A ‘kinship anthropology of politics’? Interest, the collective self, and kinship in Argentine unions★

Abstract

In this article I argue for a kinship anthropology of politics, understood as a focus on the day‐to‐day imbrications of kinship and politics in a given political space, and the implications of that for the construction of political subjects. I describe kinship within shop‐floor‐level trade union delegations of state employees in Argentina in three different ways: first, languages of kinship mobilized to describe political allegiance and dispositions, especially inheritance; second, family connections in recruitment and activism; and, third, practices of kinning as relatedness. The combination of these three kinship modes creates the union as kin group, and enables it to act on the world politically in order to transform it.

‘We are not just a union, we are a family’ class, kinship and tribe in Zambia’s mining unions

“…Understanding how intersecting identities shape labour regimes has been key to recent texts that explore political economies through sociality (Bear et al 2015). Lazar (2018) argues for understanding unions as a kinship structure, where the intimacies of the workplace embody practices of kinning and support a 'mutuality of being' (Sahlins 2011). Lazar (2018) claims that unionism is motivated by commensality and sociability, rather than purely rational economic interests.…”

“…Lazar (2018) argues for understanding unions as a kinship structure, where the intimacies of the workplace embody practices of kinning and support a 'mutuality of being' (Sahlins 2011). Lazar (2018) claims that unionism is motivated by commensality and sociability, rather than purely rational economic interests. Collective action (strikes, protests and the like) therefore represents a flow from kinship into politics, rather than vice versa, with political action inspired by personal relationships and obligations.…”

“…More obtusely, the president's speech implied a categorical difference between North Western 'tribal' patterns of redistribution and hierarchy and those of the union 'family'. In contrast, we conceptualise both tribe and union through concepts of kinship, where actions are motivated by mutual inter-dependence, within self-defining hierarchies and identity structures (see Hickel 2015& Lazar 2018. The key claim of this article is that Zambian understandings of unionism evolved and continue to adapt through similar political economic process to those that shaped discourses of tribe.…”

“…This article writes into debates about the relationship between trade unions and the communities they operate within (Collins 2012;Lazar andSanchez 2019 &Mollona 2009). Unions' struggles to organise workers across identity cleavages have long been a concern of both academics and practitioners and in many African nations, these struggles manifest through accusations of tribalism (Chari 2004& Werbner 2018.…”

European social anthropology in 2018: an increasingly recursive public

“…In ‘Raising dead sons’, Carter () explores how mothers in New Orleans use familial idioms to organise against regimes of racial terror. Lazar () analyses how Argentinian labour unions actively work to constitute themselves not just as work units but also as kin units. Elizabeth Cooper (), drawing on fieldwork with those orphaned by AIDS in western Kenya, shows how reconnecting with natal kin becomes a way to reassert moral personhood amid massive social dislocation.…”