The Labouring Practices of Jobless Degree Holders: Rethinking Work, Productivity, and Labour in a Small Hill Town in North India

Abstract

This article critiques productivist and wage-centric conceptualisations of labour by analysing the labouring practices of jobless degree holders in the Indian Himalayas. I draw on ethnographic material to illuminate how young men developed forms of unpaid labour that centred skills associated with their educational credentials. Educated youth were able to produce positive reputations through their labour and made sense of their activities as making a social contribution to others. Yet their labouring practices also affirmed dominant modes of masculinity and reinscribed patriarchal gender relations. While jobless degree holders were excluded from the kinds of jobs they desired, I argue that they were able to yield status and respect by embodying competencies that white collar jobs demanded. Situating jobless degree holders within productive relations creates scope for illuminating how they attempt to assert their productive capacities in the face of long-term unemployment.