{"title":"The unions are the mines’ biggest partners, but they do not act like it: union ‘corruption’ and shareholder-primacy on Zambia’s copperbelt","authors":"T. McNamara","doi":"10.1080/02255189.2022.2128079","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article explores the dichotomous co-production of ‘corrupt unions’ and ‘shareholder-driven corporations’. It argues that discourses of Zambian union corruption convolved national political history, shifting moral economies and global responses to organised labour’s disempowerment; obfuscating the structural causes of low wages and under-development. Semiotically created in comparison to corrupt unions were shareholder-driven, economically rational corporations. In problematising the naturalisation of these actors’ economic choices, the article reconceptualises their actions through exploring negotiations over their responsibilities between workers, employers and the state. It argues that in these negotiations narratives of shareholder primacy and Corporate Social Responsibility emboldened claims for high profits, low wages and minimal tax takes; while a self-reinforcing perception of corruption lowered workers’ expectations of what could be achieved through collective action.","PeriodicalId":46832,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Journal of Development Studies-Revue Canadienne D Etudes Du Developpement","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"2022-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Canadian Journal of Development Studies-Revue Canadienne D Etudes Du Developpement","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02255189.2022.2128079","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"DEVELOPMENT STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT This article explores the dichotomous co-production of ‘corrupt unions’ and ‘shareholder-driven corporations’. It argues that discourses of Zambian union corruption convolved national political history, shifting moral economies and global responses to organised labour’s disempowerment; obfuscating the structural causes of low wages and under-development. Semiotically created in comparison to corrupt unions were shareholder-driven, economically rational corporations. In problematising the naturalisation of these actors’ economic choices, the article reconceptualises their actions through exploring negotiations over their responsibilities between workers, employers and the state. It argues that in these negotiations narratives of shareholder primacy and Corporate Social Responsibility emboldened claims for high profits, low wages and minimal tax takes; while a self-reinforcing perception of corruption lowered workers’ expectations of what could be achieved through collective action.
期刊介绍:
Since 1980, the Canadian Journal of Development Studies has been an interdisciplinary, bilingual forum where scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers explore and exchange ideas on both conventional and alternative approaches to development