Seminar "Practices of Reproducing Solidarity Among Truckers, Couriers and Taxi Drivers"
On June 25, 2024 at 18:10 (Moscow time), a seminar will be held, where observations and interviews collected during 45 trips with truck drivers will be presented, as well as the results of a systematic review of scientific articles describing the self-organization of couriers and taxi drivers.
The seminar will present a comparative analysis of interactions and mutual assistance among couriers, taxi drivers and long-distance truck drivers, considered as atomized workers who move around public spaces outside of work collectives on a daily basis, using E. Giddens's structuration theory.
Long-distance truck drivers, couriers and taxi drivers reproduce labor solidarity through self-organization practices implemented "face to face" and in virtual space. The seminar will present a typology of practices by their functions and level of altruism. Of particular importance in the reproduction of self-organization within the community are the spatial points where workers meet each other daily on their routes, communicate with each other during stops and waiting for orders. Solidarity covers large masses of logistics workers, since weak ties arise within the labor communities of entire cities or even states (among truck drivers), and not in local offices and enterprises. Platform couriers and taxi drivers, due to the ability to manage their own time, have greater freedom of self-organization than hired truck drivers, who work under restrictions and rules from employers. However, in conditions of spatial remoteness, the employer is not always able to exercise control over the activities of subordinates, so "free spaces" are formed in which workers can violate established rules with impunity.
The report will be given by Georgy Stalinov, postgraduate student of the HSE Department of Sociology, lecturer of the HSE School of Politics and Governance, analyst of the HSE Project and Educational Laboratory of Municipal Management. The discussant will be Roman Abramov, Doctor of Sociological Sciences, professor, leading research fellow of the HSE International Laboratory for Social Integration Research.
The working language of the seminar is Russian. The seminar will be held online.
To receive a link to join, please contact us by e-mail: nsbaysha@hse.ru