Labor nomadism: a proposal to real Condorito as a metaphor for job insecurity in the era of globalization

Abstract

This article proposes a reading of the Chilean comic strip Condorito as a metaphor for labor precarity in the era of globalization. Drawing on Ulrich Beck’s labor theory—particularly his notions of the risk society, precarization, and individualization—the study conducts a content analysis of a corpus of 456 comic strips published between 1955 and 2023. The findings reveal that the comic portrays labor subjectivities constantly exposed to structural instability, where employment is persistently at risk of loss and professional trajectories unfold under conditions of uncertainty, flexibility, and informality. The multiplicity of occupations assumed by the characters does not lead to upward mobility but rather to a constant exposure to unemployment and insecurity. At the same time, the individualization of labor relations erodes collective mediations and forces subjects into “do-it-yourself” biographies in which entrepreneurship and indebtedness emerge as dominant forms of subjectivation. From this perspective, Condorito functions as a cultural archive that mirrors the transformations of Chilean labor over the past seven decades and illuminates, through the lens of popular culture, the social effects and subjective configurations that late modernity projects onto the world of work.