Dolores Señorans

Dolores Señorans is a social anthropologist interested in the study of labour and collective politics in Latin America. Her work focuses on precarious workers’ trade union organising in Argentina through an ethnographic study of migrant garment workers in the Unión de Trabajadores de la Economía Popular (UTEP, Popular Economy Workers Union), the first union in the country representing unwaged workers such as waste-pickers, street vendors, and garment workers. Drawing on fieldwork conducted since 2013, her research examines how the experience of making a living in the city became the basis for the emergence of a distinctive form of trade union politics that challenged traditional forms of union representation. Her research explores how differences are created within working populations; the articulations between urban dispossession and labour exploitation; workers’ forms of protest and negotiation with state bureaucracies; and the economic, political, and community-based experimentations developed to pursue a life with dignity. With her work, Dolores seeks to contribute to workers’ struggles for social justice and provide insights to advance a social conversation about what kinds of work and workers produce value and should therefore be recognised.

Before joining ODID, Dolores was a Newton International Fellow at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Anthropology Institute, University of Buenos Aires. She has also participated in policymaking and collaborated with worker-led international organisations as a consultant.