No Country for Young Men: Encountering Neoliberalism in Transnational Corporations

Abstract

Chapter 6 follows workers who appear to accept the neoliberal challenge of becoming flexible subjects of Russia’s neocapitalist order. These younger workers travel to new multinational companies such as Samsung and Volkswagen. The transition from Soviet-type enterprise, management and labour habitus are tracked. Car ownership serves as a metaphor of the degree to which workers internalize or resist governmentality. While there are stories of upward social mobility to status approximating an aristocracy of ‘respectable’ labour, there is also a persistent narrative of stress, illness and discontent among those trying to ‘make it’ on the new production lines. Once again, the high labour ‘churn’ in these globalized spaces of labour tells a different story from the official narratives of modernization and better pay and conditions.