Aboard the giants of the seas. An onboard ethnography of global logistics

This seventh session of the seminar organised by GRETS, "Aboard the giants of the seas. An onboard ethnography of global logistics", will be attended by Claire Flecher - Université Lumière Lyon 2. The session will be introduced by Olivier Guillaume & Charles Stoessel - EDF R&D - GRETS.

Geopolitical developments over the last few years have brought energy, mobility and logistics issues back into the daily news. Today, it is imperative to consider economic, political and energy issues from the angle of a globalization in transition.

This session of the GRETS seminar will take a closer look at a key element of the globalization process that began a few decades ago: maritime transport, carried out by huge ships capable of transporting fuels, food, everyday consumer goods and other commodities from one end of the globe to the other. The presentation of Claire Flécher's book - À bord des géants des mers - Ethnographie embarquée de la logistique globalisée - will shed light on several aspects of the world of logistics: operating principles and rules, organizational modes, employment and working conditions, professions and career paths, and labor relations. Based on an ethnographic survey, this book offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the goods we consume are transported, and provides an insight into globalized work “from below”. While the profound transformations that have affected the sector in recent years have introduced a high degree of rationalization, driven by the logic of trade, what made the life of a sailor special seems to have been significantly reduced. In the closed world of globalization, the work collective has to respond to contradictory injunctions: to ensure safety for all, while transporting more goods in a continuous flow, and to guarantee forms of solidarity despite inequalities in status and remuneration. Depending on the situation, seafarers' identities come and go, without ever calling social hierarchies into question - social peace on board depends on it.

• Claire Flécher is a sociologist, lecturer at the Institut d'Etudes du Travail de Lyon, Université Lyon 2, and researcher at the Centre Max Weber. Her research focuses on changes in work and employment, particularly when these involve internationalized forms of employment (secondment, merchant seamen, migrant workers, etc.).

•  Claire Flécher, À bord des géants des mers. Ethnographie embarquée de la logistique globalisée, La Découverte, Paris, 2023, 240 p.
• Sara Casella Colombeau, Claire Flécher, Jean-Marie Pillon, Daniel Veron, Claire Vivés, « Le détachement comme planche de salut ? Le recours à la main-d’œuvre étrangère dans la construction navale », Migrations Société, n°190, 2022, 29-46.
• Claire Flécher, « Les marins de commerce, des professionnels des flux internationaux très ancrés dans le national », Critique internationale, n°81(4), 2018, 43-61. https://doi.org/10.3917/crii.081.0043.
• Claire Flécher, « Écrire l’incertitude. Le travail à bord des navires de commerce entre stabilisations, prises de risques et responsabilisations », Sociologie du travail, volume 56, n°1, janvier 2014, 40-63.