CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2012
| Author | Tsoneva, Jana Mariyanova |
|---|---|
| Title | Engineering and Accumulating Souls in the Offshore World: The Case of Malta |
| Summary | This is a study about labour discipline in the online gaming industry of Malta. My study identifies a specific articulation of what at first glance appear to be mutually exclusive management regimes that Burawoy has called “hegemonic” and “despotic” factory regimes (1979, 1983). This mix pertains to the online gaming sector on Malta which has recently grown immensely (more than 350 online gaming operators have relocated to Malta since 2000). The study tries to establish the reasons behind this unusual mix. The articulation in question is unusual because the literature on work and labour relations focuses on historical accounts of transitions and superimpositions of one regime with another, presupposing radical breaks in time. The paper argues that the reasons behind the labour discipline regime prevailing in the gaming sector are rooted on the one hand, in the internal dynamics of the industry, and, on the other hand, in the specific developmental form the Maltese welfare state has been pursuing, i.e. opening up of juridical enclaves for differential taxation and regulation for the sake of attracting foreign investment to Malta. This has resulted in the emergence of a working environment that contains both welfarist and despotic elements. I call this regime “hybrid” labour regime and argue that it serves as a vehicle for engineering and accumulating souls. I review the historical developments of the online gaming sector against the backdrop of the specific political infrastructure that attracts and supports this industry. The penultimate chapter demonstrates what kinds of souls (subjectivities) are engineered by the hybrid regime where gestures of corporate care entangle with insecurity, volatility and arbitrary dismissal from work, amidst deployment of management techniques such as compulsory lie detector tests that blur the boundaries between policing and work. This question is addressed through a re-reading of the Foucauldian notion of pastoral power. Further, I question the conventional assumptions of radical breaks splitting the modern from postmodern capitalism (neoliberalism) by arguing that, far from being a radically new era, neoliberalism represents the climax of the modern capitalist rationality because it purges all modern impurities from workers' souls (such as the militancy and unionism from the welfare state period), and opens up spaces for the free operation of the engineering and accumulation of souls performed by the hybrid regime and its discourses of pastoral power. The final chapter outlines further research directions. The study engineers and relies on a tripartite conceptual apparatus: hybrid labour regime, accumulation of souls and veridiction of accumulation. Key words: workers, capitalism, lie detectors, luxury, neoliberalism, hybrid labour regime, accumulation of souls, veridiction of accumulation, subjectivity. |
| Supervisor | Matejskova, Tatiana; Geva, Dorit |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2012/tsoneva_jana.pdf |
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