1.
Akdemir, Ayşegül
“Put me on to a male agent”: Emotional labour and gender in call centres. Journal Article
In: Current Sociology, Online First, 2022.
@article{nokey,
title = {“Put me on to a male agent”: Emotional labour and gender in call centres.},
author = {Ayşegül Akdemir},
year = {2022},
date = {2022-01-01},
journal = {Current Sociology, Online First},
abstract = {This article aims to shed light on the gender dynamics in the context of performing emotional labor in Turkish call centers. Based on qualitative interviews, this study aimed to illuminate how gender is done and undone, providing a perspective on the relationship between gender and emotional labor in call centers, a highly gendered and interactional line of work. Gender relations are complex and gender performativity in call center work allows us to observe different ways in which employees do and undo gender. This study reveals that female employees are more inclined to undo gender and display competence as a work strategy to elevate their position, whereas male employees struggle between job demands and adhering to masculine norms.
},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
This article aims to shed light on the gender dynamics in the context of performing emotional labor in Turkish call centers. Based on qualitative interviews, this study aimed to illuminate how gender is done and undone, providing a perspective on the relationship between gender and emotional labor in call centers, a highly gendered and interactional line of work. Gender relations are complex and gender performativity in call center work allows us to observe different ways in which employees do and undo gender. This study reveals that female employees are more inclined to undo gender and display competence as a work strategy to elevate their position, whereas male employees struggle between job demands and adhering to masculine norms.
2.
Hackett, Sarah
Britain’s Rural Muslims: Rethinking Integration. Book
2020.
@book{nokey,
title = {Britain’s Rural Muslims: Rethinking Integration.},
author = {Sarah Hackett},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-01-01},
urldate = {2020-01-01},
abstract = {This study draws upon archival documentation and oral history interviews, and explores the integration of Muslim migrant communities in an English rural county across the post-1960s period. It focuses on a range of topics, including local government policy and migrants’ experiences in the labour and housing markets, education, and religious practice and recognition.
},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {book}
}
This study draws upon archival documentation and oral history interviews, and explores the integration of Muslim migrant communities in an English rural county across the post-1960s period. It focuses on a range of topics, including local government policy and migrants’ experiences in the labour and housing markets, education, and religious practice and recognition.
3.
Narlı, Nilüfer; Akdemir, Ayşegül
Female Emotional Labour in Turkish Call Centres: Smiling Voices Despite Low Job Satisfaction Journal Article
In: Sociological Research Online, vol. 24, iss. 3, pp. 278-296, 2019.
@article{nokey,
title = {Female Emotional Labour in Turkish Call Centres: Smiling Voices Despite Low Job Satisfaction},
author = {Nilüfer Narlı and Ayşegül Akdemir},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-01-01},
urldate = {2019-01-01},
journal = {Sociological Research Online},
volume = {24},
issue = {3},
pages = {278-296},
abstract = {This study examines emotional labour practices of Turkey’s growing call centre business in which mainly women are employed in precarious conditions. The findings reveal that providing emotional labour to customers is an important but undervalued aspect of work and that the external conditions of work life (especially unemployment threat) diminish the workers’ power to resist the work conditions.
},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
This study examines emotional labour practices of Turkey’s growing call centre business in which mainly women are employed in precarious conditions. The findings reveal that providing emotional labour to customers is an important but undervalued aspect of work and that the external conditions of work life (especially unemployment threat) diminish the workers’ power to resist the work conditions.
4.
Kaarsholm, Preben; Frederiksen, Bodil Folke
Amaoti and Pumwani: Studying Urban Informality in South Africa and Kenya Journal Article
In: African Studies, vol. 79, iss. 1, pp. 51-73, 2019.
@article{nokey,
title = {Amaoti and Pumwani: Studying Urban Informality in South Africa and Kenya},
author = {Preben Kaarsholm and Bodil Folke Frederiksen},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-01-01},
journal = { African Studies},
volume = {79},
issue = {1},
pages = {51-73},
abstract = {Based on the authors’ parallel projects of research and fieldwork inurban informal settlements in Durban and Nairobi, the article usescomparison to bring out similarities and differences in thedynamics of informality in a South African and Kenyan setting. Thearticle examines three dimensions of informality – the informal economy, informal housing and informal politics – as they play intothe lives of youth, popular culture, moral debate, and local politicalcontestations. The two historical trajectories of settler colonial statebuilding and urban influx control and segregation in South Africaand Kenya are contrasted, together with the struggles that accompanied decolonisation and the transitions to democracy. The article discusses the ways in which informal entrepreneurship has different weight and possibilities in the South African and theKenyan case, and shows the impact of different expectations ofstate delivery in the two environments. In conclusion, the authorstry to assess comparatively whether developments in the two cases of urban informal settlement in Durban and Nairobi are converging,or whether they exhibit different patterns of urban integration.
},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Based on the authors’ parallel projects of research and fieldwork inurban informal settlements in Durban and Nairobi, the article usescomparison to bring out similarities and differences in thedynamics of informality in a South African and Kenyan setting. Thearticle examines three dimensions of informality – the informal economy, informal housing and informal politics – as they play intothe lives of youth, popular culture, moral debate, and local politicalcontestations. The two historical trajectories of settler colonial statebuilding and urban influx control and segregation in South Africaand Kenya are contrasted, together with the struggles that accompanied decolonisation and the transitions to democracy. The article discusses the ways in which informal entrepreneurship has different weight and possibilities in the South African and theKenyan case, and shows the impact of different expectations ofstate delivery in the two environments. In conclusion, the authorstry to assess comparatively whether developments in the two cases of urban informal settlement in Durban and Nairobi are converging,or whether they exhibit different patterns of urban integration.
5.
Tornhill, Sofie
The Business of Women’s Empowerment. Corporate Gender Politics in the Global South Book
2019.
@book{nokey,
title = {The Business of Women’s Empowerment. Corporate Gender Politics in the Global South},
author = {Sofie Tornhill},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-01-01},
abstract = {This monograph explores corporate initiatives to empower women in the Global South through the promotion of micro entrepreneurship within informal economic sectors. From an ethnographic approach, it scrutinizes how the political imperative of “creating jobs” is intertwined with individual risks for women in precarious economic positions as well as with the increasing authority of global corporations in development and gender politics.
},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {book}
}
This monograph explores corporate initiatives to empower women in the Global South through the promotion of micro entrepreneurship within informal economic sectors. From an ethnographic approach, it scrutinizes how the political imperative of “creating jobs” is intertwined with individual risks for women in precarious economic positions as well as with the increasing authority of global corporations in development and gender politics.
6.
Tornhill, Sofie
The Business of Women’s Empowerment. Corporate Gender Politics in the Global South Book
2019.
@book{nokey,
title = {The Business of Women’s Empowerment. Corporate Gender Politics in the Global South},
author = {Sofie Tornhill},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-01-01},
abstract = {This monograph explores corporate initiatives to empower women in the Global South through the promotion of micro entrepreneurship within informal economic sectors. From an ethnographic approach, it scrutinizes how the political imperative of “creating jobs” is intertwined with individual risks for women in precarious economic positions as well as with the increasing authority of global corporations in development and gender politics.
},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {book}
}
This monograph explores corporate initiatives to empower women in the Global South through the promotion of micro entrepreneurship within informal economic sectors. From an ethnographic approach, it scrutinizes how the political imperative of “creating jobs” is intertwined with individual risks for women in precarious economic positions as well as with the increasing authority of global corporations in development and gender politics.
7.
Harnoncourt, Julia
Unfreie Arbeit: Trabalho escravo in der brasilianischen Landwirtschaft [Unfree labour. Trabalho escravo in the agricultural sector in Brazil] Book
2018.
@book{nokey,
title = {Unfreie Arbeit: Trabalho escravo in der brasilianischen Landwirtschaft [Unfree labour. Trabalho escravo in the agricultural sector in Brazil]},
author = {Julia Harnoncourt},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-01-01},
abstract = {This book on unfree labour/trabalho escravo in the agricultural sector in Pará/Brazil, is based on an extensive interview study. Therein the specific labour relations are considered an outcome of local as well as global structures. Apart from the coercion inside the labour relation itself, local hierarchies, Brazil’s long history of slavery and other forms of unfree labour, the role of the state, racism and gender relations, as well as the incorporation of the Amazon basin and Brazil into the global economy all take part in (re)constructing the specific form of trabalho escravo in Para’s agriculture.
},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {book}
}
This book on unfree labour/trabalho escravo in the agricultural sector in Pará/Brazil, is based on an extensive interview study. Therein the specific labour relations are considered an outcome of local as well as global structures. Apart from the coercion inside the labour relation itself, local hierarchies, Brazil’s long history of slavery and other forms of unfree labour, the role of the state, racism and gender relations, as well as the incorporation of the Amazon basin and Brazil into the global economy all take part in (re)constructing the specific form of trabalho escravo in Para’s agriculture.
8.
Kuldova, Tereza
Fatalist Luxuries: Of Inequality, Wasting and Anti-Work Ethic in India Journal Article
In: Cultural Politics, vol. 12, iss. 1, pp. 110-129, 2016.
@article{nokey,
title = {Fatalist Luxuries: Of Inequality, Wasting and Anti-Work Ethic in India},
author = {Tereza Kuldova},
year = {2016},
date = {2016-01-01},
journal = {Cultural Politics},
volume = {12},
issue = {1},
pages = {110-129},
abstract = {This article, grounded in long-term ethnographic research among producers of contemporary luxurious embroideries and fashions in Lucknow, a North Indian city famous for its golden age as a powerful cultural center of opulence and excess, shows how anthropological knowledge can enrich current critical discussions of luxury and inequality. Since the 1990s, anthropology has seen a boom in consumption and material culture studies coterminous with the rise of identity politics and its celebration of diversity. In anthropological theory, as well, linking consumption to identity has stolen the limelight. In the process, questions of production, inequality, and reproduction of social structures have been overshadowed. Critical reappraisal of luxury in anthropological theory can paradoxically show us a way out of this identity trap, since luxury, unlike other consumer goods, demands that we think about inequality. Luxury also forces us to think beyond luxury brands, goods, and commodified experiences, pushing us toward more fundamental questions about what constitutes a good life, morality, and social order. The ethnographic case presented here, which reveals how structural violence can go hand-in-hand with paradoxical luxuries facilitated by fatalist attitudes, points to what such an anthropology of luxury might look like. In a village near Lucknow, women embroider luxury pieces for fashion ramps and celebrities, while being fed meritocratic dreams of individual progress and success by fashion designers and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) who try to convince them to work ever harder in the name of empowerment. But the women laugh at luxury goods, designers, and middle-class activists and, instead, insist on an antiwork ethic and a valorization of leisure—on wasting time over working; they prefer to “luxuriate” rather than indulge in luxury goods. However, this perception of luxury is connected to hierarchical inequality and a sense of social fatalism that has been reinvigorated through new experiences with competitive inequality, neoliberal pollution, and the false promises of meritocracy.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
This article, grounded in long-term ethnographic research among producers of contemporary luxurious embroideries and fashions in Lucknow, a North Indian city famous for its golden age as a powerful cultural center of opulence and excess, shows how anthropological knowledge can enrich current critical discussions of luxury and inequality. Since the 1990s, anthropology has seen a boom in consumption and material culture studies coterminous with the rise of identity politics and its celebration of diversity. In anthropological theory, as well, linking consumption to identity has stolen the limelight. In the process, questions of production, inequality, and reproduction of social structures have been overshadowed. Critical reappraisal of luxury in anthropological theory can paradoxically show us a way out of this identity trap, since luxury, unlike other consumer goods, demands that we think about inequality. Luxury also forces us to think beyond luxury brands, goods, and commodified experiences, pushing us toward more fundamental questions about what constitutes a good life, morality, and social order. The ethnographic case presented here, which reveals how structural violence can go hand-in-hand with paradoxical luxuries facilitated by fatalist attitudes, points to what such an anthropology of luxury might look like. In a village near Lucknow, women embroider luxury pieces for fashion ramps and celebrities, while being fed meritocratic dreams of individual progress and success by fashion designers and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) who try to convince them to work ever harder in the name of empowerment. But the women laugh at luxury goods, designers, and middle-class activists and, instead, insist on an antiwork ethic and a valorization of leisure—on wasting time over working; they prefer to “luxuriate” rather than indulge in luxury goods. However, this perception of luxury is connected to hierarchical inequality and a sense of social fatalism that has been reinvigorated through new experiences with competitive inequality, neoliberal pollution, and the false promises of meritocracy.
2022
Akdemir, Ayşegül
“Put me on to a male agent”: Emotional labour and gender in call centres. Journal Article
In: Current Sociology, Online First, 2022.
Abstract | Tags: emotional labour, gender, qualitative research, sociology, turkey
@article{nokey,
title = {“Put me on to a male agent”: Emotional labour and gender in call centres.},
author = {Ayşegül Akdemir},
year = {2022},
date = {2022-01-01},
journal = {Current Sociology, Online First},
abstract = {This article aims to shed light on the gender dynamics in the context of performing emotional labor in Turkish call centers. Based on qualitative interviews, this study aimed to illuminate how gender is done and undone, providing a perspective on the relationship between gender and emotional labor in call centers, a highly gendered and interactional line of work. Gender relations are complex and gender performativity in call center work allows us to observe different ways in which employees do and undo gender. This study reveals that female employees are more inclined to undo gender and display competence as a work strategy to elevate their position, whereas male employees struggle between job demands and adhering to masculine norms.
},
keywords = {emotional labour, gender, qualitative research, sociology, turkey},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
This article aims to shed light on the gender dynamics in the context of performing emotional labor in Turkish call centers. Based on qualitative interviews, this study aimed to illuminate how gender is done and undone, providing a perspective on the relationship between gender and emotional labor in call centers, a highly gendered and interactional line of work. Gender relations are complex and gender performativity in call center work allows us to observe different ways in which employees do and undo gender. This study reveals that female employees are more inclined to undo gender and display competence as a work strategy to elevate their position, whereas male employees struggle between job demands and adhering to masculine norms.
2020
Hackett, Sarah
Britain’s Rural Muslims: Rethinking Integration. Book
2020.
Abstract | Tags: 20th century, agrarian labour and rural history, contemporary, migration and mobility, muslims, oral history, qualitative research, united kingdom
@book{nokey,
title = {Britain’s Rural Muslims: Rethinking Integration.},
author = {Sarah Hackett},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-01-01},
urldate = {2020-01-01},
abstract = {This study draws upon archival documentation and oral history interviews, and explores the integration of Muslim migrant communities in an English rural county across the post-1960s period. It focuses on a range of topics, including local government policy and migrants’ experiences in the labour and housing markets, education, and religious practice and recognition.
},
keywords = {20th century, agrarian labour and rural history, contemporary, migration and mobility, muslims, oral history, qualitative research, united kingdom},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {book}
}
This study draws upon archival documentation and oral history interviews, and explores the integration of Muslim migrant communities in an English rural county across the post-1960s period. It focuses on a range of topics, including local government policy and migrants’ experiences in the labour and housing markets, education, and religious practice and recognition.
2019
Narlı, Nilüfer; Akdemir, Ayşegül
Female Emotional Labour in Turkish Call Centres: Smiling Voices Despite Low Job Satisfaction Journal Article
In: Sociological Research Online, vol. 24, iss. 3, pp. 278-296, 2019.
Abstract | Tags: emotional labour, gender, qualitative research, sociology, turkey, working conditions
@article{nokey,
title = {Female Emotional Labour in Turkish Call Centres: Smiling Voices Despite Low Job Satisfaction},
author = {Nilüfer Narlı and Ayşegül Akdemir},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-01-01},
urldate = {2019-01-01},
journal = {Sociological Research Online},
volume = {24},
issue = {3},
pages = {278-296},
abstract = {This study examines emotional labour practices of Turkey’s growing call centre business in which mainly women are employed in precarious conditions. The findings reveal that providing emotional labour to customers is an important but undervalued aspect of work and that the external conditions of work life (especially unemployment threat) diminish the workers’ power to resist the work conditions.
},
keywords = {emotional labour, gender, qualitative research, sociology, turkey, working conditions},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
This study examines emotional labour practices of Turkey’s growing call centre business in which mainly women are employed in precarious conditions. The findings reveal that providing emotional labour to customers is an important but undervalued aspect of work and that the external conditions of work life (especially unemployment threat) diminish the workers’ power to resist the work conditions.
Kaarsholm, Preben; Frederiksen, Bodil Folke
Amaoti and Pumwani: Studying Urban Informality in South Africa and Kenya Journal Article
In: African Studies, vol. 79, iss. 1, pp. 51-73, 2019.
Abstract | Tags: africa, contemporary, informality, kenya, qualitative research, South Africa, urbanity
@article{nokey,
title = {Amaoti and Pumwani: Studying Urban Informality in South Africa and Kenya},
author = {Preben Kaarsholm and Bodil Folke Frederiksen},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-01-01},
journal = { African Studies},
volume = {79},
issue = {1},
pages = {51-73},
abstract = {Based on the authors’ parallel projects of research and fieldwork inurban informal settlements in Durban and Nairobi, the article usescomparison to bring out similarities and differences in thedynamics of informality in a South African and Kenyan setting. Thearticle examines three dimensions of informality – the informal economy, informal housing and informal politics – as they play intothe lives of youth, popular culture, moral debate, and local politicalcontestations. The two historical trajectories of settler colonial statebuilding and urban influx control and segregation in South Africaand Kenya are contrasted, together with the struggles that accompanied decolonisation and the transitions to democracy. The article discusses the ways in which informal entrepreneurship has different weight and possibilities in the South African and theKenyan case, and shows the impact of different expectations ofstate delivery in the two environments. In conclusion, the authorstry to assess comparatively whether developments in the two cases of urban informal settlement in Durban and Nairobi are converging,or whether they exhibit different patterns of urban integration.
},
keywords = {africa, contemporary, informality, kenya, qualitative research, South Africa, urbanity},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Based on the authors’ parallel projects of research and fieldwork inurban informal settlements in Durban and Nairobi, the article usescomparison to bring out similarities and differences in thedynamics of informality in a South African and Kenyan setting. Thearticle examines three dimensions of informality – the informal economy, informal housing and informal politics – as they play intothe lives of youth, popular culture, moral debate, and local politicalcontestations. The two historical trajectories of settler colonial statebuilding and urban influx control and segregation in South Africaand Kenya are contrasted, together with the struggles that accompanied decolonisation and the transitions to democracy. The article discusses the ways in which informal entrepreneurship has different weight and possibilities in the South African and theKenyan case, and shows the impact of different expectations ofstate delivery in the two environments. In conclusion, the authorstry to assess comparatively whether developments in the two cases of urban informal settlement in Durban and Nairobi are converging,or whether they exhibit different patterns of urban integration.
Tornhill, Sofie
The Business of Women’s Empowerment. Corporate Gender Politics in the Global South Book
2019.
Abstract | Tags: business history, contemporary, development, ethnography, gender, informality, qualitative research, sociology
@book{nokey,
title = {The Business of Women’s Empowerment. Corporate Gender Politics in the Global South},
author = {Sofie Tornhill},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-01-01},
abstract = {This monograph explores corporate initiatives to empower women in the Global South through the promotion of micro entrepreneurship within informal economic sectors. From an ethnographic approach, it scrutinizes how the political imperative of “creating jobs” is intertwined with individual risks for women in precarious economic positions as well as with the increasing authority of global corporations in development and gender politics.
},
keywords = {business history, contemporary, development, ethnography, gender, informality, qualitative research, sociology},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {book}
}
This monograph explores corporate initiatives to empower women in the Global South through the promotion of micro entrepreneurship within informal economic sectors. From an ethnographic approach, it scrutinizes how the political imperative of “creating jobs” is intertwined with individual risks for women in precarious economic positions as well as with the increasing authority of global corporations in development and gender politics.
Tornhill, Sofie
The Business of Women’s Empowerment. Corporate Gender Politics in the Global South Book
2019.
Abstract | Tags: business history, contemporary, development, ethnography, gender, informality, qualitative research, sociology
@book{nokey,
title = {The Business of Women’s Empowerment. Corporate Gender Politics in the Global South},
author = {Sofie Tornhill},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-01-01},
abstract = {This monograph explores corporate initiatives to empower women in the Global South through the promotion of micro entrepreneurship within informal economic sectors. From an ethnographic approach, it scrutinizes how the political imperative of “creating jobs” is intertwined with individual risks for women in precarious economic positions as well as with the increasing authority of global corporations in development and gender politics.
},
keywords = {business history, contemporary, development, ethnography, gender, informality, qualitative research, sociology},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {book}
}
This monograph explores corporate initiatives to empower women in the Global South through the promotion of micro entrepreneurship within informal economic sectors. From an ethnographic approach, it scrutinizes how the political imperative of “creating jobs” is intertwined with individual risks for women in precarious economic positions as well as with the increasing authority of global corporations in development and gender politics.
2018
Harnoncourt, Julia
Unfreie Arbeit: Trabalho escravo in der brasilianischen Landwirtschaft [Unfree labour. Trabalho escravo in the agricultural sector in Brazil] Book
2018.
Abstract | Tags: agrarian labour and rural history, brazil, forced labour, latin america, qualitative research, slavery
@book{nokey,
title = {Unfreie Arbeit: Trabalho escravo in der brasilianischen Landwirtschaft [Unfree labour. Trabalho escravo in the agricultural sector in Brazil]},
author = {Julia Harnoncourt},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-01-01},
abstract = {This book on unfree labour/trabalho escravo in the agricultural sector in Pará/Brazil, is based on an extensive interview study. Therein the specific labour relations are considered an outcome of local as well as global structures. Apart from the coercion inside the labour relation itself, local hierarchies, Brazil’s long history of slavery and other forms of unfree labour, the role of the state, racism and gender relations, as well as the incorporation of the Amazon basin and Brazil into the global economy all take part in (re)constructing the specific form of trabalho escravo in Para’s agriculture.
},
keywords = {agrarian labour and rural history, brazil, forced labour, latin america, qualitative research, slavery},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {book}
}
This book on unfree labour/trabalho escravo in the agricultural sector in Pará/Brazil, is based on an extensive interview study. Therein the specific labour relations are considered an outcome of local as well as global structures. Apart from the coercion inside the labour relation itself, local hierarchies, Brazil’s long history of slavery and other forms of unfree labour, the role of the state, racism and gender relations, as well as the incorporation of the Amazon basin and Brazil into the global economy all take part in (re)constructing the specific form of trabalho escravo in Para’s agriculture.
2016
Kuldova, Tereza
Fatalist Luxuries: Of Inequality, Wasting and Anti-Work Ethic in India Journal Article
In: Cultural Politics, vol. 12, iss. 1, pp. 110-129, 2016.
Abstract | Tags: contemporary, ethnography, india, qualitative research, textile industry, work ethics
@article{nokey,
title = {Fatalist Luxuries: Of Inequality, Wasting and Anti-Work Ethic in India},
author = {Tereza Kuldova},
year = {2016},
date = {2016-01-01},
journal = {Cultural Politics},
volume = {12},
issue = {1},
pages = {110-129},
abstract = {This article, grounded in long-term ethnographic research among producers of contemporary luxurious embroideries and fashions in Lucknow, a North Indian city famous for its golden age as a powerful cultural center of opulence and excess, shows how anthropological knowledge can enrich current critical discussions of luxury and inequality. Since the 1990s, anthropology has seen a boom in consumption and material culture studies coterminous with the rise of identity politics and its celebration of diversity. In anthropological theory, as well, linking consumption to identity has stolen the limelight. In the process, questions of production, inequality, and reproduction of social structures have been overshadowed. Critical reappraisal of luxury in anthropological theory can paradoxically show us a way out of this identity trap, since luxury, unlike other consumer goods, demands that we think about inequality. Luxury also forces us to think beyond luxury brands, goods, and commodified experiences, pushing us toward more fundamental questions about what constitutes a good life, morality, and social order. The ethnographic case presented here, which reveals how structural violence can go hand-in-hand with paradoxical luxuries facilitated by fatalist attitudes, points to what such an anthropology of luxury might look like. In a village near Lucknow, women embroider luxury pieces for fashion ramps and celebrities, while being fed meritocratic dreams of individual progress and success by fashion designers and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) who try to convince them to work ever harder in the name of empowerment. But the women laugh at luxury goods, designers, and middle-class activists and, instead, insist on an antiwork ethic and a valorization of leisure—on wasting time over working; they prefer to “luxuriate” rather than indulge in luxury goods. However, this perception of luxury is connected to hierarchical inequality and a sense of social fatalism that has been reinvigorated through new experiences with competitive inequality, neoliberal pollution, and the false promises of meritocracy.},
keywords = {contemporary, ethnography, india, qualitative research, textile industry, work ethics},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
This article, grounded in long-term ethnographic research among producers of contemporary luxurious embroideries and fashions in Lucknow, a North Indian city famous for its golden age as a powerful cultural center of opulence and excess, shows how anthropological knowledge can enrich current critical discussions of luxury and inequality. Since the 1990s, anthropology has seen a boom in consumption and material culture studies coterminous with the rise of identity politics and its celebration of diversity. In anthropological theory, as well, linking consumption to identity has stolen the limelight. In the process, questions of production, inequality, and reproduction of social structures have been overshadowed. Critical reappraisal of luxury in anthropological theory can paradoxically show us a way out of this identity trap, since luxury, unlike other consumer goods, demands that we think about inequality. Luxury also forces us to think beyond luxury brands, goods, and commodified experiences, pushing us toward more fundamental questions about what constitutes a good life, morality, and social order. The ethnographic case presented here, which reveals how structural violence can go hand-in-hand with paradoxical luxuries facilitated by fatalist attitudes, points to what such an anthropology of luxury might look like. In a village near Lucknow, women embroider luxury pieces for fashion ramps and celebrities, while being fed meritocratic dreams of individual progress and success by fashion designers and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) who try to convince them to work ever harder in the name of empowerment. But the women laugh at luxury goods, designers, and middle-class activists and, instead, insist on an antiwork ethic and a valorization of leisure—on wasting time over working; they prefer to “luxuriate” rather than indulge in luxury goods. However, this perception of luxury is connected to hierarchical inequality and a sense of social fatalism that has been reinvigorated through new experiences with competitive inequality, neoliberal pollution, and the false promises of meritocracy.