"Politics of Work" and "Politics at Work" : The Case of the Jordan Phosphate Mine Company

My PhD thesis, which is situated at the intersection of the fields of political sociology and anthropology of work, is an ethnographic study of the Jordan Phosphate Mine Company (JPMC), one of the most important Jordanian public companies which was privatized in 2006.Through my dissertation, I show how the JPMC contributes to the (re)production of political domination structures in Jordan. I focus on three main dimensions. First, I show how the economics of phosphate mining in Jordan and the governance of the JPMC are shaped by socio-political and technological factors. Second, by analysing the processes of subjectification experienced by the employees at the workplace, I show how the JPMC contributes to the production of political subjects. Finally, I analyse the mechanisms of wealth distribution channelled through the JPMC. My analysis relies on an in-depth ethnography of the workplace as well as on the analysis of the labour movements and of the protests of the job-seekers which occured between 2011 and 2013.