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Society for the Anthropology of Work
Welcome
The Society for the Anthropology of Work (SAW) is a section of the American Anthropological Association (AAA). Our goal is to advance the study of work, in the broadest sense, and to communicate that knowledge to the world.
SAW is especially committed to centering the contributions of scholars of color and to advancing an antiracist, decolonial anthropology of work. Stay tuned for information about SAW’s activities in 2023.
Announcements
Published: Dec 24, 2022
A regularly updated list of books for review in Exertions.
Published: Mar 06, 2022
SAW is now accepting nominations for its 2022 Book prize.
Published: Nov 08, 2022
Check out the SAW-sponsored events at the 2022 annual American Anthropological Association conference in Seattle
Published: Nov 02, 2022
SAW names Vanessa Díaz as the winner of its annual book prize, and recognizes books by Megan Styles and Daniel Tubb with honorable mentions.
Original Exertions
Published: Jan 18, 2023
Brie Berry (Ursinus College) reflects on the emotional burdens of reuse economies and the problem of waste.
Published: Feb 11, 2022
The recent media focus on whether Supreme Court justices mask in hearings shows all the ways in which Supreme Court justices are part of a workplace that shares many of the same dilemmas that other US workplaces facein the pandemic.
Published: Dec 15, 2021
A review essay examining two recent ethnographies by Erik Henningsen and Felix Stein.
Published: May 27, 2021
In the context of foreign-owned industrial farms in Brazil, the concept of the Plantationocene shows the racial dynamics of power and capital but obscures the fighting back of people, plants, and soils.
Published: May 28, 2020
How does refugee labor figure as both neoliberal resilience building and a hopeful attempt to find a viable livelihood?
Published: Nov 17, 2019
This photo essay both documents new forms of worker publicity and seeks to respond to the representational gaps that these forms have revealed.
Thematic Collections
Teaching Tools
SI
JF
ZS
Published: May 28, 2022
A reflection on teaching time and labor in the classroom, building Marx's insights on class struggles over the working day.
Book Reviews
SW
GS
Published: Jan 12, 2023
Book review of Wilfredo Alvarez's Everyday Dirty Work: Invisibility, Communication, and Immigrant Labor (2022)
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YS
Published: Jan 06, 2023
Book review of Christopher Krupa's A Feast of Flowers: Race, Labor, and Postcolonial Capitalism in Ecuador (2022)
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WJ
Published: Dec 30, 2022
Book review of Savannah Shange's Progressive Dystopia: Abolition, Antiblackness, and Schooling in San Francisco (2019)
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PJ
Published: Dec 28, 2022
Book review of Reena Kukreja's Why Would I Be Married Here?: Marriage Migration and Dispossession in Neoliberal India (2022)
