WEBVTT Kind: captions; language: en-us NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:11.100 hello hello NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 80% (HØY) 00:00:11.100 --> 00:00:21.800 is this working? yes excellent. Okay we're two minutes overtime but I'll make up for it I think we're 00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:23.700 ready to go NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:00:25.300 --> 00:00:31.950 let's just do a quick check with the people online if they can hear me. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 68% (MEDIUM) 00:00:31.950 --> 00:00:34.200 can you hear me? NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:00:35.400 --> 00:00:37.700 thumbs up NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 80% (HØY) 00:00:37.700 --> 00:00:50.400 anyone yes okay one time up yes perfect gotcha excellent we rolling all right so good to see you 00:00:50.400 --> 00:00:59.800 again. You had an extra week to read up I think I don't know if you were very sad about that or if 00:00:59.800 --> 00:01:08.800 that was all right to get a bit extra time anyway. So today labor. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:01:08.800 --> 00:01:18.800 But first, I want to sell you something I want to sell you an event that we're doing 00:01:18.800 --> 00:01:25.500 Thursday there's this thing that's been going at the 00:01:25.500 --> 00:01:32.900 department of social anthropology for a few years on and off and it's basically started with me doing 00:01:32.900 --> 00:01:38.050 my PhD realising shit I can really focus and I have so many things NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:01:38.050 --> 00:01:46.100 things to do and I need to write my PhD, and what do I do? I need to read and focus and I'm not able 00:01:46.100 --> 00:01:52.700 to do it. So I started reading about people who struggle with this and together with a 00:01:52.700 --> 00:01:58.500 colleague we decided to start this seminar which we call deep reading which is basically it sounds 00:01:58.500 --> 00:02:04.400 a little bit fancy but it's basically just collectively we do like this we took take out our phones 00:02:04.400 --> 00:02:08.100 switch it to flight mode put it in our bags NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 71% (MEDIUM) 00:02:08.100 --> 00:02:15.600 Far away from where we're sitting and then we're going to sit together for 5 hours and read something in 00:02:15.600 --> 00:02:16.950 silence NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:02:16.950 --> 00:02:24.200 it's kind of a crazy thing at the first two hours you get a little bit of spasms to reach for your 00:02:24.200 --> 00:02:31.600 phone you feel like you're missing out on something very important your hand twitches you get headaches 00:02:31.600 --> 00:02:41.000 and it's like people coming off heroin but then hour two three I assure you something magical will 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:47.000 happen that is quite rare at least for me and NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 79% (HØY) 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:54.600 I think in our current moment which is that the pages just start flowing and you start to get 00:02:54.600 --> 00:02:59.600 create associations to between the text and stuff you reading and other things movies you've seen 00:02:59.600 --> 00:03:05.850 podcast you listen to what you talked about with your mother last day when you were at dinner and 00:03:05.850 --> 00:03:12.500 you enter into this flow state and that is the whole idea with this deep reading thing is that to to 00:03:12.500 --> 00:03:17.000 teach students new generation students how to take back NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 88% (HØY) 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:25.200 back a bit of that attention that's been taken from them by large corporations like meta as it's now 00:03:25.200 --> 00:03:33.600 called or Google and the rest of it Amazon. So this is really fun thing actually doesn't sound very 00:03:33.600 --> 00:03:40.900 fun but it's really fun we get together and we talk about it at the end so I encourage everyone to 00:03:40.900 --> 00:03:44.750 sign up for it I'll put something on canvas NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 88% (HØY) 00:03:44.750 --> 00:03:47.500 maybe you have something on Thursday NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 83% (HØY) 00:03:47.500 --> 00:03:49.350 NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 89% (HØY) 00:03:49.350 --> 00:03:55.100 that's perfect. Some of you have been there before no? so some of you know yeah exactly you 00:03:55.100 --> 00:04:04.000 know what it's about and this is the last nice chance this semester. It's at 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:12.500 Oasen first floor of the library just all the way in really comfortable place with some sofas and 00:04:12.500 --> 00:04:20.000 chairs and so on, come to that and see what happens all right. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 75% (MEDIUM) 00:04:20.600 --> 00:04:27.000 Anthropology is the science of the study of what people take for granted okay and the 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:36.300 contradictions that we all live with I think you know this by now even speaking with George's in the 00:04:36.300 --> 00:04:44.600 seminars we've been talking a bit here that you could think as I think I mentioned before this I 00:04:44.600 --> 00:04:49.350 think it's Sharp or one of the old-time like Anthropologist who said this NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 75% (MEDIUM) 00:04:49.350 --> 00:04:53.300 that the last thing the fish will ever notice is water NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 73% (MEDIUM) 00:04:54.000 --> 00:05:03.350 and we are kind of the animal comes the animal but dives into the water almost drowns and says hey 00:05:03.350 --> 00:05:11.500 preacher look at this strange liquid thing, it's all around you what is that and so in anthropology 00:05:11.500 --> 00:05:18.400 You notice things that we take for granted it is the study of the common sense for example our 00:05:18.400 --> 00:05:23.050 Taste in coffee we've been talking about right isn't it strange that we NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 86% (HØY) 00:05:23.050 --> 00:05:31.400 we all have all this variety now in coffee this choice specific specialised delicacy coffee that 00:05:31.400 --> 00:05:36.300 when you know 20 years ago we went to a coffee shop we asked for a cup of coffee they would 00:05:36.300 --> 00:05:42.200 give us a cup of coffee now it's do you want the blue Java or the something something from Guatemala 00:05:42.200 --> 00:05:48.250 and not just that behind there's all these variation of coffee choices NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 83% (HØY) 00:05:48.250 --> 00:05:56.900 where does this is our taste in coffee come from? how is our taste taken for granted you 00:05:56.900 --> 00:06:04.500 know desire I like double macchiato with oatmeal milk. Where is this coming from? this taken for 00:06:04.500 --> 00:06:15.100 granted thing how is it these tastes shaped our history industry technology Etc. and there's of 00:06:15.100 --> 00:06:18.600 course the contradiction also in this coffee NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:06:18.600 --> 00:06:26.100 question you know where is actually the freedom of choice we enter into a coffee shop they have all 00:06:26.100 --> 00:06:32.300 this choice but, and you feel free to choose different things but actually the choices the menu has 00:06:32.300 --> 00:06:38.900 been conditioned it's been chosen for us and our tastes and what we desire to choose has been 00:06:38.900 --> 00:06:44.900 shaped through history. So there's a contradiction common sense in the contradiction these are key 00:06:44.900 --> 00:06:48.450 kind of things dynamics that anthropology NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 75% (MEDIUM) 00:06:48.450 --> 00:06:56.400 studies or staying with the coffee of course another example of how anthropology is the study of 00:06:56.400 --> 00:07:01.100 the common sense is that when you buy someone a friend of coffee NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 75% (MEDIUM) 00:07:01.100 --> 00:07:03.750 you should all know this by now NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 77% (HØY) 00:07:03.750 --> 00:07:11.100 We go to the SV kantine and I buy you coffee and then when we leave I take out my wallet 00:07:11.100 --> 00:07:19.150 and say how much can I pay you or I just vipps you 23 Kroner feels strange awkward. Why is that? 00:07:19.150 --> 00:07:25.100 why is that why is this common sense strangers just taken for granted thing that when 00:07:25.100 --> 00:07:30.100 you give someone a gift they're not supposed to be you know reciprocated immediately and not with 00:07:30.100 --> 00:07:33.250 the same amount, that symbolises something. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 87% (HØY) 00:07:33.250 --> 00:07:39.200 It symbolizes commodity exchange and anthropology is a science of what people take for granted and the 00:07:39.200 --> 00:07:45.550 contradictions we all live with okay so if that is the case NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 77% (HØY) 00:07:45.550 --> 00:07:52.300 I want to I want to also stress that the common-sense thing that we're studying is not just cute 00:07:52.300 --> 00:07:57.800 little things like that okay it's also structural thing it's important things that really really 00:07:57.800 --> 00:08:07.150 matter and shape the lives of people living in this planet and that is definitely the case when 00:08:07.150 --> 00:08:13.000 it comes to what we'll discuss today because there's a whole lot of things we consider common sense 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:14.650 when it comes NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 75% (MEDIUM) 00:08:14.650 --> 00:08:23.600 to this question of Labor what is labor. Before we get going before I fill your mind 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:31.200 with an idea and the idea is that we're discussing today I want to inquire what are the things that 00:08:31.200 --> 00:08:40.799 what's in your mind and I want to do this with a little experiment I think that you trust me I hope 00:08:40.799 --> 00:08:43.450 so I will do the same NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 86% (HØY) 00:08:43.450 --> 00:08:52.950 because we're going to do a little exercise, okay. This is not a trick. What is labour? NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 74% (MEDIUM) 00:08:52.950 --> 00:09:00.700 In Norwegian we say 'arbeid' we don't have this distinction between work and labor we 00:09:00.700 --> 00:09:03.900 have to say arbeid, so let's just stick with that arbeid. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 81% (HØY) 00:09:03.900 --> 00:09:10.099 What is labor and what are labourers? Hvem er arbeiderne? NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:09:10.099 --> 00:09:16.800 and I want you to close your eyes and when I say so we're going to do it for five seconds I'm not 00:09:16.800 --> 00:09:22.050 going to snatch anything from you and I'm going to say NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 84% (HØY) 00:09:22.050 --> 00:09:33.550 I'm going to ask you to introspect and to look into yourselves and find an image of something 00:09:33.550 --> 00:09:42.650 you know that you can put in front of a camera okay so when I ask you this question NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 90% (HØY) 00:09:42.650 --> 00:09:49.700 okay let's just do like this I count to three and then we all close our eyes and then I ask you a 00:09:49.700 --> 00:09:54.500 question and then an image is going to pop into your head and then you going to tell me what that image 00:09:54.500 --> 00:10:05.400 is okay. Is that okay? okay we all close our eyes me too one two three. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 84% (HØY) 00:10:05.400 --> 00:10:14.500 picture a labourer working. Kan du se for deg en arbeider som jobber? NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 82% (HØY) 00:10:16.400 --> 00:10:27.100 What came up in your head? was it too much pressure? what was the image you saw? 00:10:27.100 --> 00:10:28.400 yeah NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 84% (HØY) 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:33.200 road worker in an orange vest NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 82% (HØY) 00:10:34.300 --> 00:10:38.400 guy laying bricks, a man? was it a man? NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:10:38.500 --> 00:10:41.000 others? NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:10:43.800 --> 00:10:48.300 yeah yeah NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 88% (HØY) 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:53.900 yeah assembly line NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 84% (HØY) 00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:58.450 a lady cleaning, the First Lady NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 55% (MEDIUM) 00:10:58.450 --> 00:11:00.500 NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:04.600 okay yeah NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:11:08.400 --> 00:11:10.900 okay NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 63% (MEDIUM) 00:11:17.400 --> 00:11:19.700 mhm NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 84% (HØY) 00:11:25.100 --> 00:11:29.600 okay two people in front of a computer we have yeah NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 66% (MEDIUM) 00:11:29.800 --> 00:11:32.400 A teacher NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 73% (MEDIUM) 00:11:32.500 --> 00:11:34.800 yeah NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 79% (HØY) 00:11:39.200 --> 00:11:43.300 Blue Collar, a man. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:11:46.900 --> 00:11:49.300 anyone else? NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 69% (MEDIUM) 00:11:49.300 --> 00:11:52.000 George's what did you see? NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:11:53.800 --> 00:11:57.000 NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 90% (HØY) 00:12:03.600 --> 00:12:15.100 yeah me too I saw I did this it's a bit weird but I when I Was preparing this lecture I did this and I saw 00:12:15.100 --> 00:12:25.250 something and there was a man with a yellow helmet and wheelbarrow so what did we not see NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:12:25.250 --> 00:12:35.200 we did not see correct me if I'm wrong a woman doing dishes at home NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:12:35.800 --> 00:12:41.200 we did not see someone NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 87% (HØY) 00:12:41.600 --> 00:12:44.500 on their Instagram profile NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:12:44.500 --> 00:12:49.250 or an influencer promoting a product or NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:12:49.250 --> 00:13:02.000 we did not see someone holding an old person hand her mother at her deathbed. We did not basically 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:15.700 see lots of stuff that goes on outside formal employment settings but I think the most important is 00:13:15.700 --> 00:13:19.650 that what you just experienced is NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 85% (HØY) 00:13:19.650 --> 00:13:25.200 this thing the common sense the taken for granted NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:13:25.300 --> 00:13:27.800 so NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 90% (HØY) 00:13:29.700 --> 00:13:39.100 labor can be basically anything right it's human activity it's what Polanyi says is 00:13:39.100 --> 00:13:43.600 another word for life itself or something like that NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 89% (HØY) 00:13:43.800 --> 00:13:51.600 but there there's a process that makes the category of Labor it's been historically and culturally 00:13:51.600 --> 00:14:02.600 conditioned to be certain to be to feel like certain things. Labor is on the one hand an activity of 00:14:02.600 --> 00:14:07.800 course and it's also an idea about that activity NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 89% (HØY) 00:14:08.800 --> 00:14:16.700 Polanyi says that labor is not a commodity remember it's a fictitious commodity, labor is simply 00:14:16.700 --> 00:14:21.900 another name for human activity that goes with life itself. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 81% (HØY) 00:14:21.900 --> 00:14:30.700 so there needs to be some some political historical cultural process that separates labor out 00:14:30.700 --> 00:14:37.700 As this particular thing this disembedded from other social relations saying there's a 00:14:37.700 --> 00:14:46.200 distinction here this is home stuff this is life and this is work this is labor but that distinction 00:14:46.200 --> 00:14:47.900 is not NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 85% (HØY) 00:14:47.900 --> 00:14:54.600 you know naturally given it's the result of a historical process NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:14:55.900 --> 00:15:04.849 so the question of where labor ends and life begins is is the result of a historical political 00:15:04.849 --> 00:15:15.500 cultural process and it's an area for social battle all the time should women be recognised as 00:15:15.500 --> 00:15:23.750 people who do work at home? there's a feminist movement in the 1970s called wages for housework NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 69% (MEDIUM) 00:15:23.750 --> 00:15:32.500 where these feminists you know question this taken-for-granted sense that work is only happens 00:15:32.500 --> 00:15:41.200 outside the home there's so much value production that goes on inside the home without which society 00:15:41.200 --> 00:15:42.950 would crumble NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 80% (HØY) 00:15:42.950 --> 00:15:50.200 so the question of what do we recognize as real or not real or belonging to or not belonging to the 00:15:50.200 --> 00:15:54.550 category of Labor is a deeply political questions NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:15:54.550 --> 00:15:56.900 okay NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:15:59.900 --> 00:16:02.800 that is the general NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:16:03.500 --> 00:16:06.300 background here NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 78% (HØY) 00:16:07.900 --> 00:16:13.000 point being that what you just experienced what you saw before your eyes is the result of a 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:15.500 historical and cultural process NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 82% (HØY) 00:16:15.500 --> 00:16:22.300 because labor can in principle be anything but of course it's not NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 87% (HØY) 00:16:22.400 --> 00:16:34.800 all right let's get into the ethnographic specifics here. Theo Rakopoulos gave this course put 00:16:34.800 --> 00:16:47.450 himself on the syllabus. I would do the same actually. He has done field work in Sicily and you read two 00:16:47.450 --> 00:16:53.700 text this week from people who've given this course Keir Martin and Theo Rakopoulos NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 77% (HØY) 00:16:53.700 --> 00:16:59.400 and this is useful I think because you get to know a little bit about people working at the 00:16:59.400 --> 00:17:06.650 department for social anthropology and what they're writing about and concerned about right now. 00:17:06.650 --> 00:17:12.300 so read these two texts and consider it an opportunity also to get a bit acquainted with people at 00:17:12.300 --> 00:17:18.400 this department and the kind of work that people in economic anthropology do today so Theo writes 00:17:18.400 --> 00:17:23.150 up this material from Sicily he did fieldwork there I think in NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 76% (HØY) 00:17:23.150 --> 00:17:25.800 2007-08 so on NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 85% (HØY) 00:17:27.200 --> 00:17:37.500 among anti-mafia most I think agriculture producing cooperatives, and it's in this area I think we 00:17:37.500 --> 00:17:46.900 have a picture yeah there it is this I borrowed this picture from Theo this area of Sicily where 00:17:46.900 --> 00:17:53.200 Parts of the land has been taken back from the mafia NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:17:53.500 --> 00:17:56.000 and NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 80% (HØY) 00:17:56.100 --> 00:18:09.300 they are collectively owned by these cooperatives that have been set up to produce I think mostly 00:18:09.300 --> 00:18:15.500 wine but all the other products as well and of course the term cooperative is an interesting thing in 00:18:15.500 --> 00:18:21.900 itself it's a collectively owned businesses in principles and business that's owned by the 00:18:21.900 --> 00:18:26.000 workers and it can NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 79% (HØY) 00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:31.700 Theo is discussing maybe cooperatives are therefore kind of embedded 00:18:31.700 --> 00:18:35.900 in society in a different way than corporations NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 90% (HØY) 00:18:35.900 --> 00:18:45.900 but what happened to this? There's a basic story to Theo's study here that what happened is that these 00:18:45.900 --> 00:18:50.700 municipalities they came together they took some land back from the mafia and they were going to 00:18:50.700 --> 00:18:53.199 start agricultural production NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 86% (HØY) 00:18:53.199 --> 00:18:57.700 and started these anti-mafia cooperatives NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 88% (HØY) 00:19:00.600 --> 00:19:13.500 and of course the mafia is the the archetype of the intermingling of family and business NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 85% (HØY) 00:19:13.500 --> 00:19:24.600 Cosa Nostra is this system of blood ties and and deprivations NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 86% (HØY) 00:19:25.100 --> 00:19:30.550 in the form of a mafia syndicate NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 90% (HØY) 00:19:30.550 --> 00:19:32.900 and NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:19:32.900 --> 00:19:42.800 What Theo was so taken taken with when he came there was the how these 00:19:42.800 --> 00:19:50.300 administrators of these new anti-mafia cooperatives that was supposed to produce 00:19:50.300 --> 00:20:00.500 Agricultural products they were so rhetorically emphasising that these new cooperatives would not NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 65% (MEDIUM) 00:20:00.500 --> 00:20:07.200 mingle kin, family, and business. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:17.200 co-op administrators claim that unlike family-based work system professionalism gave the needed 00:20:17.200 --> 00:20:26.200 neutrality that legality demanded. So to be legal to be legit to be different from the mafia we need 00:20:26.200 --> 00:20:27.700 to NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 90% (HØY) 00:20:28.800 --> 00:20:36.800 be cautious about the influence of kinship in our business structures and this manifested itself in 00:20:36.800 --> 00:20:38.900 the NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:20:41.400 --> 00:20:45.300 in rhetoric and in NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 84% (HØY) 00:20:46.600 --> 00:20:54.100 let's just say some rules also when it came to employment who are going to be employed in these new 00:20:54.100 --> 00:21:03.100 cooperatives if you couldn't employ people who through kin related to the mafia NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:21:03.500 --> 00:21:13.550 okay and there's a strong rhetoric about being professional being different from 00:21:13.550 --> 00:21:24.300 Enterprises that mix kin and business so in a sense there's this rhetoric and it's project 00:21:24.300 --> 00:21:29.700 of the kinship free business on the one hand NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 86% (HØY) 00:21:30.800 --> 00:21:39.949 but Theo notices that despite this clear separation of kin and labor in this way anti-mafia 00:21:39.949 --> 00:21:48.600 Co-operative families use the Co-operative to identify as a family, so when when he came into their 00:21:48.600 --> 00:21:55.600 homes they said like we are the co-operative family and the the first name of our daughter the first s 00:21:55.600 --> 00:21:59.000 first word that this new born child in our family will say is likely NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 77% (HØY) 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:00.650 Co-op NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:22:00.650 --> 00:22:12.300 so the co-op's acquire the shape of a family. It becomes kind of a medium through which people 00:22:12.300 --> 00:22:18.200 make sense of the family so obviously you know they identify as a co-op families is obviously 00:22:18.200 --> 00:22:20.100 important to NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 78% (HØY) 00:22:20.900 --> 00:22:31.500 to the practice of these the actual lives of these workers from one under this rhetoric of 00:22:31.500 --> 00:22:36.900 separating family and business and permanent work and on the other hand this is reality 00:22:36.900 --> 00:22:44.900 where the rich it is intermingle and blurred in all kinds of interesting ways and also the NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:22:44.900 --> 00:22:56.800 kin were important in how people got jobs in these places they were recommended often on the basis 00:22:56.800 --> 00:23:02.100 of kinship of affiliations so NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 84% (HØY) 00:23:02.100 --> 00:23:12.000 this is a very classical kind of anthropological move this is one time you have what people say and then you 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:17.600 have the other side what people do, and how interesting is that. That there is a contradiction anthropology is 00:23:17.600 --> 00:23:21.500 a study of common sense and contradictions. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 90% (HØY) 00:23:22.300 --> 00:23:32.100 This of course is the larger actually much larger it's just one little instance of 00:23:32.100 --> 00:23:39.700 a debate that I think people are having all across the world including all of us five minutes ago 00:23:39.700 --> 00:23:47.900 namely where does work and family or home begin? and one perspective it's kind of impossible to 00:23:47.900 --> 00:23:53.150 draw any distinction meaningful distinction but at the same time we can be crucially important NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 67% (MEDIUM) 00:23:53.150 --> 00:23:58.700 too kind of police the borders of the category of labor NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 83% (HØY) 00:23:59.100 --> 00:24:03.400 to give the category of labor particular shape NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 82% (HØY) 00:24:03.400 --> 00:24:06.300 I don't think any of you NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 74% (MEDIUM) 00:24:07.100 --> 00:24:09.800 saw NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 81% (HØY) 00:24:11.300 --> 00:24:20.200 this Tik-Tok or influencer in your head when I asked you to picture a 00:24:20.200 --> 00:24:27.900 laborer it's not the first thing that came into your mind. I was Googling around as one does 00:24:27.900 --> 00:24:35.800 and came across this interesting debate where and this Tik-tok woman or what is it 00:24:35.800 --> 00:24:39.800 called like digital merchandiser NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 82% (HØY) 00:24:40.400 --> 00:24:47.300 digital marketing she works in digital marketing okay. She claimed that she was an essential 00:24:47.300 --> 00:24:55.100 worker during COVID and she took a plane to Dubai or something and took a selfie of her self 00:24:55.100 --> 00:25:00.500 or like a video riding on a camel and promoting some kind of fragrance and that's an 00:25:00.500 --> 00:25:05.900 essential worker and people are just off their tits they were so enraged NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 73% (MEDIUM) 00:25:05.900 --> 00:25:15.699 they just went mental and it went on the news and there were Reddit post I don't know why it says 00:25:15.699 --> 00:25:21.500 it should say here that you should be shot 00:25:21.500 --> 00:25:26.200 there it is the circle is skewed but you should be shot it said NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:25:28.100 --> 00:25:35.350 very strong emotions. But who are workers and who are not workers? what is working and what is not work? 00:25:35.350 --> 00:25:45.350 this is crucial debate I think the universal human debate that has different answers through history 00:25:45.350 --> 00:25:54.250 and what we're doing this week is kind of studying that and trying to understand how that goes on 00:25:54.250 --> 00:25:57.800 influencers, tik-tokers, instagrammers NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:25:57.800 --> 00:25:59.700 Are they workers? NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 59% (MEDIUM) 00:26:00.300 --> 00:26:03.400 that's a political question. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 81% (HØY) 00:26:04.400 --> 00:26:11.200 Intuitively it feels wrong right? kind of feels wrong that she is an 00:26:11.200 --> 00:26:20.000 essential worker but she made that claim, and got a hell of a lot of trouble from that. Maybe 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:28.500 she has a point actually? and nonetheless not in the way that she argued but I think NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 83% (HØY) 00:26:28.500 --> 00:26:37.750 we could question what we do on the internet and conceptualise it as in a different way and not as 00:26:37.750 --> 00:26:46.650 consumption not as using a product for that were given for free but as actually doing work. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 84% (HØY) 00:26:46.650 --> 00:26:55.800 and this is a serious discussion that has come up in various places the last two years should we 00:26:55.800 --> 00:27:04.550 treat the stuff that we do on Facebook and on other social media as labor? should we consider it 00:27:04.550 --> 00:27:11.500 because in the end what are we doing on these platforms we're generating profit we're creating value 00:27:11.500 --> 00:27:17.150 we're clicking on things that provides data that creates NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 87% (HØY) 00:27:17.150 --> 00:27:24.000 profiles of us and our desires that this Corporation uses to NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 89% (HØY) 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:34.350 Sell things back to us and to sell adverts to people who pay to know that to get that data 00:27:34.350 --> 00:27:42.300 so what we're doing is actually we are working. Whenever you're clicking on something you're 00:27:42.300 --> 00:27:52.100 producing value for Mark Zuckerberg or Eric Schmidt the whoever runs Google when you're telling the 00:27:52.100 --> 00:27:54.350 Google translate algorithm its NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 70% (MEDIUM) 00:27:54.350 --> 00:27:59.400 Kind of a fake thing that call it an algorithm because it doesn't learn by itself, it learns through us it's 00:27:59.400 --> 00:28:04.900 an algorithm that is set up the Google translate it's brilliant but have you noticed that when you 00:28:04.900 --> 00:28:11.600 translate something you get the option to say this is not really accurate right. You can click on the 00:28:11.600 --> 00:28:20.100 thing and that is you producing when you click on that you're helping the algorithm to learn better 00:28:20.100 --> 00:28:24.350 and you're doing work and imagine how many translators NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 75% (MEDIUM) 00:28:24.350 --> 00:28:30.300 Who has had their job taken from them because of this algorithm this 00:28:30.300 --> 00:28:36.000 technology they're using it and they're sitting there with their pride clicking and telling Google 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:41.200 that you know this is actually not the the exact translation of the Norwegian word 'dugnad' or 00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:47.100 whatever and it helps improve the algorithm and they get nothing for that. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 84% (HØY) 00:28:47.100 --> 00:28:53.600 That is a serious question should we treat data that as labor? and it's a debate that we just 00:28:53.600 --> 00:28:55.800 started having. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 86% (HØY) 00:28:57.700 --> 00:29:07.000 labor is a an activity it's a practice but it's also a culturally formed idea about an activity NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:29:11.100 --> 00:29:14.300 to illustrate this further NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 82% (HØY) 00:29:15.600 --> 00:29:18.100 here. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 37% (LAV) 00:29:19.600 --> 00:29:22.700 Keir has the text for us NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:29:22.900 --> 00:29:25.700 and he is NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 90% (HØY) 00:29:25.900 --> 00:29:35.400 he's you know trying to make the argument that basically that words matter how we understand labor 00:29:35.400 --> 00:29:45.800 and how activity is conceptualised as as labor or as doing something else is giving a favour of 00:29:45.800 --> 00:29:55.200 as being your friend that matters. Tt has real effects. He did field work here actually outside here 00:29:55.200 --> 00:29:56.400 this is the nearest town NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 85% (HØY) 00:29:56.400 --> 00:30:06.400 in Papua New Guinea and Keir is one of those people who he wrote about KPMG but he didn't do 00:30:06.400 --> 00:30:12.300 and that's I think he's kind of cutting-edge thing he went to Papua New Guinea but it didn't do this 00:30:12.300 --> 00:30:23.750 Papua New Guinea and anthropological field work he wrote about business and labor and how people argue about 00:30:23.750 --> 00:30:26.350 Hotshots and NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 78% (HØY) 00:30:26.350 --> 00:30:36.000 his book is called "from big men to big shots" so it's a very kind of recognisable economic 00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:43.600 anthropology book about PNG which is not basically saying or had these people they're sitting around 00:30:43.600 --> 00:30:48.500 a bonfire and worshipping some crazy idea NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 77% (HØY) 00:30:48.500 --> 00:30:58.800 he is kind of tired of that, and says you know let's not exoticize PNG too much let's see what 00:30:58.800 --> 00:31:04.100 are the what are the things that they struggle with that you can be very recognizable in our setting 00:31:04.100 --> 00:31:12.800 as well. That is putting it a bit sharply perhaps but I think he would agree with the sentiment, so he 00:31:12.800 --> 00:31:18.300 did his fieldwork here outside outside this town in a small village and I think NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 78% (HØY) 00:31:18.300 --> 00:31:25.500 if I'm right what you see in the back there is the volcano and there was a volcano eruption 00:31:25.500 --> 00:31:34.700 in 1993 I think and people's houses and livelihoods had been demolished and in the years following that 00:31:34.700 --> 00:31:45.200 the government gave people access to land I think like three hectares or something in this area that 00:31:45.200 --> 00:31:47.650 they could work NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 90% (HØY) 00:31:47.650 --> 00:31:53.700 and this is what you get when you Google farming Papua New Guinea and you get a picture like this. I 00:31:53.700 --> 00:31:59.200 don't know if it's representative but I thought better than none NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:31:59.600 --> 00:32:02.100 and NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:32:02.400 --> 00:32:13.900 so people got this land after the volcano and then the question emerges how do you how 00:32:13.900 --> 00:32:23.500 do you get people to help out on your land how do you get people to work? to labor and NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:32:23.500 --> 00:32:26.700 this is customary NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 85% (HØY) 00:32:27.300 --> 00:32:36.800 this is tradition whereby you come this should sound familiar to you I hope you're 00:32:36.800 --> 00:32:40.500 making a connection to another part of the syllabus if not I'm going to make it for you in five 00:32:40.500 --> 00:32:48.300 seconds. There's this tradition where you with people come to your piece of land and 00:32:48.300 --> 00:32:49.750 they help you out NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 79% (HØY) 00:32:49.750 --> 00:32:56.350 and you're supposed to give them something back you're not paying them a wage but it's kind of a 00:32:56.350 --> 00:33:02.200 reciprocal bond and actually in this case people can make a claim to part of that land based on 00:33:02.200 --> 00:33:04.000 having helped you NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 88% (HØY) 00:33:06.700 --> 00:33:17.300 sounds familiar among the Fur there was no wage labor market as a custom based system where people 00:33:17.300 --> 00:33:24.200 reciprocate beer for help on their land, and they have big parties right. There's money that paid 00:33:24.200 --> 00:33:25.600 for labor NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 84% (HØY) 00:33:25.600 --> 00:33:29.150 and in the PNG case what was interesting NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:33:29.150 --> 00:33:39.250 is that Keir notice that people would explicitly make the point that this was not what was going on 00:33:39.250 --> 00:33:45.650 they were not throwing a party they were not engaged in having people come and help them because 00:33:45.650 --> 00:33:55.750 that was opening the door to claims to people making claims on your land saying hey I helped you out 00:33:55.750 --> 00:33:59.500 now it's your turn to help me by giving me a piece of this land NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 76% (HØY) 00:33:59.500 --> 00:34:06.900 aI worked there and I do according to custom this notion of custom and you're supposed to give me 00:34:06.900 --> 00:34:08.500 a piece of land NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 87% (HØY) 00:34:08.500 --> 00:34:16.800 and here meets these these people who administer these fields and they say very strongly I 00:34:16.800 --> 00:34:24.850 make a point out of paying people individually, I'm not helping them, I'm not receiving their help I'm 00:34:24.850 --> 00:34:27.949 rich I'm giving them wages. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 84% (HØY) 00:34:27.949 --> 00:34:31.500 and Keir's argument here NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 76% (HØY) 00:34:31.699 --> 00:34:40.699 back to the what we talked about earlier the pattern okay this is the pattern NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 76% (HØY) 00:34:40.699 --> 00:34:47.400 what is this thing why do people insist saying I pay them individually what is this 00:34:47.400 --> 00:34:53.400 conflict that's going on here how can we understand this? And Keir's theoretical argument 00:34:53.400 --> 00:35:00.000 is that the categorization of labor shapes its effects as much as it describes them as a bit of 00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:10.400 a thing to unpack I think. But basic point is that it matters whether something is categorized as 00:35:10.400 --> 00:35:11.100 wage labor NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 79% (HØY) 00:35:11.100 --> 00:35:12.600 or not NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 63% (MEDIUM) 00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:15.250 matter NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:35:15.250 --> 00:35:17.300 and NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 89% (HØY) 00:35:17.600 --> 00:35:27.500 so to call something labor to say you just now you're working for me I'm paying your salary NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 90% (HØY) 00:35:27.500 --> 00:35:35.950 I don't have any responsibility towards you beyond that people doing that kind of rhetorically 00:35:35.950 --> 00:35:45.200 creating that reality with your with their words that is that has a real effect in the world NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 78% (HØY) 00:35:46.800 --> 00:35:52.400 it has the effect of cutting ties of obligation NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:35:53.300 --> 00:35:56.100 the article is called NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 74% (MEDIUM) 00:35:56.100 --> 00:36:00.700 wage labor and double separation in Papua New Guinea and beyond NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:36:01.200 --> 00:36:08.250 and so the double separation just to deal with that before we take a break NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:36:08.250 --> 00:36:10.400 it's this NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:36:10.400 --> 00:36:21.300 first to mobilize a category of wage labor is to create a separation within a 00:36:21.300 --> 00:36:27.800 person because when you say I'm working I'm just working here NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 89% (HØY) 00:36:30.100 --> 00:36:37.600 you're saying I work with one thing me as a person as something else NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 81% (HØY) 00:36:39.700 --> 00:36:44.800 you could say things like it's just something I was paid to do you know it's 00:36:44.800 --> 00:36:46.100 just my work NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:36:46.100 --> 00:36:48.800 I don't have a responsibility NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 90% (HØY) 00:36:48.800 --> 00:36:57.000 towards what I did, don't think too much about it it's your job. Have you heard about Adolf Eichmann? NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:36:57.700 --> 00:37:08.400 yeah he was the main organisers of the Nazi Holocaust who survived the war and was put on trial in 00:37:08.400 --> 00:37:14.700 Israel. Hannah Arendt wrote an essay about him called the banality of evil she was there in the 00:37:14.700 --> 00:37:22.900 courtroom famous thing the banality of Evil based on Adolf Eichmann's explanation or his 00:37:22.900 --> 00:37:28.150 defense saying I didn't know about the Holocaust or NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 62% (MEDIUM) 00:37:28.150 --> 00:37:33.450 rather I was just doing my job NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:37:33.450 --> 00:37:37.100 okay I was filling out the forms NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:37:37.100 --> 00:37:45.100 and the guy who wrote who drove the trains he was just driving the train from one station to the 00:37:45.100 --> 00:37:48.300 next he was doing a job NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 90% (HØY) 00:37:49.600 --> 00:37:57.149 it was not me I didn't have an obligation towards the effect of what happened the Holocaust NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 87% (HØY) 00:37:57.149 --> 00:38:04.300 I wasn't ideologically driven I was concerned about doing my job well I got these forms I 00:38:04.300 --> 00:38:08.500 organized them I moved thing from A to B NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:38:08.500 --> 00:38:10.850 I did my job NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:38:10.850 --> 00:38:17.950 an extreme example of the separation that the category of wage labor can perform inside the person 00:38:17.950 --> 00:38:19.600 makes sense? NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 88% (HØY) 00:38:19.600 --> 00:38:24.500 good. Second between people NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 71% (MEDIUM) 00:38:24.800 --> 00:38:32.800 so the category wage labor it can also function or create a separation between people in a wage 00:38:32.800 --> 00:38:34.900 labor transaction NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 80% (HØY) 00:38:35.900 --> 00:38:44.700 that is basically saying I'm your employer I'm not your friend it's just business nothing personal 00:38:44.700 --> 00:38:53.900 when these people on the fields in PNG say that we pay you is saying you know we have a 00:38:53.900 --> 00:39:01.300 contractual kind of relationship and it has a start and an end and the start and end of it is the 00:39:01.300 --> 00:39:02.350 wage NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 88% (HØY) 00:39:02.350 --> 00:39:12.000 it's over you can't make any claim on something else because I equalised the debt you gave me a 00:39:12.000 --> 00:39:15.000 service I prefer it's over. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 88% (HØY) 00:39:17.900 --> 00:39:25.100 I'm your employer I'm not your friend so that the category of wage labor also performs that type of 00:39:25.100 --> 00:39:36.200 separation between people and again this is now established that this is my kind of annoying NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:39:36.500 --> 00:39:43.800 Kjepphest what is it called in Norwegian my thing that I always come back to it's like oh he was the guy who 00:39:43.800 --> 00:39:51.400 always went on about Buona Sera and something about the Godfather remember Bonasera okay saying how 00:39:51.400 --> 00:39:53.600 much should I pay you? NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 83% (HØY) 00:39:53.600 --> 00:40:00.400 to godfather how much should I pay for this service to to hurt the people who hurt my daughter how 00:40:00.400 --> 00:40:03.899 much should I pay you engaging the commodity logic right. NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 74% (MEDIUM) 00:40:03.899 --> 00:40:12.500 and saying basically we're engaged in wage labor let me set up a wage labor relationship that has a 00:40:12.500 --> 00:40:20.800 start and an end and then godfather says no no no how could you ever treat me so disrespectfully NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:40:20.900 --> 00:40:27.550 we are in gift exchange we will have extensive obligations NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 71% (MEDIUM) 00:40:27.550 --> 00:40:34.550 okay PNG case is the opposite people wanting NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 91% (HØY) 00:40:34.550 --> 00:40:43.600 or trying to employ the wage labor category as a means of cutting Social obligations NOTE Treffsikkerhet: 85% (HØY) 00:40:45.400 --> 00:40:53.100 and another way of talking about this is to talk about relations of dependence and we'll do that 00:40:53.100 --> 00:40:57.800 after the break okay so let's take a quick break.