Contract Labor: The Latest Stage of Illiberal Capitalism

Abstract

Much has been made in recent years about the transformations in the nature of the world. We witnessed the beginnings of a post-Cold War world, the inauguration of a New World Order, the end of "welfare" capitalism, the maturity of transnational corporations, and the atrophy of working-class politics in Euro-America. Through optimistic adjectives, the Euro-American media tell a story that everything has changed for the better and that humanity is soon to enter a realm of freedom hitherto known only in the United States and Western Europe. This excitement has been contagious, being carried to the media of peripheral countries and to intellectuals in the most peripheral domain of all—Academy-land.

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