Militarization landscapes of labour social reproduction: the making of a maquiladora enclave in Celaya, Mexico

What the paper says

This article examines the intersection of militarization, violence, and labour discipline in Mexico’s export-oriented manufacturing sector. While the country is often portrayed as navigating a paradox, marked by high levels of violence on one hand and economic dynamism on the other, we argue that these phenomena are not contradictory but mutually constitutive. Drawing on labour regime and social reproduction theory and qualitative research in Celaya, Guanajuato, we explore how state and para-state violence, including the militarized so-called ‘war on drugs’, function as mechanisms of labour discipline and social control beyond the factory floor: violence reshapes spaces of social reproduction, enforcing dynamics of super-exploitation and suppressing collective labour action, particularly in strategic export-processing zones like Celaya. We contend that understanding labour discipline in contemporary Mexico requires an expanded analytic lens – one that connects the formal workplace to the coercive regulation of everyday life. By situating Celaya’s transformation into an automotive export hub within broader national dynamics, the article contributes to critical labour studies and highlights the role of militarization and violence in sustaining export-led accumulation in contexts of deepened precarity and social fragmentation, particularly in the Global South.