The Working Group presented by Marcela Adriana Hernández Romo and María Aparecida Da Cruz Bridi to the X Call for the continuation of the CLACSO Working Group is named "Work, productive and service configurations, and new labor subjects" And is it a continuation of the group "Work, production models and social actors"? coordinated by Cecilia Senén González and Antonio Aravena Carrasco. The origins of this Working Group are long-standing and can be traced back to the CLACSO Commission on Labor Movements (1998), which later became the Study Group on "Work, subjects and labor organizations". (direct reference from our group) (taken from the previous GT). In other words, the researchers in this GT have been actively working on consolidating the group for more than 20 years. The members of the GT have triggered and consolidated the institutionalization of Labor Studies in their different countries of origin, innovating and generating research with new theoretical-methodological approaches to address emerging labor processes and themes. This trajectory led to the development of a Latin American sociology of work. This is evident in the creation of postgraduate programs, associations in various countries, and the development of scientific networks and academic journals. The GT has distinguished itself through its connection with the different Associations, forming its own GT within them. For example, within the Latin American Sociological Association (ALAS) the GT17 on Labor and Productive Restructuring was created, as well as the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). On a more global scale, spaces have also opened up for the topic of labor, as in Research Committee 30? Sociology of Work, or the Research Committee 44-Labor Movements of the International Sociological Association (ISA). Some of the group members are part of these and carry out the production of knowledge and its problems of what is done in Latin America and the Caribbean. At the same time they founded the Latin American Association for Labor Studies (ALAST), a leading organization in labor issues. We will seek to coordinate with the GT in calls, seminars, meetings to ALAST, the Brazilian Association (ABET), the Argentine (ASET), the Mexican (AMET), the Colombian (ACET). The culmination of the Latin American Treatise on the Sociology of Work in 2000 (De la Garza), a work that brings together the most representative Latin American researchers in work studies, marks and accounts for the consolidation of labor studies in our region. The creation of journals such as the "Latin American Journal of Labor Studies (RELET)" and the "Labor Journal" Published in Mexico and sponsored by the ILO, these works bear witness to the development and are benchmarks for research on labor. The group members approach labor issues from the perspectives of economics, sociology, and labor relations. They return to economic history and political science. In various countries of our region there are important advances in labor research, which have been accompanied by debates related to the foundations of labor scholars. These foundations are found in the members of the GT who are committed to the development process and the fate of the workers, linked to the productive configurations, labor and union relations and in the labor movements, contextualized in the development model of each country. The seminars carried out with the support of CLACSO for the past 20 years demonstrate the collaborative relationship in the scientific and outreach contributions materialized in the following publications: Neffa, De la Garza and Muñiz Terra (2009) "Work, Employment, Professional Qualifications, Labor Relations and Labor Identities," in which 19 members of the Working Group from 7 countries participate; Enrique de la Garza, Julio César Neffa (2010) "Work and Production Models in Latin America," a publication that brings together eight members of the group from five countries; Juan Carlos Celis Ospina (2014) "Reconfiguration of Relations between State, Unions and Parties in Latin America," a work that brings together 23 members of the Working Group from 9 countries in our region; Cecilia Sénen and Antonio Aravena "Labor Agendas in Latin America" ​​(in the process of being edited). Publications - to mention just a few - that are the result of the seminars convened by the GT with its different names and coordinators, but under the same interest and commitment to the development processes and the fate of the workers. The breadth of topics and issues addressed by the group's researchers speaks to their multidisciplinary nature. So far in the 21st century there has been a change of political regimes in Latin America, with 2000 marked by the rise of progressive governments. Subsequently, the rise to power of right-wing coalitions, as well as populist governments, have reinstated neoliberal criteria and policies in the field of labor and social security, leading to greater precarity. It seems that the return of left-wing governments in some (progressive) countries is once again a factor, raising questions about the direction of economic and labor policies in the region and forcing us to ask ourselves if precariousness is here to stay, regardless of the political regime in power. Another important topic to continue investigating has to do with the economic models of development in Latin America and the Caribbean (extractive or export-oriented manufacturing). In this sense, it is important to analyze and explain the manufacturing and service production configurations, on the one hand, resulting from the decentralization and outsourcing strategies of large corporations, coupled with the 4th. industrial revolution. On the other hand, there is the preponderance of services in our Continent, where a majority of the population works in services and in the informal sector with low and precarious wages. Added to these problems is the Pandemic - which together with the disease caused by it - Covid 19, and the closure of non-essential activities, disrupted the world of work and occupations, new and varied forms of work (for example: platform work) as well as labor relations are present. This puts at the center of the debate the role of the State, the unions and their role as interlocutors in labor relations, and the productive and service configurations. In light of the above, it is important to continue and encourage collaborative work among labor researchers in Latin America and the Caribbean. The GT's operation will launch initiatives linked to the production and circulation of knowledge, as well as to coordination with professional associations, social and political organizations, and unions. Within this framework, the aim is to strengthen the links with the areas and working groups of CLACSO. There is continued interest in promoting the integration of new young researchers, as they represent the new generation of scholars of the world of work. The work plan is based on four guidelines: 1. seminars with specific themes per year, 2. The publication of books as a result of the ongoing seminars on the agreed topics, along with the dissemination of the results to the different actors and institutions (Unions, NGOs, Associations, etc.), 3. The delivery of seminars and courses/workshops to trade unionists and staff, and, 4. Collaborative participation with working groups that work on similar topics will result from the synergies we establish together around the themes we are interested in developing.

The Working Group presented here is named "Work, productive and service configurations, and new labor subjects," and as noted in point 2 of the proposal, it is a continuation of the group "Work, productive models and social actors." with a different name. As described in the development of this document, the themes and problems addressed in relation to work are diverse and respond to specific contexts. The way to approach them is through theoretical-methodological multidisciplinarity, with its method and conceptual proposal, and they respond to the trajectory that has been followed, which is one of openness and taking into account the discussions, contributions and problems from which Labor Studies in Latin America were consolidated. In this sense, the rationale provided refers to the stage of consolidation of Labor Studies in Latin America, which can be located in the eighties and nineties, a period that accounts for the new generation of researchers with a change in intellectual orientation towards studies of productive restructuring: technological change, in the organization of work, labor relations and culture, work processes and control. The workers and their social relationships in and with work were studied. The structural context at the beginning of the period in question is defined by the economic crisis, the change of the economic model to neo-liberalism, factors that marked the concerns of scholars in the labor field. Thus, analyses of the changing role of the State and the repercussions on labor relations, trade unions, and political forces proliferated. This is the period in which debates and studies on productive restructuring began, a concept coined in Latin America that guided and continues to guide a significant amount of the research content. What was specific to this period, and what enriched the research, lay mainly in the sociological approach, that is, the discussion with broad social theory and the concept of work and its centrality in the research carried out. Since then, it has been debated with theories that sought to diminish its importance (End of work, innovation). The research includes broad theoretical frameworks whose centrality is work and which, since the mid-eighties, have taken up French regulation theory, Toyotism, lean production, flexible specialization, industrial districts, industrial governance, production chains, which include the economic and political aspects. This theoretical-methodological approach comes to life in Latin America through the Production Models-Industrialization Model approaches (Lucena H; Celis JC; Senén C; Leite, M; Abramo Lais; Neffa J; de la Garza; Carrillo J; Ramalho, JR; Urrea F; Pochman M; Alves G). However, studies in Latin America went beyond work processes and were articulated in the space of industrial relations, reproduction and the labor market, unions, employers, the political system and the State. The Latin American Treatise on the Sociology of Work reports on the research carried out during the period by researchers from the main countries of the region (De la Garza 2000)

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, we can speak of another stage in labor studies. New themes became central to researchers, such as convergence and divergence in production models and labor relations strategies, theories of innovation, the end of work, and fragmentation. The diversity of topics, theories, and methodologies expanded to encompass studies on firms and entrepreneurs, highlighting the need to broaden the perspective on this actor without limiting the analysis to their consideration solely as rational actors (Hernández 2003, Basave and Hernández, 2007). The constitution of subjectivities and identities in work was addressed and discussed (very early on) (a topic that has recently gained importance). In other words, labor scholars in Latin America situated their research within the context of capitalist restructuring and its consequences for the world of work.

By the mid-2000s, we can speak of new realities and the emergence of renewed labor issues that pose a challenge to the construction and convergence of theories, methodologies, and research that account for what is happening in Latin America and the Caribbean. The global crisis of 2008-2009, with its subsequent recovery in 2012 and its resurgence in 2019-2021 with the pandemic, highlighted the fragility of global value chains. Changes in political regimes and their consequences for labor relations, Industry 4.0 and its impact on work practices, the rise of services in the face of declining industry, the importance of informality, atypical, insecure, and unprotected work—in other words, non-traditional work—with new and diverse labor actors, all point to the need to delve deeper and account for this reality from our continent through new, expanded concepts. The configurationist methodology, an epistemic-methodological proposal (De la Garza, 2022), offers a way to conceptualize and analyze the service sector in relation to production models through productive socio-technical configurations, incorporating subjectivity. These contributions, along with others, allow us to discuss the possibility of gaining a deeper understanding of labor realities. Works from this perspective can be found in studies on multinational companies and their production and labor strategies conducted by researchers belonging to this group (De la Garza and Hernández, Iranzo, Celis, Ramalho and Santos, Senén and Haidar, 2017; Senén, 2022). Ramalho and Santos (2022) also studied the automotive industry. These are undoubtedly topics that should be part of the labor agenda for scholars and institutions in the coming years. In short, the world of work has become more complex with the emergence of multiple employment modalities and labor relations. More flexible jobs coexist with informal, atypical, and non-traditional work, from precarious service jobs to more modern and computerized services, reflecting a trend toward more flexible labor relations. Political regime change and its repercussions on labor relations, company policies, and union strategies; the relationship between government and the labor movement—these are just some of the issues we have mentioned without delving deeper. They do not limit, but rather open up, the space for problematizing and including new lines of research within the Working Group. We find ourselves once again facing new and emerging realities of work situated within a capitalism that refuses to die and reinvents itself, with serious repercussions for the world of work. Thus, its analysis through broad theoretical frameworks and methodologies that allow for the reconstruction of the reality of Latin America and the Caribbean in its complexity and heterogeneity becomes a priority.