Flexible Capitalism : : Exchange and Ambiguity at Work / / ed. by Jens Kjaerulff.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Berghahn Books Complete eBook-Package 2014-2015
• MitwirkendeR: Cross, Jamie,; Garsten, Christina,; Grétarsdóttir, Tinna,; Kjaerulff, Jens,; Knox, Hannah,; Martin, Keir,; Narotzky, Susana,; Neveling, Patrick,; Wood, Caura,
• HerausgeberIn: Kjaerulff, Jens,
• Place / Publishing House: New York ;, Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2015]; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Language: English
• Series: EASA Series ; 25
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (296 p.)

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

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1 Everybody Gives Gifts in the Global Factory -- 2 Unveiling the Work of the Gift Neoliberalism and the Flexible Margins of the Nation-State -- 3 Flexibility Frictions Economies of Connection in Contemporary Forms of Work -- 4 Taking Over the Gift The Circulation and Exchange of Options, Labour and ‘Lucky Money’ in Alberta’s Oil and Gas IndustryStock Options, Labour and Money in the Alberta Oil Industry -- 5 How to Stay Entangled in a World of Flows Flexible Subjects and Mobile Knowledge in the New Media Industries -- 6 The Payoff of Love and the Traffic of Favours Reciprocity, Social Capital and the Blurring of Value Realms in Flexible Capitalism -- 7 Flexible Capitalism and Transactional Orders in Colonial and Postcolonial Mauritius: A Post-Occidentalist View -- 8 The Corrosion of Character Revisited Rethinking Uncertainty and Flexibility -- 9 Afterword Exchange and Corporate Forms Today -- Notes on Contributors -- Index