NEGOTIATION WITH NEOLIBERALISM: THE MINING INDUSTRY IN TUNÇBİLEK UNDERGROUND MINE, TÜRKİYE

Date

2023-5-31

Author

Yıldız, Melik Zafer

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This thesis aims to evaluate the relationship between underground coal mines and neoliberalism, where traditional labor is intense, and to understand it within the realm of work sociology. The thesis has two fundamental assumptions. First, it examines the negotiations between underground mining and neoliberalism. In underground coal mining, improvements in worker welfare and occupational safety and health point to a negotiation process with neoliberalism. This thesis examines the dynamics of the contested negotiation process. The second assumption of the thesis is that continuities and discontinuities can coexist in the transformation brought about by new technological developments in a traditional industry such as coal mining. In March 2022, in accordance with these assumptions, in-depth interviews were conducted with 33 public and private company employees, management representatives, union officials, and academics at the underground coal mines of Kütahya-Tunçbilek. The thesis has been written using the primary data collected through these interviews. Under four headings, the negotiation process with neoliberalism in underground coal mining and the relationship between technological advances and these dynamics are examined. Following discussions on "Labor process: Recruitment, knowledge, and skills," "The meaning of work, work ethic, efficiency, and control," and "organization and de-unionization," the views of employer officials and worker representatives were analyzed. Finally, it was argued that both structures; underground mining and neoliberalism exist symbiotically in mutual interaction under the particular conditions of underground coal mining rather than the liquidation of neoliberalism in the negotiation process due to the objective conditions of underground coal mining.

Subject Keywords

Neoliberalism, Negotiation, Labor Processes, Work Ethic and Work Sociology

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/103635

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis