Logistics Struggles in the Po Valley Region: Territorial Transformations and Processes of Antagonistic Subjectivation

Abstract

This article investigates the logistics of contemporary global capitalism from two primary vantage points: the grounded perspective of recent struggles in the logistics sector of northern Italy and a more general interpretation of contemporary spatial transformations. Starting with a few genealogical and theoretical vignettes, we argue that logistics plays a decisive role in contemporary processes of both the establishment of new and mobile forms of territoriality and the production of subjectivity. We hypothesize that these two productive aspects of logistics must be understood as crisscrossed and mutually interacting. The article further takes up the geographical question of scale and attempts to advance the development of analytical tools capable of grasping at once global flows and local peculiarities. With a view to northern Italy and beyond, we conclude by proposing a few conceptualizations: the terraqueous territory; the Po Valley as a form of regionalization; the cooperative system as a specific form of labor exploitation; and the new spaces of antagonistic subjectivation processes.

Logistical geographies

“…while Cuppini, Frapporti, and Pirone (2015) highlight the transformative potential of the "logistics struggles" associated with logistics hubs. 5 Indeed, the literature now profiles examples of campaigns where workers have gained traction.…”

“…Cowen (2014:113), for example, describes how “the speeding up of supply chains is powerfully challenged by logistics labor. The sheer number of logistics labor actions that are taking place around the world is a testament to the profoundly contested nature of supply chain management,” while Cuppini, Frapporti, and Pirone (2015) highlight the transformative potential of the “logistics struggles” associated with logistics hubs 5 . Indeed, the literature now profiles examples of campaigns where workers have gained traction.…”

The ambivalence of logistical connectivity: a co-research with Foodora Riders

“…In this article, we analyse how such tendencies are implemented through the specific forms of work arrangement, relational configurations and ICT technology provided by digital platforms, which thereby provide a condition for the shaping of neoliberal subjects (Boltanski & Chiapello, 1999;Bologna, 2018). However, as we will mention later on, while logistics try to shape workers as instrumentally flexible subjects that efficiently adapt to the imperatives required by the conditions of circulation, such a contradictory subjectivation process can generate antagonism and resistance and, with it, the potential to break the whole logistics chain (Cuppini, Frapporti & Pirone, 2015).…”

Sindacato, lavoratori immigrati e discriminazioni razziali nell'Italia della crisi

“…Questo aspetto, unitamente a quello che da molti lavoratori immigrati è percepito come un generale arretramento delle posizioni sindacali, avrebbe spinto diversi iscritti ad allontanarsi dai confederali a favore delle organizzazioni di base, come emerso dalle parole degli stessi sindacalisti e dai trascorsi sindacali di alcuni lavoratori intervistati. Ciò sembrerebbe essere avvenuto soprattutto nei settori a forte presenza immigrata in cui si fa ampio uso del subappalto e ricorso alle cooperative (Cillo e Perocco, 2015; Sacchetto e Semenzin, 2016) -un esempio emblematico è quello della logistica (Cuppini et al, 2015). L'indagine empirica mostrerebbe che, per la loro struttura "snella" e quindi per la capacità di inclusione degli iscritti immigrati entro gli organi decisionali, per il significativo miglioramento delle condizioni che riescono a raggiungere nei contesti lavorativi in cui il sindacato era completamente assente, per la capacità di penetrare nei settori produttivi in cui le condizioni contrattuali e lavorative sono strutturalmente flessibili, per le modalità di intervento e l'approccio fortemente bottom up, ma anche per l'attenzione prestata ai fenomeni di discriminazione e al tema del razzismo -ivi compreso quello istituzionale -tali sigle sembrerebbero attendere senza riserve le aspettative degli iscritti immigrati.…”