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. (Boitempo, 2022) and Maquiando o trabalho: opacidade e transparência numa empresa de cosméticos global (Annablume, 2017).

• AcknowledgementsList of Figures and TablesAcronymsIntroduction Walking on Shifting Ground1 A Period of Crisis and the General Direction of Change2 Global Capitalism, Transnational Capital and Labor: An Approach3 Framing Multi-situated Social Phenomena: Global Production Networks (gpn s), Corporate Strategies, and International Trade Union Networks4 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 Leap2 The Mineral Commodity Boom and Post-boom3 Changes and Continuity in the Strategy for Labor and Union Relations after Privatization4 Some Characteristics of Vale’s Iron Ore gpn in Brazil2 Corporate Power and Union Fragmentation Vale’s Labor and Union Relations Strategy in Brazil1 Entering the Field in a Period of Crisis2 Collective Power Weakened3 The First Driver of the Carajás Railroad4 Employee Representation in Vale’s Board of Directors5 The Challenges of Entering Carajás6 “It’s Always Good to Know Who You’re Talking To”3 Vale Buys a Canadian Treasure Restructuring, Strike, and International Trade Union Network1 “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 Roots4 “It Can’t Be Easy to Have Me as a Boss”5 Defeat or Victory?6 Vale’s International Trade Union Network: A Frustrated Experience4 Global Capitalism, Pension Funds and Vale’s ‘New Corporate Governance’ as a Manner of Conclusion1 The Pension Funds and the Control of Vale after Privatization2 The Relationship with the Federal Government and the Role of bndes in the Company’s Financial Strategy3 Pension Funds and the Transnationalization of Vale4 Vale’s ‘New Corporate Governance’ after the Commodity Boom: Reorientation of Pension Funds and Increased Presence of Transnational InvestorsEpilogue Vale S.A., a Transnational Corporation on the Shifting Ground of GlobalizationBibliographyIndex