Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Exploration of Gens

    “Gens: A Feminist Manifesto for the Study of Capitalism” explores how the ancient Roman concept of Gens influences our modern understanding and application of gender, class, and capitalism. The authors chose a feminist school of thought to approach capitalism because feminism challenges representation of normalcy in the economic domain. They explore how the economy and capitalism is taken for granted as it as viewed as an inherent truth of the universe:
“The economic is repeatedly and relentlessly imagined as a singular logic that is derived from a pre-made domain and expresses itself in historical and cultural realities. That “the economy” is an accepted and relatively bounded focus of study demonstrates the taken-for-grantedness of such already made worlds, characterized by practices and standardizing logics that are assumed to cohere in them.”

I am of the opinion that societal structures arise from material conditions rather than idealism. Assuming this to be the case, how did capitalism come to be synonymous with environmental destruction, racism and sexism?
    The authors argue that capitalism employs conversion devices in order to achieve the global scale:
“We also argue that formal models emerge from diverse lifeworlds and are not simply manifestations of singular core logics. Instead, they are generated by particular social and historical experiences, and, through laborious translation and conversion work, they often become “global.” In so doing, they mediate objects that come to appear abstracted and cut off from their origins. The key power of these models in contemporary capitalism comes from their ability to erase particularity and sever objects, people, and resources from their contexts (Tsing forthcoming; Bear 2013).”

I find this to be a super interesting concept. According to this idea, conversion devices indirectly disconnect commodities from their origins, thus exploiting women, the impoverished, and workers in newly-industrial nations. If conversion devices were not employed and consumers had better knowledge of the origins of their commodities, might they consume differently?

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