Review of “Thiefing a Chance. Factory Work, Illicit Labor, and Neoliberal Subjectivities in Trinidad” by Rebecca Prentice (2015)

Abstract

The ethnography Thiefing a Chance analyzes the daily reality of the workers of a textile company in Trinidad, influenced by the processes of restructuring and global relocation like many other peripheral Fordist sites. The ethnography describes the internal labor relations and the contradictions and tensions they face in their daily work. In particular, the text focuses on the illicit ways workers use to gain extra benefits. The author questions, first, whether these workers are passive victims of the neoliberal expansion or they are actives agents of their own destiny. And, second, whether these illicit activities should be taken either as acts of complicity with the capitalist logic or acts of resistance. The theoretical themes touch upon current economic anthropological debates.