The Shifting Ground of Globalization

Thiago Aguiar holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of São Paulo, and was visiting researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Sociology at IFCH-Unicamp and an associate researcher at the Center for the Study of Citizenship Rights (Cenedic-USP). He is also the author of O solo movediço da globalização: trabalho e extração mineral na Vale S.A. and Maquiando o trabalho: opacidade e transparência numa empresa de cosméticos global.

Acknowledgements


List of Figures and Tables


Acronyms


Introduction Walking on Shifting Ground

 1 A Period of Crisis and the General Direction of Change


 2 Global Capitalism, Transnational Capital and Labor: An Approach


 3 Framing Multi-situated Social Phenomena: Global Production Networks ( gpn 's), Corporate Strategies, and International Trade Union Networks


 4 Some Methodological Notes: Ethnographic Inspiration and the ‘Extended Case Method’




1 From Companhia Vale do Rio Doce to Vale S.A.

 1 The cvrd ’s Privatization and the Internationalization Leap


 2 The Mineral Commodity Boom and Post-boom


 3 Changes and Continuity in the Strategy for Labor and Union Relations after Privatization


 4 Some Characteristics of Vale’s Iron Ore gpn in Brazil




2 Corporate Power and Union Fragmentation Vale’s Labor and Union Relations Strategy in Brazil

 1 Entering the Field in a Period of Crisis


 2 Collective Power Weakened


 3 The First Driver of the Carajás Railroad


 4 Employee Representation in Vale’s Board of Directors


 5 The Challenges of Entering Carajás


 6 “It’s Always Good to Know Who You’re Talking To”




3 Vale Buys a Canadian Treasure Restructuring, Strike, and International Trade Union Network

 1 “The Great Canadian Mining Non-disaster”


 2 A Brazilian Mother-in-Law for the Orphans of “Mother Inco”


 3 A Powerful Multinational Union with Deep Local Roots


 4 “It Can’t Be Easy to Have Me as a Boss”


 5 Defeat or Victory?


 6 Vale’s International Trade Union Network: A Frustrated Experience




4 Global Capitalism, Pension Funds and Vale’s ‘New Corporate Governance’ as a Manner of Conclusion

 1 The Pension Funds and the Control of Vale after Privatization


 2 The Relationship with the Federal Government and the Role of bndes in the Company’s Financial Strategy


 3 Pension Funds and the Transnationalization of Vale


 4 Vale’s ‘New Corporate Governance’ after the Commodity Boom: Reorientation of Pension Funds and Increased Presence of Transnational Investors




Epilogue Vale S.A., a Transnational Corporation on the Shifting Ground of Globalization


Bibliography


Index