Primarily on the basis of ethnographic case-studies from around the world, this volume links investigations of work to questions of personal and professional identity and social relations. In the era of digitalized neoliberalism, particular attention is paid to notions of freedom, both collective (in social relations) and individual (in subjective experiences). These cannot be investigated separately. Rather than juxtapose economy with ethics (or the profitable with the good), the authors uncover complex entanglements between the drudgery experienced by most people in the course of making a living and ideals of emancipated personhood.

Preface Chris Hann Introduction: Work and Ethics in Anthropology Chris Hann Chapter 1. The Meaning of "Free" Work: Service as a Gift, and Labor as a Commodity for Ni-Vanuatu Labor Migrants Rachel E. Smith Chapter 2. On the Meanings of Pleasure: Work, Ethics, and Freedom in the Hunza Valley Katherine J. L. Miller Chapter 3. Ethics of Work and Freedom in the Argentinean Andes: Value Creation and Virtuous Self-Crafting through Miniature Production Olivia Ange Chapter 4. Pursuing Pleasure at Work: Friendship and Precarity at North Indian Call Centers Akanksha Awal Chapter 5. More Than Money: Work as Self-Realization in Accra's Private Media Anna-Riikka Kauppinen Chapter 6. Capitalism, Overwork, and Polanyi's Dialectics of Freedom: Emerging Visions of Work-Life Balance in Contemporary Urban China Goncalo Santos, Yichen Rao, Jack L. Xing, Jun Zhang Chapter 7. From Freedom to Loaf to Freedom to Work: The Late Socialist Countermovement and Liberalization from Below in Yugoslavia Ivan Rajkovic Chapter 8. Max Weber's Heirs? Work and Ethics among Small Business Owners in East Germany Sylvia Terpe Chapter 9. Click for Work: Rethinking Freedom through Online Work Distribution Platforms Ilana Gershon and Melissa Cefkin Chapter 10. Unicorn-Makers Working for Freedom (and Monopolies): The Work of Venture Capital Investors Johannes Lenhard Chapter 11. Individuality, Teamwork and Work Processes in a Financial Services Center in Germany Magdalena Dabkowska Chapter 12. Writing Without Fear-or By-Lines: Freedom and Frustration among US American Ghostwriters Deborah A. Jones Afterword Gerd Spittler Index