Anthropology and the Economy of Sharing

Anthropology and the Economy of Sharing

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  • Author: Thomas Widlok
  • Publisher: Taylor & Francis
  • ISBN: 131736970X
  • Category : Business & Economics
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 218

This book examines the economy of sharing in a variety of social and political contexts around the world, with consideration given to the role of sharing in relation to social order and social change, political power, group formation, individual networks and concepts of personhood. Widlok advocates a refreshingly broad comparative approach to our understanding of sharing, with a rich range of material from hunter-gatherer ethnography alongside debates and empirical illustrations from globalized society, helping students to avoid Western economic bias in their thinking. Anthropology and the Economy of Sharing also demonstrates that sharing is distinct from gift-giving, exchange and reciprocity, which have become dominant themes in economic anthropology, and suggests that a new focus on sharing will have significant repercussions for anthropological theory. Breaking new ground in this key topic, this volume provides students with a coherent and accessible overview of the economy of sharing from an anthropological perspective.


Anthropology and Economy

Anthropology and Economy

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  • Author: Stephen Gudeman
  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press
  • ISBN: 1316462749
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 235

Comparative and critical, Anthropology and Economy offers a uniquely cross-cultural view of economy. Using examples from market and non-market situations, the book shows how economies are built on five increasingly abstract spheres, from the house to community, commerce, finance, and meta-finance. Across these spheres, economy incorporates a tension between self-interested rationality and the mutuality of social relationships. Even when rational processes predominate, as in markets, economies rely on sociability and ritual to operate, whether as cronyism, pleas to divinities or the magical persuasions of advertising. Drawing on data and concepts from anthropology and economics, the book addresses wealth inequality, resource depletion, and environmental devastation especially in capitalism, providing an understanding of their persistence and ideas for controlling them. Given the recent financial crash, Gudeman offers a different understanding of the crisis and suggestions for achieving greater economic stability.


Hustle and Gig

Hustle and Gig

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  • Author: Alexandrea J. Ravenelle
  • Publisher: Univ of California Press
  • ISBN: 0520971892
  • Category : Business & Economics
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 288

Choose your hours, choose your work, be your own boss, control your own income. Welcome to the sharing economy, a nebulous collection of online platforms and apps that promise to transcend capitalism. Supporters argue that the gig economy will reverse economic inequality, enhance worker rights, and bring entrepreneurship to the masses. But does it? In Hustle and Gig, Alexandrea J. Ravenelle shares the personal stories of nearly eighty predominantly millennial workers from Airbnb, Uber, TaskRabbit, and Kitchensurfing. Their stories underline the volatility of working in the gig economy: the autonomy these young workers expected has been usurped by the need to maintain algorithm-approved acceptance and response rates. The sharing economy upends generations of workplace protections such as worker safety; workplace protections around discrimination and sexual harassment; the right to unionize; and the right to redress for injuries. Discerning three types of gig economy workers—Success Stories, who have used the gig economy to create the life they want; Strugglers, who can’t make ends meet; and Strivers, who have stable jobs and use the sharing economy for extra cash—Ravenelle examines the costs, benefits, and societal impact of this new economic movement. Poignant and evocative, Hustle and Gig exposes how the gig economy is the millennial’s version of minimum-wage precarious work.


Platform Economics

Platform Economics

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  • Author: Cristiano Codagnone
  • Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
  • ISBN: 1787439852
  • Category : Business & Economics
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 216

Platform Economics tackles head on the rhetoric surrounding the so-called 'sharing economy' which has muddied public debate and has contributed to a lack of policy and regulatory intervention.


The Sharing Economy in Europe

The Sharing Economy in Europe

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  • Author: Vida Česnuitytė
  • Publisher: Springer Nature
  • ISBN: 3030868974
  • Category : Business & Economics
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 429

This open access book considers the development of the sharing and collaborative economy with a European focus, mapping across economic sectors, and country-specific case studies. It looks at the roles the sharing economy plays in sharing and redistribution of goods and services across the population in order to maximise their functionality, monetary exchange, and other aspects important to societies. It also looks at the place of the sharing economy among various policies and how the contexts of public policies, legislation, digital platforms, and other infrastructure interrelate with the development and function of the sharing economy. The book will help in understanding the future (sharing) economy models as well as to contribute in solving questions of better access to resources and sustainable innovation in the context of degrowth and growing inequalities within and between societies. It will also provide a useful source for solutions to the big challenges of our times such as climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and recently the coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19). This book will be of interest to academics and students in economics and business, organisational studies, sociology, media and communication and computer science.


Legacies, Logics, Logistics

Legacies, Logics, Logistics

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  • Author: Jane I. Guyer
  • Publisher: University of Chicago Press
  • ISBN: 022632690X
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 325

Legacies, Logics, Logistics brings together a set of essays, written both before and after the financial crisis of 2007–08, by eminent Africanist and economic anthropologist Jane I. Guyer. Each was written initially for a conference on a defined theme. When they are brought together and interpreted as a whole by Guyer, these varied essays show how an anthropological and socio-historical approach to economic practices—both in the West and elsewhere—can illuminate deep facets of economic life that the big theories and models may fail to capture. Focusing on economic actors—whether ordinary consumers or financial experts—Guyer traces how people and institutions hold together past experiences (legacies), imagined scenarios and models (logics), and situational challenges (logistics) in a way that makes the performance of economic life (on platforms made of these legacies, logics, and logistics) work in practice. Individual essays explore a number of topics—including time frames and the future, the use of percentages in observations and judgments, the explanation of prices, the coexistence of different world currencies, the reapplication of longtime economic theories in new settings, and, crucially, how we talk about the economy, how we use stable terms to describe a turbulent system. Valuable as standalone pieces, the essays build into a cogent method of economic anthropology.


At the Interface

At the Interface

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  • Author: David B. Small
  • Publisher: University Press of America
  • ISBN: 9780761814863
  • Category : Business & Economics
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 244

Co-published with Society for Economic Anthropology (SEA), this volume takes a unique approach to the study of economics. Rather than concentrating on a defined analytical unit, it explores economics from the interface. That is, it examines the various kinds of relationships that can exist among and within economic units in a community and beyond. The chapters treat the theme of the interface from four different perspectives: intracommunity interfaces, interfaces and the organization of communities, extracomunity interfaces, and the question of interfaces in archaeological investigations. The authors address various topics related to household economy, including the creation of different identities through shared labor, the dialectical relationship between global forces and local producers in structuring economic contexts, strategies that promote economic flexibility, and environmental adaptation.


Relational Anthropology for Contemporary Economics

Relational Anthropology for Contemporary Economics

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  • Author: Jermo van Nes
  • Publisher: Springer Nature
  • ISBN: 3030846903
  • Category : Economic anthropology
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 228

This open access book offers a multidisciplinary dialogue on relational anthropology in contemporary economics. A particular view of the human being is often assumed in economic models, but seldom acknowledged let alone explicated. Addressing this neglected area of research in economic studies, altogether the contributors touch upon the importance and potential of virtues, the notions of freedom and self-love, the potential of simulation models, the dialectics of love, and questions of methodology in constructing a relational anthropology for contemporary economics. The overall result is a highly informative and constructive dialogue, establishing inter alia a research agenda for future collaborative and multidisciplinary study.


Anthropology and Economy

Anthropology and Economy

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  • Author: Stephen Gudeman
  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press
  • ISBN: 1107130867
  • Category : Business & Economics
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 235

Offering a uniquely cross-cultural perspective, renowned economic anthropologist Stephen Gudeman presents a theory of economic crisis and lessons for its mitigation, in light of the recent global financial crash. This compelling book is richly illustrated with examples from 'strange' small-scale economies as well as developed market economies.


Engaged Anthropology

Engaged Anthropology

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  • Author: Stuart Kirsch
  • Publisher: Univ of California Press
  • ISBN: 0520970098
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 328

Does anthropology have more to offer than just its texts? In this timely and remarkable book, Stuart Kirsch shows how anthropology can—and why it should—become more engaged with the problems of the world. Engaged Anthropology draws on the author’s experiences working with indigenous peoples fighting for their environment, land rights, and political sovereignty. Including both short interventions and collaborations spanning decades, it recounts interactions with lawyers and courts, nongovernmental organizations, scientific experts, and transnational corporations. This unflinchingly honest account addresses the unexamined “backstage” of engaged anthropology. Coming at a time when some question the viability of the discipline, the message of this powerful and original work is especially welcome, as it not only promotes a new way of doing anthropology, but also compellingly articulates a new rationale for why anthropology matters.