Otium
An Anthropology of Work, Freedom, and Common Ground in the Global Economy
A fresh, global critique of work and productivity, and free time under contemporary capitalism
Description
By constantly seeking higher yields of capital, today’s global economy changes how people around the world relate to time and productivity. Labor demands within the bounds of wage work accelerate, while people outside of wage work often remain marginalized and with too much unproductive time on their hands. In this ethnography of global labor, Gregor Dobler accompanies different groups of people in their attempts to find time autonomy and meaning in their everyday lives. He shows how moments of otium—moments when we feel free from the external constraints of work and capitalist definitions of productivity—can become productive in new ways. Otium leads individuals to new ideas and dreams, and becomes a source for critique and political renewal. Chapters focus on peasant work and unemployment in Northern Namibia; the pitfalls of free time on a Breton island shaped by early retirement; the gendered effects of combining care work and wage work in Swiss middle-class families; and the elasticity of the academic labor of writing and research in the US. Weaving together these ethnographies of work, leisure, and care, Otium presents a political anthropology of the possibilities for human freedom under capitalism, and advances post-work debates from a global perspective.
Gregor Dobler is Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at Freiburg University, Germany, and a Director of the Freiburg Institute for Basic Income Studies. He has published widely on issues of economic and political anthropology, with a regional expertise in Northern Namibia and rural France.
Reviews
“A fascinating book on a timely and important topic that makes a compelling and unique contribution to debates about work and its future.”
- Liz Fouksman, King’s College London
“Focusing on otium makes a truly original contribution to economic anthropology and to anthropology more broadly. By describing those moments when we relate to our surroundings without immediate purpose and without the need to be productive, Dobler enables us to think about creativity, critique, leisure, and degrowth in new ways. Here’s to many islands of otium for all of us.”
- Judy Wajcman, London School of Economics
“Focusing on otium makes a truly original contribution to economic anthropology and to anthropology more broadly. By describing those moments when we relate to our surroundings without immediate purpose and without the need to be productive, Dobler enables us to think about creativity, critique, leisure, and degrowth in new ways. Here’s to many islands of otium for all of us.”
- Felix Stein, University of Amsterdam
“Gregor Dobler analyses the critical potential of leisure. In his ethnographic study, he persuasively demonstrates that time spent without strictly prescribed work can enable us to discover how unsatisfying our daily working routines are in light of our true potentials. From a global perspective, this marvelous, impeccably written book reveals that otium is a potent standpoint of critique: we learn that a good society requires not less labor, but rather labor that allows our capacities to flourish - a must-read for anyone interested in the future of critical theory.”
- Axel Honneth, Columbia University