Resumo A título de balanço conclusivo das contribuições reunidas neste Dossiê, o artigo traça um quadro abrangente dos tópicos discutidos pelos autores e levanta algumas questões que apontam para uma possível agenda de estudos sobre o mundo do trabalho hoje. Inicia refletindo sobre o sentido de se discutir o significado real do que deve ser considerado “normal” ou “saudável” após a crise do Covid-19. Em seguida, direciona a discussão para o mundo do trabalho, com consequências interessantes, questionando o que é de fato “normal” nas relações de trabalho. Dentro do mesmo diapasão, é lembrado o papel dos chamados “trabalhadores essenciais” durante a crise sanitária, quando muitas realidades invisíveis se tornaram visíveis. Por outro lado, o autor chama a atenção para a crise econômica iminente, afetando empregos e empresas. De forma similar, alerta sobre a piora das condições de trabalho em um mundo pós-Covid: nenhuma “volta ao normal” pode ser concebida sem um abalo das estruturas importantes do mundo tal como existe. Um desses pilares é a divisão Norte-Sul: de acordo com o autor, tal divisão está se afrouxando, pois o desenho de dois mundos estanques está hoje menos nítido - encontramos informalidade em ambos os “mundos”, bem como a presença da economia digital e das desigualdades, que estão presentes tanto no Norte quanto no Sul, de maneira que as diferenças tendem a desvanecer. Por fim, o autor passa a comentar uma a uma cada contribuição para o Dossiê, apontando o que é crucial e distinto em cada uma delas.

Abstract As a matter of balance of the contributions joined in the Dossier, this final word draws a comprehensive picture of the issues discussed by the authors and raises some questions pointing to a possible agenda for current labor studies. First, it sparks reflections going in the sense of discussing the actual meaning of what is to be considered either “normal” or “healthy” after Covid-19 crisis. Then it addresses such discussion to the world of work with interesting consequences, asking what is actually “normal” in labor relations. In the same vein, it reminds us the role of the so-called “essential workers” during the sanitary crisis: a lot of invisible realities which are now becoming visible. On the other side, the author call attention to imminent economic crisis, affecting jobs and companies. Similarly, he warns about the worsening of the working conditions under a post-Covid world: no “return to normal” is envisioned without shaking important structures of the already-known world. One of those pillars is the North-South divide: according to the author, that divide is loosing because the neat two-worlds mapping is blurred today - we find informality on both “worlds”, as well as either digital economy and inequalites are present North and South, so clear-cut differences may tend to disappear. The author finally proceeds to make a short comment about every of the contributions to the dossier, pointing out what is crucial and distinctive in each of them.

This essay addresses the complex and sometimes conflicted relations between trade unions and migrant workers. We ponder the challenges which migration represents for trade unions in the context of globalization and the changing panorama of the global system since the 1990s on the basis of Gramsci's dictum that «the old has died but the new has not yet been born». This sets the scene for an analysis of workers in the context of the processes of globalization and precarization, arguing that we are now moving beyond the categories of North and South in terms of the mutations of capitalism and their impact on the workers of the world. Finally, we examine the complexities of the ways in which workers are responding to those mutations and are therefore posing a very real challenge to the stable reproduction of capitalist dominance and the opportunities arising for a new multi-scalar global social unionism.

El presente trabajo aborda las relaciones complejas, y en ocasiones conflictivas, entre los sindicatos y los trabajadores migrantes. Plantea los retos que la migración representa para los sindicatos en el contexto de la globalización y posteriormente analiza el tema de las mutaciones del sistema global desde la década de 1990 con base en la máxima de Gramsci: «Lo viejo ha muerto y lo nuevo no acaba de nacer». Asimismo, establece las bases para un análisis de los trabajadores en el contexto de la globalización y precarización bajo el argumento de que nos estamos alejando de las categorías de Norte y Sur en lo que a las mutaciones del capitalismo y su impacto en los trabajadores alrededor del mundo se refiere. Por último, examina la complejidad de la manera en que los trabajadores están respondiendo a las mutaciones del capitalismo, lo que constituye un desafío real a la reproducción estable del dominio capitalista y las oportunidades que surgen para un nuevo sindicalismo social global de escalas múltiples.

This article takes up both the challenges and opportunities that labor migration poses for the organized labor movement. Labor has been dramatically restructured over the last quarter of a century, but there are now signs of labor recomposition as trade unions seek different paths toward revitalization. Increasingly, the movement of workers across national boundaries might create divisions, and it will be deployed to undermine existing labor standards. But we pose also the possibility that it might be a source of trade union revitalization, bringing in new members with new ideas but also creating a dynamic for raising labor standards rather than lowering them. In brief, internationalism begins at home.

Este artículo aborda tanto los desafíos como las oportunidades que plantea la migración laboral para el movimiento organizado de la clase trabajadora. La fuerza de trabajo ha sido reestructurada en el último cuarto de siglo, pero ahora hay señales de una recomposición de la fuerza de trabajo a medida que los sindicatos buscan diferentes caminos hacia la revitalización. Cada vez más, el movimiento de los trabajadores que trasciende las fronteras nacionales puede generar divisiones y ser utilizado para debilitar los estándares laborales existentes; sin embargo, planteamos también la posibilidad de que constituya una fuente de revitalización sindical, al permitir la llegada de nuevos miembros, con nuevas ideas.

In the current conjuncture there is much talk about <<the collapse of globalism>> and a move <<beyond the Washington Consensus>> as the dominant global neo- liberal order enters a crisis of legitimacy. It is thus a good moment to (re)engage with the genealogy and current prospects for a critical development theory or, rather, theories. In the 1990s, capitalist triumphalism saw the neoliberal approach to development in unchecked full flow and it seemed that <<there was no alternative>> as the gurus of neo-liberalism preached. Now we are presented with an opportunity to offer development alternatives that would have real popular purchase. Critical theory's embrace of a <<post-development>> which read the whole development enterprise as illusion left no viable challengers to orthodox development theory in the field. While state-led development in the traditional mode, including its radical variant, had little purchase in an increasingly internationalised world order, the issue of development as theory and practice to overcome poverty and inequality has not gone away as a vital global concern. The question today is whether a revitalised critical development theory can meet these challenges.

En la actual coyuntura se ha hablado mucho sobre <<el colapso del globalismo>> y de ir <<más allá del Consenso de Washington>> a medida que el nuevo orden neoliberal dominante entra en una crisis de legitimidad. Por ende es un buen momento para (re)pensar la genealogía y la perspectiva actual de una teoría crítica del desarrollo, o más bien, de las teorías. En los años noventa, el triunfalismo capitalista consideraba al enfoque neoliberal del desarrollo como una corriente desbordada y que <<no tenía ninguna alternativa>> según predicaban los gurús del neoliberalismo. Ahora se presenta una oportunidad para proponer alternativas de desarrollo que pudieran tener una credibilidad popular real. La teoría crítica, de la mano del <<posdesarrollo>>, que considera la empresa del desarrollo como una ilusión, no dejaba rivales viables en el campo frente a la teoría ortodoxa del desarrollo. Mientras que el desarrollo encabezado por el Estado en el modo tradicional, incluida su variante radical, tuvo escasa credibilidad en un orden mundial cada vez más internacionalizado, el tema del desarrollo como teoría y como práctica para superar la pobreza y la desigualdad no se ha agotado como preocupación global vital. La pregunta en la actualidad consiste en saber si una revitalizada teoría crítica del desarrollo puede enfrentar estos desafíos.