Camille Pellerin

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Awarded Research Grants:

- Shades of Civic Activism: State – Labour Relations in India and Ethiopia (Swedish Research Council, 2019-03564), joint project with Jenny Jansson, Silke Neunsinger and Andreas Admasie

How can we understand expansion and contraction of civic space under different political regimes? Research on civil society–state relations has yet to develop a theory that can account for the complexity and variations of their relations and interactions on the continuum between authoritarian and democratic rule. Previous research has commonly adopted divergent theoretical frameworks for explaining civil society – state relations under democratic and under authoritarian rule. This project explores how different levels/scales of authoritarian and democratic rule shape possibilities for civic action through in-depth case studies of state – labour relations in two countries, India and Ethiopia. Taking negotiations around minimum wages as an entry point, we will analyse when and how trade unions have been able to place labour demands on the political agenda and when and to what extend labour demands have been legislated on an adhered to. Drawing on archival data going back to the 1960s and semi-structured interviews will allow us to (1) compare civil society – state relations under different levels/scales of authoritarian and democratic rule, (2) shed light on how the reduction/enlargement of civic space shape possibilities for civic action and (3) understand similarities and differences in civil society – state relations under different levels/scales of authoritarian versus democratic rule.

- International Postdoc (Forte): State - Labour Relations under Authoritarian Rule: Co-optation, Cooperation, Coexistence, Contestation

How can we understand expansion and contraction of spaces where organization of labour is tolerated in non-democratic settings? Research on state-labour relations has yet to develop a theory that can account for the complexity and variations of their relations and interactions in such settings. While non-democratic regimes often meet strikes and other forms of organized labour activism with repression, on an every-day basis contestation and control take more diverse forms. To capture how trade unions bargain with and contest state power, as well as how states ensure every-day policing of trade unions, this project analyses different types of interactions between trade unions and state actors. Breaking down the analysis of state - labour relations to individual interactions, this project disaggregates the spheres of state and labour and captures their heterogenous character and relationships through an in-depth case study of thirty years of state – labour relations in Ethiopia (1991 - 2018). Taking negotiations around minimum wages as an entry point, the project analyses when and how trade unions have been able to place labour demands on the political agenda and when and to what extend labour demands have been legislated on an adhered to, asking: When have trade unions been able to push the issue of minimum wages against the interest of the state (contestation)? When have they pursued the minimum wage agenda without putting direct pressure on the state and operated at its distance (coexistence)? When have they cooperated with state actors to pursue the minimum wage agenda (cooperation)? And when has their minimum wage agenda become controlled by state actors (co-optation)? Drawing on archival data going back to 1991 and semi-structured interviews will allow me to shed light on how the reduction/enlargement of civic space shape possibilities for labour activism.