Flexible Capitalism

Exchange and Ambiguity at Work

Jens Kjaerulff

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781789200737
• eBook ISBN: 9781782386162
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Economic Theory
• Index: Economics

Approaching "work" as at heart a practice of exchange, this volume explores sociality in work environments marked by the kind of structural changes that have come to define contemporary "flexible" capitalism. It introduces anthropological exchange theory to a wider readership, and shows how the perspective offers new ways to enquire about the flexible capitalism's social dimensions. The essays contribute to a trans-disciplinary scholarship on contemporary economic practice and change by documenting how, across diverse settings, "gift-like" socialities proliferate, and even sustain the intensified flexible commoditization that more commonly is touted as tearing social relations apart. By interrogating a keenly debated contemporary work regime through an approach to sociality rooted in a rich and distinct anthropological legacy, the volume also makes a novel contribution to the anthropological literature on work and on exchange.

Table of contents

• Flexible Capitalism
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Everybody Gives
• 2 Unveiling the Work of the Gift
• 3 Flexibility Frictions
• 4 Taking Over the Gift
• 5 How to Stay Entangled in a World of Flows
• 6 The Payoff of Love and the Traffic of Favours
• 7 Flexible Capitalism and Transactional Orders in Colonial and Postcolonial Mauritius
• 8 The Corrosion of Character Revisited
• 9 Afterword
• Notes on Contributors
• Index