Date of Submission
Spring 2020
Academic Program
Anthropology
Project Advisor 1
Gregory Morton
Abstract/Artist's Statement
"One day I feel like I am on vacation for free, and the next I feel like I am being exploited as free labor." On bio-farms in Sicily, volunteers temporarily offer their labor in return for hospitality from permanent local hosts. The relation between hosts and volunteers is structured by obligation rather than capital. In this work I explore the function and formation of this obligation. My analysis focuses on the land/earth, work, and hospitality as three sites within which volunteers' and hosts' obligations are produced and contested. I then trace the limits and potentials of obligation-based exchange to sustain solidarity and non-capitalist collectivity.
Open Access Agreement
On-Campus only
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Johnson, Eva, "Controversies of Obligation: Biofarm Hosts, Volunteer Guests, and the Challenge of Reciprocal Exchange" (2020). Senior Projects Spring 2020. 147.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2020/147
This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.
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