ANTHROPOLOGIES OF UNEMPLOYMENT New Perspectives on Work and Its Absence Edited by Jong Bum Kwon and Carrie M. Lane ILR PRESS AN IMPRINT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS ITHACA AND LONDON Copyright © 2016 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. First published 2016 by Cornell University Press First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2016 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Kwon, Jong Bum, 1971- editor. | Lane, Carrie M., 1974- editor. | Container of (work): Lane, Carrie M., 1974- Limits of Iiminality. Title: Anthropologies of unemployment: new perspectives on work and its absence / edited by Jong Bum Kwon and Carrie M. Lane. Description: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016016169 ISBN 9781501704659 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 9781501704666 (pbk.) Subjects: LCSH: Unemployment—Social aspects. | Unemployed—Social conditions. | Economic anthropology. Classification: LCC HD5708 .A58 2016 | DDC 331.13/7—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016016169 Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu. Cloth printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Paperback printing 1098765432 1 Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Jong Bum Kwon and Carrie M. Lane 1. The Limits of Liminality: Anthropological Approaches to Unemployment in the United States 18 Carrie M. Lane 2. The Limits to Quantitative Thinking: Engaging Economics on the Unemployed 34 David Karjanen 3. Occupation 53 Jong Bum Kwon 4. The Rise of the Precariat? Unemployment and Social Identity in a French Outer City 71 Jo Jin P, Murphy 5. Contesting Unemployment: The Case of the Cirujas in Buenos Aires 97 Mariano D. Perelman 6. Zones of In/Visibility: Commodification of Rural Unemployment in South Carolina 118 Ann E. Kingsolver 7. Youth Unemployment, Progress, and Shame in Urban Ethiopia 135 Daniel Mains 8. Labor on the Move: Kinship, Social Networks, and Precarious Work among Mexican Migrants 155 Frances Abrahamer Rothstein 9. Positive Thinking about Being Out of Work in Southern California after the Great Recession 171 Claudia Strauss 10. The Unemployed Cooperative: Community Responses to Joblessness in Nicaragua 191 Josh Fisher vii Epilogue: Rethinking the Value of Work and Unemployment 212 Caitrin Lynch and Daniel Mains Notes 229 Bibliography 241 Notes on Contributors 265 Index 269 INTRODUCTION Jong Bum Kwon and Carrie M. Lane In the cartoon by Jimmy Margulies depicted below, which ran in U.S. newspa­ pers in 2014, we see a baffled-looking, middle-aged white man sitting beneath a version of the American Idol logo that has been revised to read “American Idle” Holding a newspaper announcing that jobless benefits will not be extended for U.S. workers, the man, whose shirt identifies him as a representative of the “long-term unemployed,” says, “We’ve been renewed for another season.” On one level, the cartoon sends a straightforward, if humorous, message about the con­ tinuing plight of the American unemployed, whose situation seems unlikely to improve any time soon. On other levels, the cartoon offers us a great deal more to consider. For instance, what should we make of the choice to represent the long-term unemployed as a white male in a white-collared shirt, clothing traditionally associated with middle-class occupations? If the character pictured were a white woman, for instance, the cartoon’s message would be reshaped by long-standing assumptions about the appropriate role of white women relative to paid employ­ ment in the United States. Some might brand it a sexist commentary on the inability of women to keep up in the labor force; others might celebrate the car­ toon for bringing attention to the plight of unemployed females. Alternately, attaching the caption “American Idle” to an image of an African American male could be perceived as racially inflammatory in light of pejora­ tive stereotypes of the work ethic and employability of black American men. Yet that version would arguably be more accurate, as African American men not only have been historically marginalized from employment but also continue to 1 2 INTRODUCTION FIGURE 1. “American Idle.” Reprinted with permission from Cagle Cartoons, Inc. experience the highest rates of chronic unemployment. With that in mind, we might now see the choice to represent the jobless with a white man as a politi­ cally charged attempt to position white American men as the primary victims of the recession. We could continue this thought exercise indefinitely. What if the charac­ ter were Asian American or Latina, teenaged or elderly, clothed in a turban or a military uniform? How would each of those variables change the meaning and impact of the cartoon? Even in its current form, in order to make sense of the cartoon, to get the joke, one must know at least a little bit about a lot of things— the high unemployment levels the United States has experienced since the Great Recession; the political controversy around extending government benefits for the jobless; the expectation that white American men should be able to find paid, secure employment; even the popularity of reality television programming. Without context, the punch line loses its punch. These sorts of “what if” exercises help us see and make sense of the unexamined assumptions embedded in the media representations we encounter every day. One of the major strengths of the anthropological approach to studying culture is precisely this exercise of situating the seemingly mundane and taken-for-granted in its wider context. INTRODUCTION 3 To understand what unemployment means, why it happens, and how it feels, we need to consider it within its appropriate context. And that, in short, is what this volume does. The anthropologists whose work is featured herein provide the context— historical, political, cultural, and economic— for analyzing unemploy­ ment from a variety of different angles across a variety of different settings. One of the key contributions of this volume is the ethnographic portrayal of unemployment across multiple national contexts— in Argentina, Ethiopia, France, Mexico, Nicaragua, and South Korea as well as the United States—providing important vantage points for cultural critique (Marcus and Fischer 1986). These cross-cultural comparisons highlight the value of ethnographic inquiry for understanding broadly political-economic circumstances, disruptions, and transformations. The diversity of these case studies extends beyond regional or national varia­ tions. The ethnographic subjects discussed herein are young and old, male and female, immigrant and native-born, of varying races and socioeconomic back­ grounds. Some continue to look for paid employment; others face such struc­ tural and social obstacles that being unemployed has, in many respects, become their daily work. Yet all are unemployed or underemployed, and thus— despite the many differences between them— they share the experience of economic, cul­ tural, and even bodily disenfranchisement. In all cases the consequences of unem­ ployment are long-lasting, affecting social and familial relationships, personal wealth, self-identity, and mental and physical health well after re-employment. People do not simply recover; their worlds do not just return to normal. But the ways in which their worlds change, and the ways in which they remain the same, vary dramatically across contexts. Juxtaposing ethnographic accounts of unem­ ployment across a variety of regions, professions, and populations also allows us to identify common themes and experiences without reducing the significance of the intersection of gender, class, age, race, and citizenship in specific cultural contexts. The Great Global Recession This volume was conceived after the Great Recession (2007-2009), a worldwide economic crisis that led to unprecedented levels of unemployment in developed and developing nations alike. The recession s official end in June 2009 did not quell anxieties in most affected countries, nor did it signal job recovery. The U.S. unemployment rate, for example, was 9.5 percent at the end of the recession. It peaked to 10 percent in October 2009, when over fifteen million people were still unemployed.1 Among that number, 6.1 million were jobless for twenty-seven 4 INTRODUCTION weeks or more, the highest proportion of long-term unemployment on record.2 The average duration of unemployment was more than nine months. In Decem­ ber 2015, six years after the end of the recession, the unemployment rate returned to the pre-recession level of 5 percent in December 2007 (which is considered “full employment,” a concept built around the idea that some people’s joblessness is society’s gain). At that point the number of long-term unemployed was still at three million.3 In other words, even though the Great Recession is technically in the past, its impact is still being felt every day by millions of people in the United States and throughout the world. The Great Recession affected the quality of employment as well as its quantity. A United Nations report found that “across the globe, many workers who did not lose their jobs were forced to accept reduced working hours as well as lower wages and benefits. In developing countries, a large number of workers lost their jobs in export sectors and were forced into informal and vulnerable employment else­ where” (United Nations DESA 2011, 28). Even those fortunate enough to remain employed during this period experienced a profound unraveling of many of the benefits generally associated with formal employment.