La Lógica de los trabajadores : un estudio sobre la racionalidad, la autonomía y la coherencia de las prácticas y los significados de los trabajadores

En parte de la literatura reciente sobre sociología del trabajo y de las organizaciones, el reconocimiento del papel de los obreros como agentes ha venido de la mano de una concepción de la subjetividad de los trabajadores como un "efecto" contradictorio e inconsistente de las relaciones de poder. Frente a esta concepción, y a partir del análisis de dieciocho entrevistas realizadas a trabajadores de una multinacional automovilística de Barcelona, se pondrá de manifiesto en este artículo el carácter innovador, autónomo, lógico y coherente del conjunto de los significados que guían las acciones cotidianas de los trabajadores. En el caso analizado, los trabajadores guían sus acciones cotidianas bajo la idea de la necesidad de respetar un código ético de comportamiento compuesto por una serie de principios morales bien trabados. Las acciones de compromiso y resistencia, que algunos autores presentan como contradictorias, aparecen aquí como acciones coherentes con una serie de principios éticos, y por tanto, como racionalmente ajustadas a valores.While some of the recent literature addressing the sociology of work and organizations recognizes the role of workers' agency, it always includes the concept of workers' subjectivity as a contradictory and inconsistent "effect" of power relations. In contrast to this approach, using the analysis of eighteen interviews conducted with workers of an automotive multinational in Barcelona, it will be shown in this article the innovative, autonomous, logical and coherent character of the set of meanings guiding workers' everyday actions. In this case study, the everyday actions of the workers are guided by a belief in the necessity of an ethical code of behavior. This code is composed of a set of congruent moral principles. The actions of resistance and commitment, presented by several authors as contradictory, appear being consistent with a set of ethical principles, and therefore, as value-rational action

Globalization and high-risk systems

The argument of this paper is that globalization has reconfigured the landscape and operating constraints of high-risk systems. This article helps describe how the operating conditions of high-risk systems have been evolving over the past 30 years. In order to do so, findings from the literature on globalization, organization, regulation, multinationals, safety and disasters are considered and linked into an integrative framework. The article has three parts. First, the literature on globalization is introduced. It is shown that it constitutes a central feature of our time, but that this new historical moment is far from being unambiguous in its nature, implications and consequences. It is contested terrain that has given rise to a variety of interpretations. Second, the article discusses the extent to which safety as a field of research has acknowledged this new situation, concluding that it should be further explored. I argue that issues discussed in the field, such as ‘outsourcing’ or ‘standardization’, along with ‘financialization’, ‘digitalization’ or ‘self-regulation’ should be linked to the broader pattern of globalization. Third, this statement is empirically illustrated, building on the extensive writings about BP as an example of the failure of a globalized multinational. It is shown that BP’s series of disasters between 2005 and 2010 can only be meaningfully understood in the context of a multinational shaping and being shaped by globalization. BP is the paradigmatic example of a new industrial safety era