The Allure of Labor

Workers, Race, and the Making of the Peruvian State

Nonfiction, History, Americas, South America
Cover of the book The Allure of Labor by Paulo Drinot, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Paulo Drinot ISBN: 9780822394228
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: April 25, 2011
Imprint: Duke University Press Books Language: English
Author: Paulo Drinot
ISBN: 9780822394228
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: April 25, 2011
Imprint: Duke University Press Books
Language: English

In The Allure of Labor, Paulo Drinot rethinks the social politics of early-twentieth-century Peru. Arguing that industrialization was as much a cultural project as an economic one, he describes how intellectuals and policymakers came to believe that industrialization and a modern workforce would transform Peru into a civilized nation. Preoccupied with industrial progress but wary of the disruptive power of organized labor, these elites led the Peruvian state into new areas of regulation and social intervention designed to protect and improve the modern, efficient worker, whom they understood to be white or mestizo. Their thinking was shaped by racialized assumptions about work and workers inherited from the colonial era and inflected through scientific racism and positivism.

Although the vast majority of laboring peoples in Peru were indigenous, in the minds of social reformers indigeneity was not commensurable with labor: Indians could not be workers and were therefore excluded from the labor policies enacted in the 1920s and 1930s and, more generally, from elite conceptions of industrial progress. Drinot shows how the incommensurability of indigeneity with labor was expressed in the 1920 constitution, in specific labor policies, and in the activities of state agencies created to oversee collective bargaining and provide workers with affordable housing, inexpensive food, and social insurance. He argues that the racialized assumptions of the modernizing Peruvian state are reflected in the enduring inequalities of present-day Peru.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In The Allure of Labor, Paulo Drinot rethinks the social politics of early-twentieth-century Peru. Arguing that industrialization was as much a cultural project as an economic one, he describes how intellectuals and policymakers came to believe that industrialization and a modern workforce would transform Peru into a civilized nation. Preoccupied with industrial progress but wary of the disruptive power of organized labor, these elites led the Peruvian state into new areas of regulation and social intervention designed to protect and improve the modern, efficient worker, whom they understood to be white or mestizo. Their thinking was shaped by racialized assumptions about work and workers inherited from the colonial era and inflected through scientific racism and positivism.

Although the vast majority of laboring peoples in Peru were indigenous, in the minds of social reformers indigeneity was not commensurable with labor: Indians could not be workers and were therefore excluded from the labor policies enacted in the 1920s and 1930s and, more generally, from elite conceptions of industrial progress. Drinot shows how the incommensurability of indigeneity with labor was expressed in the 1920 constitution, in specific labor policies, and in the activities of state agencies created to oversee collective bargaining and provide workers with affordable housing, inexpensive food, and social insurance. He argues that the racialized assumptions of the modernizing Peruvian state are reflected in the enduring inequalities of present-day Peru.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book Cruel Optimism by Paulo Drinot
Cover of the book Speculate This! by Paulo Drinot
Cover of the book Tendencies by Paulo Drinot
Cover of the book The Look of a Woman by Paulo Drinot
Cover of the book Race and the Education of Desire by Paulo Drinot
Cover of the book The Borders of "Europe" by Paulo Drinot
Cover of the book The Nick of Time by Paulo Drinot
Cover of the book Diaspora's Homeland by Paulo Drinot
Cover of the book Making Samba by Paulo Drinot
Cover of the book Contested Histories in Public Space by Paulo Drinot
Cover of the book The Undersea Network by Paulo Drinot
Cover of the book Ontopower by Paulo Drinot
Cover of the book Rancière's Sentiments by Paulo Drinot
Cover of the book Two Dreams in One Bed by Paulo Drinot
Cover of the book Wayward Reproductions by Paulo Drinot
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy