Today we speak to Dr. Alex Mohubetšwane Mashilo, a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS).

Explain the nature of your work and/or how it relates to inequality.

I have been involved in communications and policy work for a number of years, covering a wide range of development and social subjects, inequality being one of the key issues. For several years during this process, I was also engaged in my doctoral research at the University of the Witwatersrand. I graduated in July 2019. My research work was, but even before then, centred on the organisation of production, technical and social division of those involved in it – labour and capital in particular, as well as the state, being key players. Inequality is one of the central issues in my focus, based on its articulation from the distribution of the income generated from production. On the one hand, firms pursue economic upgrading in competition with others to increase their market share and reap more rewards for their shareholders. Economic upgrading includes process upgrading, through among others the adoption of new and more effective and advanced production technology, methods of work and ways of co-ordinating production to raise productivity. On the other hand, workers see this as deepening exploitation, especially when their wages are insufficient for them and their dependents to lead a decent life, the rate of wages either remains the same or is left behind, and when others are retrenched. They seek improvements in their employment and living conditions, thus social upgrading, including job security. My research looks at all these and other associated aspects. 

Why do you think inequality remains such an intractable social and economic problem?

In this modern society, which is based on the capitalist mode of production, the dominant employer-employee relationship is first and foremost founded on inequality between two. The employer owns or has access to capital, the means production being part of it. The employee does not, and is forced to seek employment from the employer and raise their rate of wages. However, the employer’s core business is to increase the capital they own. This involves adopting strategies that result in more output at low production costs, including the share of wages, and with fewer workers. This is the basic picture. The complete one, taking into account all sectors of the economy, is more complex. Nevertheless, inequality is an intractable economic and social issue because it is centred on the distribution of production income – which is governed by the social relations of production.

What continues to keep you engaged in your work or areas of research?

The motivation to produce new knowledge and contribute to society’s search for solutions.

What is one thing your field is not focusing on that it should?

The field covers many aspects. It is comprehensive, in that sense. What is needed is more time to expand and cover new horizons. However, I feel my field should develop an extensive critique and way forward in two key macro-economic policy areas, monetary and fiscal policies. These two macro-policy areas need more engagement in my field, for example, about their impact on social upgrading and downgrading broadly.

Who are some academics (in your field or otherwise) whose work you follow closely? Why?

There are many, both locally and internationally. But I must mention Professor Eddie Webster, whom I have had the privilege of working under his supervision in trade union and academic research. He has had a strong research focus on the labour process, which one of my key research interests. Sarah Mosoetsa, who was also my research supervisor, studied social reproduction. The link between production and social reproduction is important, in my view. Locally, I follow Mondli Hlatshwayo, based at the University of Johannesburg. I have had the privilege of participating in his PhD research as an interviewee. At that time I was based in the trade union movement. His focus was on technological change and trade union responses – very similar to my research interest.

I also follow the academics and researchers who were involved in a project called ‘Capturing the Gains’ (Stephanie Barrientos, Frederick Mayer, John Pickles, Anne Posthuma, William Milberg, Deborah Winkler). They contributed immensely to the development of economic and social upgrading and Global Production Networks literature. Gary Gereffi, who wrote extensively on global commodity chains, also made his contribution in that area. I closely follow Ben Selwyn who is developing an alternative theory to fill the gap in this scholarly field. I share the same units of research analysis as Selwyn, namely the labour–capital relation and the labour process, though we have some divergence (which is reconcilable, by the way) on the state.

The list of the academics that I follow both locally and internationally is very long, and it does not sound right to leave others out. Just to name but a few, I also closely follow Christian Fuchs, David Harvey, Seeraj Mohamed, Karl Von Holdt, Guglielmo Carchedi.

What books are you currently reading?

I am currently reading books on technological revolution and technological change in production, product development and the media. The one on my desk at the moment is titled Reading Marx in the Information Age: A Media and Communication Studies Perspective on Capital Volume 1 by Christian Fuchs (2016). I am also reading several other books outside of my research focus. A handbook of Alternative Monetary Economics edited by Philip Arestis and Malcolm Sawyer. There is a very interesting chapter in this book by Suzanne de Brunhoff and Duncan K. Foley titled ‘Karl Marx’s theory of money and credit’. I am also reading The deficit myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy by Stephanie Kelton. I am in search of an alternative approach to monetary policy, and its design and co-ordination in sync with fiscal and industrial policies.

Complete the sentence: “The first thing I do each morning once I get up is nothing but spend the silent time on thinking, connecting the past with the present, and looking forward to the period ahead. Thereafter I start with ordinary daily preparation for study or work, which frequently starts in the early hours of the morning.

If you are interested in his work, please follow him at: @Alex_Mashilo and contact him through: mohubetswane.mashilo@wits.ac.za

This is an ongoing series of interviews with prominent academics and researchers.