The Old in the New (was cultural politics/"real" politics)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Carrol to Thomas Kruse:
>> "It is often argued that uncontrolled, expolitative relationships of
>> production are the oldest story, so that sweatshops represent classical
>> capitalism, not advanced captialism.  But it is precisely the development of
>> the sweatshops and of other unregulated actitvities after a long period of
>> insitutional control that causes old forms of production to become new
>> ones."  (Castells and Portes, 1989, on the informal economy in New York,
>> Colombia, etc.).
>>
>> Point: the old in the new is, in fact, new.
>
>Interesting. I hope someone takes this point up for discussion.

With regard to gender, one might say the same thing, though my reading of
labor history is too spotty to assert it with confidence. What I mean is
that though the incorporation of women in the labor market is often said to
be 'new,' at the begenning of industrialization, both in light industries
such as textile and heavy industries such as mining, female workers were
not only indispensable but often preferred to male workers.

Yoshie