Dismissing class

Neoliberal globalisation has expanded transnational corporations’ (TNCs) boundaries of operation and sphere of exploitation, particularly in the Global South where much of the production of traditional TNC manufacturing now occurs. In this article, using a longitudinal approach, I conduct a detailed...

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Main Author: Cotal San Martin Vladimir
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Sciendo 2021-04-01
Series:Nordicom Review
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0025
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author Cotal San Martin Vladimir
author_facet Cotal San Martin Vladimir
author_sort Cotal San Martin Vladimir
collection DOAJ
description Neoliberal globalisation has expanded transnational corporations’ (TNCs) boundaries of operation and sphere of exploitation, particularly in the Global South where much of the production of traditional TNC manufacturing now occurs. In this article, using a longitudinal approach, I conduct a detailed critical discourse analysis of a large Swedish press corpus reporting on TNC activities in Global South countries. The analysis suggests that the issue of workers’ conditions is made relevant to the Swedish public through a “consumer framework” that not only confers proximity and relevance on the topic, but also effectively recontextualises agency and responsibility towards particular or individual social actors, obscuring the class dimension of labour relations and global production. Moreover, rooted in a highly problematic colonial imagery, exploitation in the Global South is seen as a “cultural problem” of “them” rather than a problem related to the social and spatial relations of global capitalism.
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spelling doaj-art-deb116a2fb1542e095870b18474656a42025-02-02T15:48:50ZengSciendoNordicom Review2001-51192021-04-0142s3355510.2478/nor-2021-0025Dismissing classCotal San Martin Vladimir0School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Örebro University, SwedenNeoliberal globalisation has expanded transnational corporations’ (TNCs) boundaries of operation and sphere of exploitation, particularly in the Global South where much of the production of traditional TNC manufacturing now occurs. In this article, using a longitudinal approach, I conduct a detailed critical discourse analysis of a large Swedish press corpus reporting on TNC activities in Global South countries. The analysis suggests that the issue of workers’ conditions is made relevant to the Swedish public through a “consumer framework” that not only confers proximity and relevance on the topic, but also effectively recontextualises agency and responsibility towards particular or individual social actors, obscuring the class dimension of labour relations and global production. Moreover, rooted in a highly problematic colonial imagery, exploitation in the Global South is seen as a “cultural problem” of “them” rather than a problem related to the social and spatial relations of global capitalism.https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0025transnational corporationsworking conditionsglobal southcritical discourse analysisnewspapers
spellingShingle Cotal San Martin Vladimir
Dismissing class
Nordicom Review
transnational corporations
working conditions
global south
critical discourse analysis
newspapers
title Dismissing class
title_full Dismissing class
title_fullStr Dismissing class
title_full_unstemmed Dismissing class
title_short Dismissing class
title_sort dismissing class
topic transnational corporations
working conditions
global south
critical discourse analysis
newspapers
url https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0025
work_keys_str_mv AT cotalsanmartinvladimir dismissingclass