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Jean-François Mayer

Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Concordia University

jean.mayer@concordia.ca

My research is situated in the fields of comparative politics, political sociology, and Latin American studies. I utilize principally ethnographic and participatory action research methods.

My research focuses on two main interrelated themes. I examine the consequences of precarity, informality and chronic violence on the daily lives of marginalized urban populations in Latin America. I also explore the strategies used by informal sector workers to resist abuses and structural violence, as well as the multifaceted manners in which marginalized populations in Latin American urban peripheries claim their housing and labor rights. I utilize a collaborative approach to co-produce research with the Sindicato dos Trabalhadores Domésticos do Município de São Paulo (Union of Domestic Workers of the City of São Paulo, STDMSP).

My recent work shows that entrenched racist and patriarchal structures and behaviors as well as the making and implementing of labor law shape social understandings of the nature of informal labor, as well as informal workers’ choices of resistance strategies.

Languages: French, English, Portuguese, Spanish


Associate Professor. Faculty of Arts and Science. Department of Political Science (Concordia University).

Main research areas

  • Civil society organizations
  • Social movements
  • Urban periphery
  • Marginalized/invisible people
  • Labor politics
  • Ethnography

Recent Research Projects

​Informalité, violence et résistance en Amérique latine et dans les Caraïbes. SSHRC Insight Grant with Tina Hilgers (principal investigator). 2020-2027.

Reconfigurações do emprego doméstico pós PEC das domésticas e Reforma Trabalhista: violência crônica, autonomia e direitos. Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG), with Marina Alves Amorim (principal investigator). 2023-2025.

​Épistémologies décoloniales, territorialités et culture. CLACSO with Abelardo Gamboa, Andrea Neira Cruz et Dennis de Oliveira (principal investigators). 2019-2022.

Most recent publications

Mayer, Jean François. (2024). “Resistance to Oppression in Informal Work Domestic Workers’ Strategies against Workplace Violence in Latin America.” Comparative Sociology, 23 (5): 583–614.

  • Winner of the 2024-2025 Best Journal Article Award from the Labor Section of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA).

Tina Hilgers, Jean François Mayer. (2024). “Le secteur informel urbain en Amérique latine”, in Françoise Montambault, Nora Nagels and Dan Furukawa-Marques (Eds.) L'Amérique latine en transformation: mobilisation et citoyenneté. Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal (PUM); Montréal; 153-174.

Amorim, Marina Alves, Letícia Godinho, Nícia Raies, Jean François Mayer. (2023). “Os direitos das trabalhadoras domésticas no Brasil: avanços, retrocessos e questões.” Notas Técnicas, No. 5, Fundação João Pinheiro; 4-31.

Hilgers, Tina, Jean François Mayer. (2022). “Negociar Inclusão pelo Clientelismo: Democracias Neoliberais, Pobreza e Desigualdade.” Revista ExtraPrensa, 16 (1): 53-81.

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).

Mayer, Jean François. (2018). “Labor Relations in Mexico (1988-2012): Explaining Continuity across Regime Types.” The Latin Americanist. 62(3): 344-376.

Posner, Paul, Viviana Patroni, Jean François Mayer. (2018). Laboring in Latin America: Democracy and Worker Organization in the Neoliberal Era. University of Florida Press; Gainesville, United States. 285 p.

Website:

https://www.concordia.ca/faculty/jean-francois-mayer.html 

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jean-Francois-Mayer