The invisible laborers--The ideology and social construction of the exploitation of homeless people's labor rights in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Ying-ching Kuo, 郭盈靖
• Other Authors: Hsiao-chuan Hsia
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/64672414085371473180

碩士 === 世新大學 === 社會發展研究所(含碩專班) === 97 === Since global capitalism was transformed from the mode of production of Fordism to Post-fordism after late 1970s, non-standard employment work has gradually become the trend. Yet, non-standard employment work, which emphasizes on the flexible labor market, makes working class faces the threat of unsecured employment, harsh working conditions and lack of legal protection. Research from the U.S. and Japan also points out that the neoliberalism and the following changing working condition, especially non-standard employment has deteriorated the living situation of homeless people and has become a serious social issue. However, current homeless research in Taiwan have neglected the social change and its impact on the homeless people due to its individualism research approach that decontextualize the social historical background and only focus on homeless people. It tends to build a dichotomy analyzing structure and divides citizens into two groups: Normal citizens v.s. Abnormal citizens. In this framework, homeless people are stigmatized as “abnormal”, “misbehavior”, and “trouble makers” in the capitalism society. It also strengthens the social stereotype that homeless people are lazy, unemployed, and don’t like to work and need to be rectified by the authority and condemned by the society. This dominant thinking concealed the fact that many homeless people actually are working class people who join in the lowest labor market. The dominant ideology has deprived homeless people of their social identity as labor and labeled homeless people as social welfare receiver. The denial of homeless people’s labor identity simultaneously deprives homeless people of the protection of labor law and the right to issue labor disputes. Under the dichotomy structure-- “normal citizens/ abnormal citizens”, homeless people were defined as the abnormal that is unemployable and slothful. This study is expected to avoid from the ahistorical and decontextualized research of the homeless in the past. It’s an overall investigation that focuses on the position of the homeless under the global capitalism and changing society in Taiwan. The study focus on the dialectic movement around homeless people and their working condition, basically deals with three major topics: 1. The dialectical relation between the working conditions of Taiwanese homeless and their notoriety social stigma as “unemployable outsider of capitalism society”. 2. The denial of their labor identity, the deprivation of the protection of labor law and the hidden labor disputes. 3. The agency of homeless people and the possibility to seek collective effort to fight for equal right and the emerging homeless alternative media movement and its effort to fight for cultural citizenship and social citizenship.