Naked Labour: putting Agamben to work

Abstract

The article begins by exploring how the concept of "bare life" can be applied to labour in general (redefined as "naked labour") when the coercive conditions and regulatory techniques in which the production process is based are disclosed. It will be mentioned for this purpose, the way in which the labour became "naked" in the new production sites in the global South and in the work of undocumented migrants in Europe, studying how the concept of naked labour can provide more general explanatory framework for the world of labour in capitalist social orders. Our conclusion will argue that a reorientation of "bare life" to labour can take Marx's alienation theory -and contribute to its development. An expanded concept of alienation can allow us to link death and occupational disease to an extended process that eradicates the ability to live or to be human being, and help us design strategies of resistance to a deadly working conditions and dehumanizing produced by law.