Palestra com André Thiemann nos encontros do CANOA
Próxima terça-feira, dia 15/10/24, auditório do CFH Bloco F 7o. andar. Florianópolis, SC.
Faremos uma conversa navegando em espanhol, português e inglês, com mediação do Prof. Caetano Sordi.
Infrastructures of Value: The Relational Materiality of Capitalism and its Alternatives in Serbia’s Raspberry Value Chain
Abstract: By highlighting the relational materiality of seemingly immaterial value, “infrastructures of value” have much to offer for economic anthropology. Rather than forcing a binary either-or decision between the critique of political economy and the ontology of more-than-human assemblages, it is most fruitful – both academically and politically – to develop infrastructure as a symmetrical lens that enables new perspectives on capitalism and its supposed alternatives. I discuss this productivity of infrastructure studies mainly through the ethnographic case of the modularity and interplay of hard and societal infrastructures in Serbia’s raspberry fields, to grasp the surprising compatibility of socialist and capitalist projects with their seemingly incommensurable values. Looking at infrastructures of value directs our attention beyond the usual suspects that populate critiques of capitalism – such as capitalists and workers – to the undergirding work of non-human beings (roads, plants, economic models, and social science concepts) and experts (not only engineers, but also natural scientists and agronomists). Studying the infrastructuring of value means attending to often overlooked practices that materially shape value by generating relevant, larger wholes without being in full control. Untangling this meshwork may not offer clear visions for post-capitalist futures. But it offers glimpses of a present that is always already more-than-capitalist and charts new terrain for struggles and alliances.
