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- Convenors:
-
Stavroula Pipyrou
(University of St Andrews)
Daniel Knight (University of St Andrews)
Angels Trias-i-Valls (Regent's University London)
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- Discussant:
-
Paul Clough
(University of Malta)
- Formats:
- Workshops
- Location:
- Salle des thèses B16
- Sessions:
- Friday 13 July, -
Time zone: Europe/Paris
Short Abstract:
This panel addresses responses to economic uncertainty through everyday practice. We invite papers that explore strategies and techniques of coping with anxiety created by the current economic crisis through 'reflexive moments' in quotidian life.
Long Abstract:
Uncertainty can be found all around us as part of everyday existence. Some uncertainties have become so routine they may no longer be perceived as uncertain at all and surely not 'radical'. Attempts to define the current global economic crisis in terms of uncertainty have focused on macro-scale accounts of dramatic bailouts and incomprehensible numbers. Such grand definitions seem to have become complacent and over-ritualised.
Although radical responses to austerity are observable across Europe, for the majority of people the consequences of transnational economic turmoil have materialised in critical self-reflexion. Going beyond understanding economic crisis as a radical uncertainty in itself, it is suggested that everyday elements (such as debt) have a more defined character of radicality than often given credit. Careful consideration of expenditure, debt, as well as the consumption of everyday and luxury commodities has resulted in a series of 'reflexive moments' rather than radical decisions. Austerity requires critical contemplation of everyday activities which induces moments of anxiety and stress. Quotidian necessities, like going to the supermarket, have become moments of anxiety which significantly affect consumer habits and our relationship with markets.
This panel addresses economic uncertainty through 'reflexive moments' that capture the anxiety of everyday life. We invite papers that discuss techniques and strategies of coping with economic uncertainty on practical and quotidian levels.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 13 July, 2012, -Victoria Goddard (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the ways in which actors interpret and respond to economic crises. Based on ethnographic and documentary evidence relating to the 2001 financial crisis in Argentina, it draws on the pioneering work of Sutti Ortiz to reflect on current debates about crisis in the global economy.
Paper long abstract:
This paper explores the ways in which actors interpret and respond to economic crises. Based on ethnographic and documentary evidence relating to the 2001 financial crisis in Argentina, it draws on the pioneering work of Sutti Ortiz to reflect on current debates about crisis in the global economy.
Ortiz points out that 'economic men' are rarely in a position of holding sufficient and complete information, such that they might be able to make accurate predictions about the outcome of their actions. Furthermore, she states that: 'Individual decision makers straddle two supposedly separate spheres of action: the social world and the market world', both of which are integral to the explanation of behavior.
Her work addresses questions of choice and decision-making while avoiding the pitfalls of rational choice theory. She proposes a focus on the 'substantive study of decisions', whereby actors' behavior is understood to be influenced by social and political considerations as well as expectations of possible material outcomes to their actions - actions that microeconomics might judge irrational are found to be reasonable.
In the run-up to the 2001 Argentine crisis, information was fragmented and partial; social, economic and political circumstances were contradictory and the future opaque and unpredictable. The ethnography enables us to explore how different actors responded to the conditions pertaining prior to, during and following the crisis. In particular, the significance of a wide range of social and cultural factors inform actors' ideas about and responses to the crisis and the future.
Stavroula Pipyrou (University of St Andrews)
Paper short abstract:
The mercatini dell usato, second-hand clothes markets in South Italy, are contexts which reveal actors' creative response to the economic crisis. Locals manage the anxiety of maintaining appearance as they reflexively engage in a critique of the global situation through moments of self-irony.
Paper long abstract:
The mercatini dell usato (second-hand clothes markets) appeared in Reggio Calabria in 2010 as a direct result of the current economic crisis. Increasingly people are drawn to these markets where they can find cheap, second-hand but all the same designer clothes. As the economic crisis in Italy deepens, actors face the nagging pressure to maintain appearance. This paper addresses the fundamental quotidian anxiety to appear well-dressed, with an extensive and costly wardrobe whilst at the same time spend as little as possible.
I argue that the mercatini dell usato are ambiguous contexts which reveal the actors' creativity to respond to the economic crisis. As locals manage to cope with the anxiety of maintaining appearance they engage in a critique of the global situation through reflexive moments of self-irony. Actors in Reggio Calabria buy second-hand clothes more frequently than ever. By doing so, they contest the adequacy of established categories such as concealment, display and charity.
EJ Gonzalez-Polledo (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Paper short abstract:
This paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork in a Spanish steel plant to explore shifting perceptions of risk and uncertainty associated with temporalities of industrial work.
Paper long abstract:
This paper discusses perceptions of risk and uncertainty among workers and stakeholders in a Spanish integrated steel plant. The radical changes in ownership, capital distribution and economic policy that ensued industry restructurings in the context of Spain's democratic transition generated critical transformations that deeply reshaped Spanish steel production, altering the expectations of stability and progress associated with industrial livelihoods during industrial expansion.
Taking a historical perspective and focusing on specific responses to the current crisis, I argue that workers and stakeholders responses to this critical junction entail a significant shift in temporal sensibilities, resulting in an inversion of what Jane Guyer called 'punctuated time', a time structured around qualitatively different dates suspended between the promised effects of long-term economic policy and the series of past transformations that shaped steel production in the old industrial economies. Rather, a presentist logic appears to situate action in emergent, multiple temporal frameworks where risk and value are reconfigured in and for the present. Through these multiple intensive temporalities, I explore ideas of permanence, political dissent and sociotechnical progress associated with actors' perceptions of the uncertain future of industrial work.
Angels Trias-i-Valls (Regent's University London)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the anxieties and processes surrounding shopping in 'one pound' high street retail as a way of coping with (and narrating) economic uncertainty. It argues that 'one pound' buying is a form of 'delaying time' in the gradual acquisition of debt in commodity markets.
Paper long abstract:
One pound shops and retailers that offer discounted prices to the value of one 'pound' have ubiquitously settled as a shopping strategy in High Street streets in the UK and other parts of Europe. This paper explores the anxieties of calculating, spending and determining the value of everyday shopping in 'one pound' high street retail as a way of coping with economic un-certainty. It further compares ethnographic findings in London with similar ethnographic responses in Barcelona to examine differences in the construction of terms such as 'affordable', 'unnecessary', 'cheap' and the very notion of 'one pound' as a category of monetary value.
Taking an ethnographic comparative perspective to examine discussions about 'one pound' price fixing, the paper starts by asking as to what does actually constitute 'a pound buy'? And it argues that 'one pound' buying is more than conspicuous consumption, or a value we use when assessing the purchase of low-quality goods. I look at the 'one pound' as a heterocronic displacement, as a time-led narrative of risk-taking that is anchored in imprecise understandings of how we cope with economic decisions. One of such imprecise decisions, and thus an anxiety-inducing decision, is to delay 'spending' through buying for 'a pound'. I will contend that one pound buying is a form of 'delaying time', a kind of payment up-front that help us delay the precariousness of debt; a delay to help us find the time to appropriate the daily decision-making practices we make about 'spending' and 'having'.
Irene Sabaté (University of Barcelona)
Paper short abstract:
Even in times of crisis, households make their best to keep up their mortgage payments. Losing one’s home is not only undesirable, but also unthinkable, as mortgage debtors are stigmatized and tend to remain invisible. But is collective action counteracting this trend in present-day Spain?
Paper long abstract:
In a country of homeowners (or homeowners-to-be) like present-day Spain, it is commonplace to assume that, in times of economic hardship, households make their best in order to keep up their mortgage payments. This is seen as the crucial effort that secures a home, the material concretion of a family's wellbeing and stability. Failing to repay the mortgage is one of the most undesirable circumstances a household can face.
Indeed, the prospect of losing one's home does not only entail the inability to keep a shelter, but it threatens the home's broadest function as the spatial attachment of people's social inclusion (Kemeny 1992) and the main location of social reproduction (Carrier and Heyman 1997). This explains why, far beyond its undesirability, such situation is also constructed as something unthinkable. If it comes true, feelings of helplessness are aggravated by the stigmatization of mortgage debtors as losers in life.
Nevertheless, in front of the current wave of foreclosures, some voices are starting to be heard against their generalization among the weakest sectors of society. A vigorous social movement has arisen: the so-called Plataformas de Afectados por la Hipoteca are calling for mobilizations to prevent evictions, while they are suggesting a legal modification that would free already evicted households from their debts.
Drawing on the preliminary results of a research project on this matter, this paper considers the potentiality of collective action in order to render the inability to pay mortgages as a visible and, as a result, a 'thinkable' social problem.
Daniel Knight (University of St Andrews)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the anxiety of home repossession in Greece during the economic crisis. It further addresses the cultural significance of the 'house' which relates to notions of social capital and is infused with rhetorical potential.
Paper long abstract:
Through thirty years of socio-economic prosperity many Greeks acquired indiscriminate bank loans to facilitate their consumer needs. Loans were commonplace among all social sectors for everyday sustenance as well as luxury goods that served as markers of prestige in the local community. Since the onset of the economic crisis the repayment of loans has been a source of considerable anxiety as income becomes uncertain and personal debts accumulate. This has led to the greatest anxiety of all - the potential repossession of homes.
Drawing on fieldwork conducted in central Greece, this paper explores the anxieties of home repossession and interrogates the cultural significance of the 'house'. As some actors lose all worldly belongings they reflect on imprudent investments made during times of unyielding prosperity and ponder the fate of their greatest possession: the house. The house defines the actors' position in the world and reveals a deeper anxiety of losing nation, family and sovereignty. This contributes another layer to the local critique of global events.