Work of Waiting blog post

In June Hee Kwon’s article The Work of Waiting, she discusses the concept of the transnational family which is a “…increasingly common contemporary social form…” (pp. 480). I thought that this form of living was interesting because of the fact that people going to different countries to obtain wealth and get jobs to send money back home is not a recent phenomenon, but it seems to definitely be linked to the rise of capitalism. The part that I thought was the most important was the “waiting” factor that many people have to endure while waiting for their loved ones to return and the isolation and fear that comes with that waiting. On the one hand, “…waiting and remittances represent a coeval embodiment, both promise and love, in support of a family’s future through a deferral of togetherness” (pp. 493) but there is also a fear that a person’s partner will ask for a divorce or have an affair. It is important to focus on both parties in these kinds of relationships because people need to know the effects that transnational labor migration has of the people who have to stay behind, which I often find is lost in these kinds of narratives.

Money and Intimacy Blog Post

Through “Money and Intimacy,” Zelizer takes up the notion of the three different lenses in which we can view social relationships: “hostile worlds”, “nothing but”, or “differentiated ties.” Zelizer notes that all of these are answers that have been given in social science but contends that the most appropriate way to view the relationship between social relationships and money is “differentiated ties.” As illustrated in “Money and Intimacy,” social relationships are not always hostile when combined with money, and these relationships are also more substantive than just economic transactions. With both of these then, it is harder to actually see them as ways that we should view relationships and money. 

I think an important take-away from the reading to help us understand how capitalism can affect social relationships was Zelizer’s citation of Clifford Geertz, who prescribed to the idea that money being involved in social relationships can actually make them more impactful or valuable. Within the scope of American late-capitalism, I think that using this viewpoint is important. Within late capitalism, we have seen and discussed the way that individuals are impacted by the economy and the fragile relationship they often have with the economy and their own bank account. Students now are choosing to take a leap of faith in a romantic relationship by investing what (usually) little money they have, and this undoubtedly is a testament to Geertz’s commentary.

Week 6.1 & 6.2 Social Relations and Capitalism

In any of the readings assigned this week, how are social relationships shaped by different aspects of capitalism? How do different configurations of social relationships shape specific capitalism economies, global or local?

Week 5.2 - Millenial Capitalism (Commarof)

What are the specific characteristics of "millenial capitalism" (also known as neoliberalism)? what are some changes in labor and consumption post the 1990s? How does spirit and religious ethic play into this new phase of capitalism?

Comparison: South African post-colonialism

While I was reading the “Occult Economies and the Violence of Abstraction” article, I thought that the events that took place in South Africa in the late 1990s would b1990slar to the Salem Witch trials in the 1690s. When I finished the article, I discovered that this wasn’t the case at all. In Salem, the majority of people accused of witchcraft were teenage girls, some were as young as five. In South Africa, most of the people accused and murdered for witchcraft were older women. The ages of the people killed and accused were not the only differences, for one, the reason behind the accusations in South Africa came from the fact that they were living in a post-colonial world. Another key difference was the fact that the accusations of witchcraft in Salem were very Christian in their origins, while in South Africa, accusations occurred because of the renewed appeal of enchantment, the occult, and the role of apartheid in their post-colonial society. The final key difference that I found when trying to compare these two instances of witchcraft accusations was the political and economic realities of both societies. While these accusations were occurring, South Africa was fresh out of apartheid and it still to this day functions as a post-colonial, capitalist country. Salem, on the other hand, was not a capitalist economy yet and functioned under a completely different set of economic rules. Overall, while both communities had “witchcraft” accusations and deaths, the context for these events is important to understand why they occurred.

Week 5. 1 - Weber's Spirit of Capitalism

What, according to Weber, is the "spirit of capitalism"? How is it described in this chapter? How does this spirit of capitalism differ from economic traditionalism?

Week 4.2 - Sweetness and Power, Consumption

What, according to Mintz, are some cultural and social factors that contributed to the rise of consumption of sugar in Britain?