The Meaning of “Free” Work: Service as a Gift, and Labor as a Commodity for Ni-Vanuatu Labor Migrants
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Repository DOI
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Authors
Smith, Rachel https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6838-1319
Abstract
Rather than accept formal commodity-like contractual definitions of ‘free’ labor, this chapter reflects on the ambivalence in Mauss’s concept of “prestations totales” (‘total services’) to reconsider the ‘voluntary character’ of work. It discusses Vanuatu’s colonial and unfree labor history, as well as the impact of overseas labor migration on attitudes to work in contemporary Vanuatu. It shows how the meaning and value of ‘free work’, both in terms of working without payment, or working autonomously, depends on the worker’s standpoint within their social and political relations, and how they confront their social obligations.
Description
Title
The Meaning of “Free” Work: Service as a Gift, and Labor as a Commodity for Ni-Vanuatu Labor Migrants
Keywords
labour, work, gift, contract, Vanuatu
Is Part Of
Work, Society and the Ethical Self: Chimeras of Freedom in the Neoliberal Era
Book type
Publisher
Berghahn Books
Publisher DOI
ISBN
1800732252
9781800732254
9781800732254
Rights
All rights reserved