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Rethinking the concept of labour
Author(s) -
Narotzky Susana
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of the royal anthropological institute
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.62
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1467-9655
pISSN - 1359-0987
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9655.12797
Subject(s) - alienation , value (mathematics) , sociology , social reproduction , capital (architecture) , futures contract , ambiguity , reproduction , disconnection , work (physics) , relation (database) , positive economics , epistemology , economics , social capital , social science , law , political science , linguistics , history , ecology , philosophy , archaeology , database , machine learning , biology , computer science , financial economics , mechanical engineering , engineering
Is labour a useful concept for anthropology today? This essay attempts to respond theoretically to the challenge that the contributions to this special issue empirically pose. The essay rethinks the concept of labour by addressing three questions that deal with the relation of human work effort and capital accumulation: the first refers to alienation; the second to the difference between abstract and concrete labour; and the third to ambiguity. Over the years, these issues have addressed particular aspects of social reproduction, helping define labour as a concept, albeit a heterogeneous one, that is relationally linked to capital. Dislocation, together with the parallel concepts of dispossession, disorganization, disconnection, and differentiation, emerges prominently in the analyses of contemporary labour transformations and specificities. Finally, the essay engages with seemingly disappearing labour futures and what this means for the concept of labour. What is the value of work for capital and, conversely, the value of labouring for people today?