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Introduction

Embodied Precariousness?

Topic

Context

Nightwork

Migration

Precarity

Night Modes

a NIGHT SCENES Virtual Event

UCL Urban Laboratory

Ways

Forward

Union Charter

Public Anthropology/Engagement

Embodied Precariousness:

Migrant Nightshift Workers in 24/7 London

Julius-Cezar MacQuarie

Teaching Fellow | BBU (RO)

Research Afilliate CPS | CEU (HU)

"Six 'S' Factors"

(Wacquant 2004, 2015)

refers to mundane, bodily activities, repeated rhythmically, and carried out subconsciously, which help form a practical kind of knowledge.

Symbol weilder

Sentient

Suffering

Skilled

Sedimented Situated

(Bourdieu 1998, 2000)

HABITUS & SIX 'S'

Human constructs a symbol-based system and deconstructs it in order to grapple with and shape the environment in which s/he lives

Migrant workers’ subjectivity of EMBODIED PRECARISOUNESS is not simply expressed through discourse, but in the bodily responses to a regime of discipline that seeks to extract as much use from the labouring body as possible, leaving it exhausted and spent.

Sensorial awareness =

capable & conscious of feelings;

Flesh is the medium awareness of feelings

Senses, sufferings

and skills are sedimented, incorporated

in layers; consciousless,

second nature

Exposed to threats from natural and social world

Her needs, yearning, desires remain unfulfilled;

Anxiety ridden of eventually facing death. Yet, she endures!

2a

2b

I was physically exhausted. I asked him for one night off, because I could not keep up anymore. But, he wouldn’t have it. Unfortunately, like in Romania, no one is willing to understand these situations. So, I didn’t turn up for the next shift. And he cut two nights’ worth of my pay even though I only missed one. … This is not normal. I could not accept it anymore. Eventually, I stopped working for him.

1a

I was physically exhausted. I could not keep up anymore. And he cut two nights’ worth of my pay. This is not normal. I stopped working for him.

Vignette No 2

I did not have time because working nights meant that I tried to rest in the day. …. You wake up two hours before the shift and this way, in the past four months, my life was spent on work, sleep, work, sleep. However, I looked and found work offers with contracts and some on weekly pay, legally, via bank accounts, not cash like here. But, there is a period of accommodation in which I need to learn how things work.

1b

2a

Working nights meant that I tried to rest in the day. My life was spent on work, sleep, work, sleep.

Ali has been a full-time nightworker and day sleeper for the past nine years (2011-2020).

He says that,

"If I wanted to work in day jobs, I would need to speak English better. But, because I have not improved my language skills, I will continue doing the nightshifts. We’ll see for how long." … (Ali)

2b

Vignette No 1

Vignette No 2

In early 2020, he added that:

"I’ve been saying the same thing all these years. And I am still working at the market, no matter how many times I tried to find work elsewhere. But this is the last year I am working nights at Spitalfields market." (Ali)

LEXA & ALI

2a

2b

After one month of working in two places, I began to feel it in my body. I am now dependent on this energising drink, which is not healthy, but I drink it daily because of the physical exhaustion that I feel in my body.

I began to feel it in my body. I am dependent on this energising drink, which is not healthy. I drink it daily because of the physical exhaustion.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

W: NIGHTWORKSHOP.MYPORTFOLIO.COM

E: IMAILFROMDRJC@GMAIL.COM

S: MACARIE.I.C

T: +44 7412 804 777

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

MILLIONS OF NIGHT-SHIFT WORKERS – MANY OF THEM MIGRANTS - PLAY A CRUCIAL ROLE IN SUPPORTING THE NIGHT-TIME ECONOMY, DAY WORKERS AND NATIONAL ECONOMIES AS A WHOLE

PRECARIOUSNESS IS NOT EXCLUSIVE NEITHER TO NIGHTWORK NOR MIGRANTS. NIGHTWORKS MAGNIFIES IT BY SEVERAL DEGREES. AND WORKING CONDITIONS ARE DIRE FOR MIGRANTS MORE SO THAN LOCAL WORKERS BECAUSE OF INVISIBILITY AND A HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT THAT MIGRANTS INCREASED THEIR VULNERABILITY.

WAYS FORWARD - NIGHTWORKER CHARTER DEMANDS

IMPLEMENTATION OF DECENT WORK REGULATIONS FOR NIGHTSHIFT WORKERS (SDG №.8, ILO 2019)

INVOLVE MANAGING AUTHORITIES TO OBSERVE AND APPLY LEGISLATION ON SITE (e.g. 8h nightshifts not 16h)

INTRODUCE LIVING WAGE FOR NIGHTWORKERS

Vignette No 2

VignetteNo 7

8a

They are [allowed]. You get breaks when there is nothing to do, when the stand is not busy. … In my opinion, if the job slows down and they wanna go to have breakfast, that’s fine. As long as I know it, go ahead. … They are human beings, like us; there is no difference between us and the loaders or porters [forklift-truck drivers].

I don’t look at it that way.

LOGAN says ...

8b

Vignette No 8

You get breaks when there is nothing to do, when the stand is not busy. They are human beings, like us; there is no difference between us and the loaders or porters [forklift-truck drivers]. If there is a break, let them have it. But they’ve got to realise it! They’ve got to appreciate it!

EPISTEMOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Theoretical Assumption

Solidarity and Competition within and between groups of night-shift workers existed in a fragile form of sociability drawn along ethnic lines?!

£1bn / YR

25K / WK

650K t

turnover

customers

150K t

150 types

New Spitalfields night market

Corporation of London

ROMANIA

ALEVI

TURKEY

ISLAM

CHRISTIANITY

KURDISH

ROMA

TURKISH

PAKISTANI

BENGALI

INDIAN

CHINESE

orthodox

BANGLADESH

PAKISTAN

INDIA

CHINA

HUNGARY

INDIA

BRITAIN

catholic

BUDDHISM?

GENDER

trade

OWNER

MANAGER

SALES

CASHIER

STOCK OPERATOR

CHECK MAN

DRIVER (forklift)

LOADER

auxiliary

CONSTABULARY

CLEANER

MAINTENANCE

CAFE/DELIVERY

OCCUPATION

RELIGION

ETHNICITY

COUNTRY

REAL vs. OFFICIAL OPERATING HOURS at SPITALFIELDS

Ethnic, gender & occupation descriptives

THE SQUARE MILE

12:00 AM

REAL

OFFICIAL

BRITISH

MON - FRI

SATURDAY

11:00 AM

01:00 PM

TURKISH

PAKISTANI

BENGALI

INDIAN

CHINESE

NIGHT SHIFT

STARTS

09:00 AM

NIGHT SHIFT

FINISHES

OFFICIAL

TURKISH

PAKISTANI

BENGALI

INDIAN

CHINESE

BRITISH

REAL

08:00 PM

Skilled agent: discerns and adapts;

capable & competent

Cyber-ethnography

6a

I have been in this business for so long … I’ve been brought up to manage the loaders, forklift-truck drivers, the buying, the selling… For me, there is no kind of pattern that I have to do. I am not just a salesman. When it comes to it, I’ll become a manager; I’ll tell my bosses they’re wrong. When it comes to it, I load pallets; I’ll drive a forklift; I’ll sell stuff. I don’t mind. As long as the business runs smoothly, that’s all that matters.

LOGAN says ...

6b

Vignette No 6

I’ve been brought up to manage; I load; I’ll drive; I’ll sell; As long as the business runs smoothly, that’s all that matters.

M

E

T

H

O

D

S

METHODOLOGY

BMI

S

SYMBOL

SITUATED

S

SENTIENT

HABITUS

H

SEDIMENTED

S

SUFFERING

S

SKILLED

ZOMBIE

Participant

Observation

HABITUS

H

CITY OF LONDON

CORPORATION

CoL MARKETs

CORPORATION OF LONDON

£1bn / YR

25K / WK

650K t

Market Authority

turnover

customers

150K t

Spitalfields || 1682 (1920)

150 types

SINCE 1991

Smithfield || 1868

(meat)

Billingsgate || 1699

(fish and sea food)

VISION FOR SPITALFIELDS

TO SUPPORT TENANTS IN CREATING A FLOURISHING MARKET BY PROVIDING AN EXEMPLARY TRADING ENVIRONMENT THAT IS EVERGY EFFICIENT, WELL MAINTAINED, SAFE, INNOVATIVE, PROFITABLE AND REPRESENTS THE DIVERSE ETHNIC MIX OF THE AREA SERVED BY THE MARKET

Site.

1920 - 1990

LORD GUIDE US

A set of dispositions which are conditioned by social context & time; conditioned freedom.

RESEARCHER'S NIGHTWORKSHOP

‘Sensoriality self-tracking ... shapes everyday situations’

(Fors et al. 2013, p. 29)

©️ Pacer Avater

  • Participant Engagement
  • Increase Visibility

Visual methods are successfully applied in:

  • Branches of pedagogy by scholars like Pink (2015)
  • Socio-Anthropology of Migration (Martinello 2017)
  • Public Engagement and Mixed Audiences

THEORETICAL

CONSIDERATIONS

  • Precariousness is an existential kind that combines bodily, mental and social aspects of human experience (Butler 2004)
  • LIVING IN PRECARIOUSNESS = NO STEADY INCOME, NO STABLE EMPLOYMENT & PHYSICAL EXHAUSTION

EMBODIED PRECARIOUSNESS?

  • Habitus of night shift work precariousness is sedimented in embodied histories
  • Wacquant’s (2015, pp. 37-38) ‘Six S’ Factor explains how a bodily kind of ‘acquired’ knowledge forms ‘implicit or sedimented science’

Ethnographic Films

About Working

The Nightshift

7a

When I’m in charge, I like to know where my crew is – in the toilet, at the café… It’s not the case of … ‘Why is he going to the toilet?’ But, when you don’t know [where your crew is] it’s the worst. So, if I am going to the toilet, I’ll tell my boss, so he keeps an eye on [the stand]. 

LOGAN says ...

7b

I like to know where my crew is – in the toilet, at the café. So, if I am going to the toilet, I’ll tell my boss, so he keeps an eye [on the stand].

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