Meaningful Action: Recomposing Labor and Value with Practices and Imaginaries on the zad of Notre-Dame-des-Landes
(2024) SANK03 20241Social Anthropology
- Abstract
- This paper explores how the modern categories of labor and value are questioned by practices and ideas on the autonomous zad of Notre-Dame-Des-Landes, France. In a world where the global economy is defined by the division of time between labor and leisure, it is necessary to question these foundations by asking what this dichotomy implies. With data from eight weeks of ethnographic fieldwork observing how utilitarian notions of value are questioned on the zad, this research aims to disclose how, in the place of contemporary hierarchical labor relations, horizontal organization of production and autonomous labor practices afford collective and individual freedom to pursue meaningful ends and actions that are not necessarily ‘productive’. My... (More)
- This paper explores how the modern categories of labor and value are questioned by practices and ideas on the autonomous zad of Notre-Dame-Des-Landes, France. In a world where the global economy is defined by the division of time between labor and leisure, it is necessary to question these foundations by asking what this dichotomy implies. With data from eight weeks of ethnographic fieldwork observing how utilitarian notions of value are questioned on the zad, this research aims to disclose how, in the place of contemporary hierarchical labor relations, horizontal organization of production and autonomous labor practices afford collective and individual freedom to pursue meaningful ends and actions that are not necessarily ‘productive’. My argument is grounded in an action-based theory of value to propose that the intimate relationship between imaginaries and practices form the basis for understanding how the intersection of value and labor can help us reimagine conventional assumptions about the contemporary economy for the sake of meaningful emancipation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9156707
- author
- Gras, Balthazar LU
- supervisor
-
- Nina Gren LU
- organization
- course
- SANK03 20241
- year
- 2024
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- social anthropology, zad, value, labor, imaginary, action
- language
- English
- id
- 9156707
- date added to LUP
- 2024-06-03 10:39:28
- date last changed
- 2024-06-03 10:39:28
@misc{9156707, abstract = {{This paper explores how the modern categories of labor and value are questioned by practices and ideas on the autonomous zad of Notre-Dame-Des-Landes, France. In a world where the global economy is defined by the division of time between labor and leisure, it is necessary to question these foundations by asking what this dichotomy implies. With data from eight weeks of ethnographic fieldwork observing how utilitarian notions of value are questioned on the zad, this research aims to disclose how, in the place of contemporary hierarchical labor relations, horizontal organization of production and autonomous labor practices afford collective and individual freedom to pursue meaningful ends and actions that are not necessarily ‘productive’. My argument is grounded in an action-based theory of value to propose that the intimate relationship between imaginaries and practices form the basis for understanding how the intersection of value and labor can help us reimagine conventional assumptions about the contemporary economy for the sake of meaningful emancipation.}}, author = {{Gras, Balthazar}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Student Paper}}, title = {{Meaningful Action: Recomposing Labor and Value with Practices and Imaginaries on the zad of Notre-Dame-des-Landes}}, year = {{2024}}, }