Anthropologies of Unemployment: New Perspectives on Work and Its Absence

289 Pages·2016·2.15 MB·English

by  Jong Bum Kwon

ANTHROPOLOGIES OF
UNEMPLOYMENT

ANTHROPOLOGIES
OF
UNEMPLOYMENT
New Perspectives on Work
and Its Absence
Edited by Jong Bum Kwon and
Carrie M. Lane
ILR PRESS
AN IMPRINT OF
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS ITHACA AND LONDON
Copyright © 2016 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts
thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing
from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press,
Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.
First published 2016 by Cornell University Press
First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2016
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kwon, Jong Bum, 1971– editor. | Lane, Carrie M., 1974– editor. |
Container of (work): Lane, Carrie M., 1974– Limits of liminality.
Title: Anthropologies of unemployment : new perspectives on work and
its absence / edited by Jong Bum Kwon and Carrie M. Lane.
Description: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016016169
ISBN 9781501704659 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 9781501704666 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Unemployment—Social aspects. | Unemployed—Social
conditions. | Economic anthropology.
Classification: LCC HD5708 .A58 2016 | DDC 331.13/7—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016016169
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Cloth printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Paperback printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Cover design: Scott Levine.
This book is dedicated to all people engaged in the daily work of
producing meaning, community, security, and livelihood.

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Jong Bum Kwon and Carrie M. Lane
1. The Limits of Liminality: Anthropological Approaches
to Unemployment in the United States 18
Carrie M. Lane
2. The Limits to Quantitative Thinking: Engaging
Economics on the Unemployed 34
David Karjanen
3. Occupation 53
Jong Bum Kwon
4. The Rise of the Precariat? Unemployment and Social
Identity in a French Outer City 71
John P. Murphy
5. Contesting Unemployment: The Case of the Cirujas in
Buenos Aires 97
Mariano D. Perelman
6. Zones of In/Visibility: Commodification of Rural
Unemployment in South Carolina 118
Ann E. Kingsolver
7. Youth Unemployment, Progress, and Shame in
Urban Ethiopia 135
Daniel Mains
8. Labor on the Move: Kinship, Social Networks, and
Precarious Work among Mexican Migrants 155
Frances Abrahamer Rothstein
9. Positive Thinking about Being Out of Work in Southern
California after the Great Recession 171
Claudia Strauss
10. The Unemployed Cooperative: Community
Responses to Joblessness in Nicaragua 191
Josh Fisher
vii
viii CONTENTS
Epilogue: Rethinking the Value of Work and Unemployment 212
Caitrin Lynch and Daniel Mains
Notes 229
Bibliography 241
Notes on Contributors 265
Index 269
Acknowledgments
This volume exists because countless people in more than half a dozen countries
agreed to share their thoughts and stories with the anthropologists whose work
is featured herein. Those people are the protagonists of this book, and it is they
who give it whatever heart and import it possesses. We are grateful to them for
their trust and candor. We hope that we have lived up to the task of representing
their perspectives and experiences as accurately as possible within these pages.
The editors would also like to thank our wonderful team of contributors,
whose creativity and collegiality made this project a pleasure from start to fin-
ish. This book is the result of many conversations and shared meals, and it has
been a joy to get to know you all, as scholars and as people, throughout this
long process. We are grateful to the Society for the Anthropology of Work for
sponsoring the original American Anthropological Association conference ses-
sion on which this volume is based. We also thank the panelists, discussants, and
audience members whose contributions enlivened that session and inspired us
to compile this volume.
Fran Benson provided unflagging support and encouragement from the first
moment we told her of our plans to assemble this volume. We are grateful to her
and to the editorial and design teams at Cornell University Press, as well as an
anonymous reviewer, who helped shepherd this manuscript to its published form.
The editors thank our universities—Webster University and California State
University, Fullerton—for providing grants and other resources that helped sup-
port us during the preparation of this volume. We are also grateful to the many
colleagues and friends who encouraged us onward as we tackled each phase of
this process. Thanks especially to Caitrin Lynch for her excellent advice on our
introductory chapter. Carrie Lane would like to thank Matt Sterling for remind-
ing her that life is much bigger than work, and Frank Sterling for taking really
long naps that allowed her to work on this volume. Jong Bum Kwon would like
to thank Elaine Cha for her unwavering faith. He would also like to express his
gratitude to Dr. Laurel Kendall, who has patiently guided his work, and to his
mentor Dr. Owen Lynch, whose care was invaluable to his becoming a working
anthropologist.
ix