Jean François Mayer
Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science, Concordia University
I specialize in comparative politics, utilize a political ethnography approach, and engage in participative research.
?My research deals with civil society organizations, social movements, and labor politics in Latin America, with an emphasis on Brazil and Mexico. In particular, my research examines: individual and collective resistance strategies to chronic violence in informal workplaces; how marginalized people in urban areas organize themselves to claim their social and labor rights; and more generally the consequences of precariousness, informality and chronic violence on the daily life of marginalized urban populations.
Over the past several years, my fieldwork research has been situated in Brazil and most specifically in the megapolis of São Paulo, this country’s most industrialized, urbanized, populated, and wealthy city. In that context, I engage in ethnographic and participative research with informal workers. In particular, I seek to learn about the individual and collective strategies utilized by domestic workers to resist chronic violence in their workplace. Based on the lived experiences of, and in collaboration with, domestic workers, I wish to find out how these strategies can be refined to make this everyday resistance more effective and successful.
I also have the privilege of working in collaboration with the amazing women of the Union of Domestic Workers of the City of São Paulo (Sindicato das Trabalhadoras Domésticas do Municipio de São Paulo, STDMSP).
Recent publications
Jean Franc?ois Mayer. (2021). Resistance to Chronic Violence in Informal Workplaces: the Strategies of Domestic Workers in Brazil. The Bulletin of Latin American Research, 40(3).
Jean François Mayer. (2021). Guest Editor. “Introduction to: Exploring the Repertoire of Strategies of Resistance to Routinised Violence in Informal Workplaces”. The Bulletin of Latin American Research, 40(3).