The Relational and Redistributive Dynamics of Mutual Aid: Implications of Afro-Communitarian Ethics for the Study of Creative Work

Ana Alacovska*, Robin Steedman, Thilde Langevang, Rashida Resario

*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

Studies of non-standard, project-based forms of work prevalent in the creative industries have typically theorized the relational dynamics of work as a competitive process of social capital accumulation involving an individualistic, self-enterprising, zero-sum, and winner-takes-all struggle for favourable social network-positioning. Problematizing this prevailing conceptualization, our empirical case study draws on fifty in-depth interviews and two focus groups with creative workers in Ghana to show how relations of mutual aid, including elaborate efforts to live harmoniously with others, are intricately intertwined with economic practices of getting by and getting ahead. Our analysis abductively mobilizes insights from Afro-communitarian ethics to theorize the mutual aid we observed as a complex socio-economic practice of relational resource redistribution contingent on degrees of social proximity. In applying “a theory from the South” to foreground the role of moral obligations, social harmony, and hands-on practices of mutual aid in non-standard forms of work, we contribute a “decolonial critique” of relationality of relevance to scholars of creative work and business ethicists.
Original languageEnglish
JournalBusiness Ethics Quarterly
Number of pages40
ISSN1052-150X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16 Dec 2024

Bibliographical note

Epub ahead of print. Published online: 16 December 2024.

Keywords

  • Creative work
  • Creative industries
  • Social capital
  • Mutual aid
  • Afro-communitarian ethics
  • Relational resource redistribution

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