ILPC 2026

Labor scholars have developed extensive literature, which documents the structural re-configurations of work in a post-Fordist economy. First, scholars note the transition from a manufactory economy to a service-based economy. This transition implies a departure from physical labor to an emphasis on emotional/performative labor (Horshchild, 1983).  Further,the organization of work in a service economy situates the consumer as a central subject to the labor process, sometimes acting as a secondary management figure (Fuller and Smith, 1991). Second, scholars note the continuous reduction of the corporate model, which secured state-driven workers’ protection for a contracted business-labor bargain, thus weakening the relationship between work and security. The post Fordist economy is characterized by the transformation of the workforce into one of freelance, temporary workers and contractors who work outside the boundaries of traditional employment protections (Kallerberg, 2000).       

 Furthermore, Sociologists in the intersection of the sociology of work and sociology of culture have noted the emergence of discursive frameworks of freedom and entrepreneurship employed by popular business press and media representations that serve to legitimize and idealize precarious employment (Vallas and Prener, 2012; Alonso and Fernandez, 2013). The purpose of my research is two-fold. First, I wish to bridge the lack of dialogue between job structures and discursive/cultural developments. Looking at both currents simultaneously will help address the manner in which workers make sense of structural re-configurations of work. Second, both currents tend to remain within a macro analysis and thus fail to acknowledge how re-configurations of work transpire in everyday life. Methodologically, I situate myself within the extended case method (Burawoy, 1998; Sallaz, 2015). The ECM permits a fruitful synthesis that connects macro-structural configurations with micro- empirical realities. It does so by deploying participant observation to locate everyday life in its extra local and historical context.

Over a period of two months, I conducted ethnographic work of Uber drivers in the city of Monterrey, Mexico. I was able to ride along with 50 drivers and participate as a consumer in their everyday work, as well as generate semi-structured interview data. My research field is meaningful to theories of work re-configuration as the Uber model compromises a service work and operates outside of employment protection. Additionally, Uber drivers have minimal contact with a virtualized management and other Uber drivers, which precludes the possibility for collective bargaining. Furthermore, even though research on post-Fordist employment remains U.S centric, I argue that the city of Monterrey is an example on how work re-configurations constitute a global process.  With the collapse of Fundidora de Monterrey in 1986, a major metal and steel factory in Monterrey which gave it its industrial regional identity, thousands of workers were unable to return to the industrial sector, and thus had to find employment in the service economy or remain unemployed (Martinez Silva, 2016).  My research aims to tend to the following concerns, and thus contribute to the literature on the following post-Fordist labor processes: A) noting how Uber drivers negotiate, navigate and resist the material conditions of the Uber system of work, B) noting how Uber drivers both internalize and resist the discursive rationalities of precarious work, C) noting the gaps and possible congruencies between material conditions and discursive frameworks as mobilized by the Uber drivers. My preliminary findings suggest that there is variation regarding the degree of consent. Older drivers who have been previously employed in the industrial sector tend to exhibit the most resistance to the discursive rationalities surrounding precarious work. On the other hand, younger drivers who were never employed by the industrial sector exhibit more internalization of discursive rationalities of precarious work. However, if the material conditions were not favorable, (e.g. the driver did not own their own car but had to pay rent to a third party) all drivers regardless of age exhibited resistance against the discursive rationalities of precarious work.