industries. (Student number 695131)

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I think this article was well written and accessible. When speaking of sub-contractors and the guilt felt by employee Laurel, it reminded me of David Graeber's 'Bullshit Jobs', how these jobs cause spiritual violence but because of insecurity of income and rising living costs, workers have little means for contesting roles. Therefore they perpetuate racist structures in the most banal sense. The injustice then that Paolo remains to be paid as a "third-country national" really emboldens the fact that capitalism is not an empowering trickle-down system, but really it is exploitative, sells untruths, and drives competition which ultimately demolishes labour rights and hardens borders. In this sense, 'post-colonial' is a misleading and insufficient term: colonial administration may not exist as it did historically, but the structures of exploitation and division a very much present, but made invisible by the promotion of "good practice" and business efficiency.

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I will echo the points made above, the writing is very dense and I struggled to follow this piece initially. I don't have much knowledge on the subject outside of UK mining history, so I found the explanation of how the pipelines / modern technology has undermined the ability for workers to unionise as they have less control over resources very interesting. For example, coal historically was transported by train and therefore workers could easily disrupt the transportation as a form of power and control over their labour - this no longer exists. This has taken power away from the workers and in the name of "efficiency" handed it over to the transnational oil corporations. It made me realise that I too projected the image that miners worked predominately underground, based on my traditional understanding of mining. I was genuinely surprised to learn that most of the work is carried out above ground by large machinery. The idea that indigenous groups have less power over resources as the companies are less reliant on their labour, shows how the private oil companies can exploit and disregard workers: workers are expendable and have little bargaining power as a result of modernising the means of production.

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This is absolutely a mess. Reading this article was painful and cringe worthy it was so apparent that modern day slavery and the premise of “cheap labour” being tied to your passport is rooted in concepts I don’t know if I yet have the language for. But ultimately racial capitalism is an interesting term. People with more skill and more time at a job training white counterparts to eventually become your boss. Paying people according to their passport. Following “the rules of the economy” what does that say about the roots of our economy. I’m excited to discuss this further in tutorial. Very painful. Very important to understand.

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The quote from this reading, "you are paid according to your passport", reflects how the modern corporation assesses people based on their origin instead of their skill/capability. Two people with similar skill/capability are paid differently because of their origin. This reality has been established systematically thus need systematic deconstruction to the system and strong good will from government/corporation to create a more equal environment.

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What I found interesting about this article is how Mitchell addressed some of the areas that have been glossed over when talking about oil and democracy. Some theories of the ‘oil curse’ fail to address the history of fossil fuels and political power and reduce the challenges of democracy in oil states to the economic impact of oil on governments. Mitchell emphasizes the extracting, transporting and consuming of oil can be traced to colonial expansion and the freeing of land used for timber and crop production which facilitated unregulated expansion.

694827

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I found this article deeply emotive and illuminating on the foundations and realities of capitalist industry and its relationship to workers. Appel's use of the term 'racial capitalism' nicely encapsulates her ethnographic work. the quote from Paolo affirms Appel’s main point – that taking advantage of inequality is ‘working within the rules of the economy’, (‘10 Filipinos for the price of 1 American’). Essentially she depicts white supremacy as the economic engine for growing capitalism, rather than an illicit secret that capitalism takes advantage of inequality, it is founded upon and created by racial and gender inequality and discrimination. I am interested in researching similar ethnographies that frame capitalism in this way, does anyone have recommendations? (685899)

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Folk Songs from Mining communities  in the north east of England

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Folk Songs from Mining communities  in the north east of England

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Not strictly related to this weeks topic, but I recently found this radio show with collections of old folk songs from industrial/mining communities in the North East of England. A really interesting listen for anyone interested in Ethnomusicology :) Merryn (626705)

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Folk Songs From An Industrial England 9th October 2021

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Playing Folk, Northumbrian Folk. An hour of English folk music from and about the mining communities in the North of England.

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Maybe this article has a lot of technical concepts of coal mining procedures and processes. But the insights that author states about the relation of the work force with this processes makes it really interesting. The experience of the miners and their relation with the space and machinery really envisions their dynamics. It really caught my attention the presence of fear in a US mine with well equipped infrastructure. One of them was the statement about preferring small mines to work in. This, because miners feel more protected, in less danger and in a more personalised relationship with engineers and other "higher" professionals. And that personalised relationship makes me thing also in the aspiration of being an entity not a number, just as discussed by 695880 (numbers again) and Jocasta in relation to the personification of machinery, and machinery as an extension of workers.

Tito (699901)

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I initially found this article quite dense and challenging at times however I found Rolston's analysis of the gendering of space within mining communities particularly interesting. Rolston's interaction with a female employee highlighted on the ergonomic challenges that are faced through many of the vehicles being designed for male bodies rather than females. Meaning that tasks that some tasks may be more physically challening for women rather than men. - 626705

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(694899) This reading made me consider the discordance between the social justification "narrative" and the underlying reality; the narrative in this case being that workers are paid based on their "skill" level, when in reality it is entirely national/racial. Worse, the entire system couldn't function outside of those racial inequities. Appel certainly presents a compelling case for "racial capitalism", which calls into question whether profit and growth-centric business models can ever be remotely equitable.

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Found this TED talk quite interesting, somewhat of a tangent but still fascinating none the less 685469

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Designing for the post-carbon economy | Eric Corey Freed | TEDxPenn

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I really appreciated Appel's article, reinforcing the way in which capitalism and transnational labour is centralised by racial and gendered disparities. This further supports the ongoing narrative of power, race and gender as central to the form of labor organization and segregation. The global labour market embodies its own "Rules of economy", where one is
"paid according to your passport " - Appel's article helps highlight the entanglements of
racial meaning, making and valuation that are intertwined and defined within existing labour markets.  (Eliza Hamer - 686948)

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I found myself shaking my head and rolling my eyes quite often while reading this especially the part the Equatoguinean who is kept and I presume paid at the level of a "trainee" meanwhile he has a Master's in Petroleum engineering. The part that really got me was the white South African becoming his boss after the Equatoguinean trained him?!
It annoys me that to this day your passport often determines how your work is valued - this articles reminded me of the reality of this "licit life of capitalism". I would take her argument further to say that even within the same race you can find people being paid a wage below the standard due to the passport they hold.
Nana 686258

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I understand that Mitchell was proving how (the qualities of) fossil fuels were related to democracy but I wonder whether the argument in the essay that the coal miners had control over the production sites (thus gained bargaining power, in my understanding) making them being able to negoitate with companies and government for improvement of their benefits was really the matter of coals' material qualities itself because the essay then mentioned Keynesian economic theories and neoliberalism in which it seems like it is more about the political and managerial tactics of companies and politicians had evolved and gain better control over (or, suppress them in a more effective and wiser ways) the labour. by Ho Yee Mak (695106)

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I understand that Mitchell was proving how (the qualities of) fossil fuels were related to democracy but I wonder whether the argument in the essay that the coal miners had control over the production sites (thus gained bargaining power, in my understanding) making them being able to negoitate with companies and government for improvement of their benefits was really the matter of coals' material qualities itself because the essay then mentioned Keynesian economic theories and neoliberalism in which it seems like it is more about the political and managerial tactics of companies and politicians had evolved and gain better control over (or, suppress them in a more effective and wiser ways) the labour. by Ho Yee Mak (695106)

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by Ho Yee Mak (695106)

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Appel illustrated clearly racial capitalism and how the inequality actually created the market system we have now, observing that this is now a widely acceptable practice. The practice goes beyond the global oil market and can be seen in practice in local contexts as well, even discriminating local talents. In Malaysia for example, expats (from Western countries) are typically paid much higher than the locals for the same skill sets. At the end of the day, capitalism still thrive in today’s economy as observed by Appel, the global system has an agreed-upon price per barrel for oil daily, yet there is no analogous procedure for labour.

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What I found really interesting in Appel's paper was that these kinds of seemingly licit practices are now quite common especially in those global operating companies. For example, the subcontracting are widely applied in the food delivery industry where the delivery men receive no insurances or any guarantees from the company and are highly expended. If in some case, they get  hurt during working, they have no access to ask for some compensation. Usually the only relations they have with other workers is through group chat which can be dismissed at any time.

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Really enjoyed the sort of chicken/egg question in this article, particularly as someone who used to work at sea and has seen/heard first hand quite a lot particularly regarding Filipino workers.
I thought the description of "docile workers" was an interesting and fitting one in describing the attitudes of many hiring individuals/companies and perhaps reflective of many fields: do hyper-wealthy countries also de-value 'TCNs' not just based on monetary value but on perceived education level/ability to be manipulated/categorizations (born from colonialism and western ambitions of domination) of these individuals as somehow 'lesser than'? (Rosie, 696256)

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Huong Nguyen (Sen) - I personally felt  uncomfortable with the fact that Hughes compared slaves (many of whom were black) working on sugar plantations who are human beings to coal, a rock extracted from earth. Nevertheless, it was an eye-opening empirical originality. I think it underscores the continued forms of slavery - slaves broke their back to serve their owners knowing/or at least feeling that their lives were all in the hands of those who bought them. Then the discovery of carbon, a liberatory technology and it gave coal miners jobs, or invented coal mining as a job. Miners themselves also broke their backs to energize the economies (Nash, J. 1979) knowing that the work was shortening their life expectancy. Labour rights improved with time, but simultaneously employers' manipulative ways of suppressing them. The embedded exploitation of people of colour didn't end when their emancipation began, exemplified by the black robot in Hughes' book. The robot might not be an actual human, but the ideas of free, unpaid and ungratified work done by people of colour was visualized by the black robot.

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I just wanted to emphasize an issue that Rolston mentions in her paper: the safety of workers is only seen in terms of profit. Making the mine completely safe would be too costly, so a certain degree of risk is "acceptable" as long as death and injuries don't translate in less profit for the company. This really resonated with me as I've worked for 5 months in a multinational (Andors) and I've experienced in first person that this is still how big companies operate. Factory workers, for example, are seen in terms of working hours and numbers, so accidents and near-misses are reported without even mentioning the person's name (e.g. "process room operative n.6 slipped in front of machinery x"). Accidents are only a problem for the business in terms of time and money, at most reputation. People are completely "de-humanized" in this process, just like in the miners example.
Elena (695342)

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I found this article interesting as it tackled the relationship between oil and democracy. This is something we particularly face in the issues of politics in our world today and it is the reason for the involvement of violence that has been particularly deployed to secure arrangement of oil productions and how this plays an affective role in autocracy- which is still present in places like Iraq