Event overview
'Container Economies in a Mediterranean Megaport'- with Hege Høyer Leivestad, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University
Part of Anthropology spring term seminar series.
While central to the world economy, the shipping container is also a seductive symbol of global trade, representing the illusion of friction-free flow of goods. This presentation takes the container and its anonymized cargo as a starting point and looks at how ‘container economies’ are constituted on the ground in a European port. By engaging with the everyday work of commodity circulation, I suggest an anthropology of logistics that is ethnographically attentive to the ‘how’ of supply chain capitalism. The empirical focus of this talk lies on the Spanish Port of Algeciras Bay, a so-called transshipment hub at the Strait of Gibraltar used by global shipping lines a transit point along global maritime cargo routes. Focusing on the labour of logistical intermediaries in the port, I demonstrate how profit is both generated and questioned among workers in a context where the shipping container operates as a local currency. I argue that while the shipping industry foregrounds container mobility as measure of success and high production, these boxes of cargo furthermore sustain local labour hierarchies and are central to power negotiations.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 12 Feb 2020 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm |
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