Labour formalisation as selective hegemony in reform-era Myanmar

With the general elections of November 2010, state rule in Myanmar entered a process widely seen as a transition—if stalled—to democracy and rule of law. Such transition narratives have posited normative rule of law and arbitrary rule outside law as opposing logics, and opposing practices. A similar...

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Main Author: Campbell, Stephen
Other Authors: School of Social Sciences
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2020
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/145116
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1451162023-03-05T15:33:49Z Labour formalisation as selective hegemony in reform-era Myanmar Campbell, Stephen School of Social Sciences Social sciences::General::Careers and profession Labour Informality With the general elections of November 2010, state rule in Myanmar entered a process widely seen as a transition—if stalled—to democracy and rule of law. Such transition narratives have posited normative rule of law and arbitrary rule outside law as opposing logics, and opposing practices. A similar dichotomy is found in studies of labour informalisation in the global South, where informal labour is understood as antithetical to legally protected employment. Arguing otherwise, this article employs interview and ethnographic data to pursue an anthropology of state formation as a means of reading formality and informality as complementary, rather than conflicting, logics of state practice. Drawing on Gavin Smith's notion of selective hegemony, I hold that state actors in Myanmar have pursued varied projects of rule over a heterogeneous landscape of labour relations. In this respect, rule of law is always selective, and informality exhibits not so much an absence of state rule as an indirect modality of rule. Accepted version 2020-12-11T06:51:48Z 2020-12-11T06:51:48Z 2018 Journal Article Campbell, S. (2018). Labour Formalisation as Selective Hegemony in Reform-era Myanmar. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 20(1), 57–73. doi:10.1080/14442213.2018.1530294 1444-2213 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/145116 10.1080/14442213.2018.1530294 1 20 57 73 en The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology on 05 Oct 2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14442213.2018.1530294. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Social sciences::General::Careers and profession
Labour
Informality
spellingShingle Social sciences::General::Careers and profession
Labour
Informality
Campbell, Stephen
Labour formalisation as selective hegemony in reform-era Myanmar
description With the general elections of November 2010, state rule in Myanmar entered a process widely seen as a transition—if stalled—to democracy and rule of law. Such transition narratives have posited normative rule of law and arbitrary rule outside law as opposing logics, and opposing practices. A similar dichotomy is found in studies of labour informalisation in the global South, where informal labour is understood as antithetical to legally protected employment. Arguing otherwise, this article employs interview and ethnographic data to pursue an anthropology of state formation as a means of reading formality and informality as complementary, rather than conflicting, logics of state practice. Drawing on Gavin Smith's notion of selective hegemony, I hold that state actors in Myanmar have pursued varied projects of rule over a heterogeneous landscape of labour relations. In this respect, rule of law is always selective, and informality exhibits not so much an absence of state rule as an indirect modality of rule.
author2 School of Social Sciences
author_facet School of Social Sciences
Campbell, Stephen
format Article
author Campbell, Stephen
author_sort Campbell, Stephen
title Labour formalisation as selective hegemony in reform-era Myanmar
title_short Labour formalisation as selective hegemony in reform-era Myanmar
title_full Labour formalisation as selective hegemony in reform-era Myanmar
title_fullStr Labour formalisation as selective hegemony in reform-era Myanmar
title_full_unstemmed Labour formalisation as selective hegemony in reform-era Myanmar
title_sort labour formalisation as selective hegemony in reform-era myanmar
publishDate 2020
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/145116
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