Gift Exchange Theory Research Articles

Deities and spirits in the ideas of the Khanty of the Surgut Ob region (based on materials from 2002 to 2017)

The research is aimed at the characteristics of deities and spirits in the traditional beliefs of the Khanty of the Surgut Ob basin (the territory of Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk, and Nefteyugansk Districts of KMAO — Yugra and Uvatsky District of the Tyumen Oblast). The common traits are identified and differences between the categories of deities and spirits clarified; the transition of personified spirits to the category of deities is shown, as well as the transfer of the forgotten deities to the category of spirits. The sources for the research are represented by publications of the scientists of the late 19th — early 21st c., as well as by the author’s field materials collected in 2002–2017 amongst the Surgut Khanty on the rivers of Lyamin, Pim, Tromyogan, Agan, Bolshoy and Malyy Yugan, as well as on the Demyanka River (the right-bank tributary of the Irtysh River). The comparative-historical approach is employed in this work. Concerning the study of the communicative nature of the relationships between the man and supernatural beings, the concept of M. Salinz (1999) on reciprocal relations and the theory of gift-exchange of M. Moss (2011) are used. Also used are the theoretical and practical exploratory work of E.S. Novik (2004) and E.P. Martynova (2021, 2022), who observed a close link between the traditional perceptions of the peoples of Siberia and the reciprocal and gift-exchange relationships between the human world and the characters of traditional beliefs. Traditional beliefs of the Surgut Khanty include the narratives of a series of supernatural beings who influence all aspects of human life and environment. The author proposes the revision of the intension of the term ‘spirits’ frequently used by the majority of researchers to denote the whole variety of the characters of the traditional beliefs of the Khanty of the Surgut Ob basin. Taking into account the social significance, characteristics, functions, as well as the terminology of the Surgut Khanty, the author proposes to return to the division of their traditional characters into two categories — the łungx (“deities”) and the spirits (“demons” “the evil spirit”), inclu-ding kułet, yelek-kanlekh otet, kaltet, potchek, por ne, mengk, yuli, ves etc. Despite the difference of the characteristics of the personages of both categories, the landscape-geographical and morphological characteristics of the places of living of the dei-ties (yimung togi) may have features similar with places of living of the spirits (atym togi). In the study, specifics of the reciprocal and gift-exchange relationships between humans and characters of the categories of deities and spirits are recorded.

Promote Internally or Hire Externally? The Role of Gift Exchange and Performance Measurement Precision

ABSTRACTManagers often face the choice between promoting an internal employee and hiring an external candidate. Using an interactive experiment, we examine the drivers of managers’ promote/hire decisions and internal employees’ behavior before and after those decisions. Consistent with gift exchange theory, we find that employees exert costly effort to increase the chance of being promoted, and they raise their effort level as the promote/hire decision becomes imminent. Managers respond by promoting those who exert high effort, despite employees’ inferior ability compared to external candidates. Results suggest that managers view employees’ past effort as both a gift to reciprocate and a signal of their future effort. Moreover, we find that managers are more likely to promote internally rather than hire externally under a less precise performance measurement system, and this result is driven by managers who observe low employee output. Finally, we find that total effort is significantly higher when managers promote internally versus hire externally.

Decent work in traditional tourism destinations: Tourism Agenda 2030 perspective article

ObjetivoAnalizando las tendencias y deficiencias del debate actual sobre la promoción del trabajo digno en la hostelería y el turismo, este estudio responde a los recientes llamamientos para avanzar en la mejora del bienestar de los empleados, proponiendo elementos de una estrategia basada en la productividad e inserta en una dinámica circular que vincule la productividad, la calidad del servicio, la rentabilidad y la calidad del empleo para mejorar el bienestar de los empleados del turismo con vistas a alcanzar el Objetivo de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) 8 sobre trabajo digno.Diseño/metodología/enfoqueBasándose en recientes trabajos empíricos sobre la teoría del intercambio de regalos, este artículo de perspectiva presenta un posible escenario que debería estimular el debate entre los estudiosos y los responsables políticos locales sobre cómo se puede lograr el trabajo digno y la calidad de vida en los destinos turísticos tradicionales. Esto llenaría un vacío en el debate actual, que se centra en formas alternativas de turismo cuantitativamente marginales, para superar los problemas inherentes al turismo basado en el crecimiento.ResultadosEsta contribución propone una estrategia de desarrollo basada en la productividad y respaldada por una política de regulación de incentivos dirigida a los empresarios que prestan servicios turísticos en destinos turísticos de masas, promoviendo la calidad del empleo para aumentar la productividad y mejorar la calidad del servicio y, en última instancia, la rentabilidad.Originalidad/valorEste breve artículo propone una nueva perspectiva sobre la promoción del trabajo digno en los destinos turísticos tradicionales basada en la teoría del intercambio de regalos y analiza el alcance de la investigación esencial para apoyar un desarrollo basado en el escenario descrito por un modelo circular.

Portraits, Gifts and Exchange Valuation in Xlendi Bay, Malta

This article explores gift exchange and valuation based on a fieldwork experience in Xlendi Bay, Malta, during which the author gave strangers portrait drawings of themselves for free. Participants systematically gave back more than what was expected (money, drinks, etc.). What does this case study say about the valuation and performativity of (portrait) gifts? By subjecting classic anthropological theories of valuation and gift exchange to an experimental methodology and ethnographic data, this short article shows that monetary value is constructed through a series of aspects specific to each social interaction. In this social setting, several components play a role: (1) the creation of intimacy through timing, corporeal positioning, the author's gaze and the act of giving itself; (2) the potential of identification in the portrait; (3) the visibility of the act of production and the subjective valuation of the gift receiver; (4) the blurred boundaries between commodity and gift; and (5) positionality.

Statistical analysis of the social aspect of organ donation in determining brain death in the Republic of Kazakhstan

The article discusses the social problems of donation in the Republic of Kazakhstan when estab- lishing irreversible brain death in potential donors. The purpose of the article is to identify the social problems of organ donation in the Republic of Kazakhstan when establishing irreversible brain death by conducting statistical and comparative analysis. The article’s theoretical bases are the concepts of “altru- istic relations”, “gift economy”, “gift exchange theory”, “inheritance”. The data for the statistical analysis and research were provided by RSE on PCV “Republican center for coordination of transplantation and high-tech medical services” of the Ministry of health Of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the database of the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan. So, based on the information above, the number of people on the waiting list, including those who died due to the lacking donor organs, the number of people who became donors after being diagnosed with brain death, and the number of living people who became donors are revealed. Moreover, evaluation of the significance and the role of the donor whose brain death is detected, has been given for society, people’s lives on the waiting list. Furthermore, the degree of interaction between recipient and donor in case of concluded brain death, the reasons for the low number of donors after the brain death in the Republic of Kazakhstan were discussed. In addition, the article considers the importance and benefits of multi-organ donation for society. Key words: irreversible brain death, multi-organ donor, «Eurotransplant» model, coordination cen- ter, waiting list, potential donor.

Exploration Into Donor-Recipient Relationship After Living-Donor Liver Transplantation Using Gift-Exchange Theory.

AIMThis qualitative study aimed to explore the donor-recipient relationships following living-donor liver transplantation.METHODA 1-time cross-sectional qualitative interview was conducted with liver transplant recipients (n = 17) and living liver donors (n = 11) post-transplant. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed manually by using thematic content analysis.RESULTSThe mean age of the recipients and the donors was 54.41 ± 8.0 (range 39–71) and 36.6 ± 7.69 (range 28–57) years, respectively. Following the interviews, 2 overarching themes emerged: (1) Became care providers, and (2) differentiation in relationships after transplantation. A total of 3 sub-themes were explained under “differentiation in relationships after transplantation;” feeling guilty, becoming closer and more intense owing to a feeling of indebtedness, and putting some distance owing to a feeling of indebtedness.CONCLUSIONThe study focused on the reciprocation stage according to gift-exchange theory. During reciprocation, although recipients expressed positive feelings such as gratitude, closer relationships, and special bonds; they also reported negative feelings like guilt and indebtedness resulting in a purposeful distancing from their donors. Most donors understood what the recipients felt, but they wanted their relationship to return to normal. Married female donors had worse experiences, such as divorce or a weakened marital relationship after donation.

Giving as Loving: a requiem for the gift?

The fruit borne of the debate concerning the economy of the gift carried out between Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Marion in the 1990s continues to ripen into the present with publications like Anthony Steinbock’s lucid It’s not about the Gift: From Givenness to Loving (2018). I challenge and qualify the fundamental argument of this book in dialogue with two principal French proponents of givenness, Michel Henry and Jean-Luc Marion, against whom Steinbock promotes his strategy of the gift. While Steinbock wishes to displace our relation to the other from giving to loving, I suggest that the discourse of givenness remains the very movement of loving as such. Steinbock occupies a position reminiscent of, but not reducible to, gift-exchange theory, rooted in reciprocity between lover and beloved, whereas I am inclined to move near to the terrain of the unconditioned gift in which loving need not entail reciprocity. My position is not so much a counterclaim as it is a clarification of the inextricable unity between giving and loving. The final section contends that the I enlarge my horizon when I give myself because I do not grasp the other, nor do I expect or obligate the other’s givenness in return; rather in my growth beyond my own self-interest, I allow the other to be given just as the other likes to be given.

Badi‘iyyat in Praise of the Prophet: Gift Exchange Theory

this study approaches badi‘iyyat in light of gift exchange theory by Marcel Mauss. It tries to solve the problem of badi‘iyyat definition and their goal. The value of the study lies in the new practical way of applying this theory on badi‘iyyat, which will pave the way for future studies to apply the same theory on other literary texts. It begins with exploring different notions of understanding badi‘iyyat and their goal. The study proposes a definition of them. Then, it moves to apply the gift exchange theory on three of badi‘iyyat to observe their potential to be a reward or gift, the textual aspects that poets have added to enhance their badi‘iyyat as a reward or gift, and how the poets have increased the value of badi‘iyyat by employing metapoetry and mythic concordance. The study then reaches its conclusion.

Gift-Exchange Theory and Development Research: Toward Making and Remaking Alternative Perspectives in International Development

Gift-Exchange Theory and Development Research: Toward Making and Remaking Alternative Perspectives in International Development

Geven om geld

This inaugural address presents a theory of gift exchange within market societies. Social scientists tend to see the market and the gift as two mutually opposed spheres of exchange. Market exchange is anonymous and businesslike; the economic value of goods and services is measured explicitly in a market transaction and needs to be compensated right away by means of a monetary equivalent. Gift exchange, by contrast, is associated with relatively intimate relations like friendships or family ties. The value of gifts is usually not measured explicitly, although the expectation exists that the gift is reciprocated in the future. Instead I argue that both exchange system should not be seen as mutually exclusive. Within markets, a variety of gifts is permanently being exchanged between business partners. In four different ways, this rich gift exchange serves to stabilize inherently instable markets. They contribute to creating trust relationships as well as loyalty between transaction partners, which remedies uncertainty and tames uncontrolled competition; they assist consumers in valuing new goods; moreover they can make disreputable exchange in goods with a strong symbolic or ethical value more legitimate.

Exploring the Motivational and Behavioral Foundations of External Technology Experts’ Knowledge Sharing in Collaborative R&D Projects: The Contingency Role of Project Formalization

High‐tech manufacturers increasingly rely on the knowledge contributions of external technology experts (ETEs), who contribute to collaborative R&D projects on behalf of suppliers. Many scholars have considered knowledge sharing in R&D collaborations from a firm‐level or project‐level perspective and focused on formalization as a potential remedy. While individual supplier employees at the operative level make the decision to share critical knowledge, the individual‐level perspective in literature on knowledge sharing in collaborative R&D projects is virtually nonexistent. Because knowledge sharing in collaborative R&D is a largely discretionary act on behalf of the supplier employee, personal motivations rather than inter‐firm relationship elements (e.g., network position or dependency) become the primary determinant of one’s sharing behavior. Abstracting from or ignoring these motivations of supplier employees in studies on collaborative R&D may obscure important insights for R&D managers. This study is an important first step in providing the empirical evidence needed to uncover the motivational and behavioral foundations for ETEs’ knowledge sharing in a collaborative R&D setting. Building on theories of gift and social exchange, this article identifies customer stewardship and distributive fairness as two important personal motivations of ETEs to share knowledge. Project formalization is considered as a key contingency condition. Analyzing survey responses of 186 ETEs, a multilevel regression‐based moderated‐mediation analysis of direct and indirect effects shows that customer stewardship predicts an ETE’s knowledge sharing behavior under (very) low levels of project formalization, and distributive fairness predicts knowledge sharing behavior under medium to high levels of formalization. Together, the results provide R&D project managers who aim to leverage external knowledge contributions with valuable insights that have been obscured in past firm‐level collaborative R&D studies.

On the external economics of coal mining heterarchies

In recent years, the economic crisis has engulfed underground coal mining, which is caused both by the high level of costs characteristic and by the unfavorable situation in the coal markets in the form of established low prices for coal products. Bankruptcy has befallen even world-class companies. At the same time, in the 1990s, Ukrainian practice was enriched by the experience of corporate development of a mine field, related to the interaction within a single mine of a private firm that develops its own part of mine field with own equipment, and a state-owned enterprise that provides the company with paid transportation and winding cargo services, ventilation, drainage and energy supply till to sanitary services of personnel. As a result the traditional hierarchical order of management, when one firm owns the mine and services it, has changed to a heterarchical one. Despite the fact that the practice of corporate development of the mine field received a certain scientific generalization, the externalities, inherent in the appearance of the hierarchies, were ignored. Positive externalities in microeconomics are described in the form of Malinvaud's example, on the basis of which a study was later carried out to investigate the possibility of increasing the efficiency of two government agencies interacting in a single project (the theory of gift exchange as the embodiment of the externalities market).The aim of the paper is to translate the scheme of the example of Malinvaud to the practice of interaction between two firms, involved in coal mining in one mine. Subject of research is to define optimal conditions for the functioning of two firms, which activity generate the effect of externalities.The results and conclusions of the paper are: the use of heterarchies in the mining industry makes it possible to achieve equilibrium and Pareto optimality, contributing to an increase in the economic efficiency of enterprises, operating in conditions of increased unprofitable risks.

The Gift of Volunteering

Foreign aid to southern Africa has triggered the growth of a nonprofit sector that increasingly provides welfare and social support for needy populations. However, largely absent from research on this sector are substantive analyses of the contribution of voluntarism and interpersonal exchange to broader welfare development and social cohesion. This paper employs theories of gift exchange to analyze volunteer practices and localized interpretations of volunteering within the welfare structure of post-colonial Pretoria, South Africa, and Lusaka, Zambia. The analysis of ethnographic data pertaining to within- and between-group volunteering reveals particular patterns of “gifting,” which enable many southern Africans to overcome social divides, to strengthen existing bonds, and to fill gaps in the provision of basic public services. We conclude that volunteering succeeds as a form of welfare distribution precisely because of how actors frame their efforts as a gift—ensuring enduring social-relational dynamics and continued social service delivery.

Making community through the exchange of material objects

Classic community studies have identified several ways in which material exchanges lie at the heart of kinship relationships and informal networks of support in working-class communities. This article re-examines some key emergent issues in light of social shifts that have occurred in East Manchester, a locality drastically reshaped by de-industrialization and numerous phases of urban regeneration. The ethnography explores how a group of older women made community in these neighbourhoods, which they perceive to be fragmenting through their extended families and friendship networks. The women continued to engage in strategies to support and care for each other and sustain social ties through the exchange of material objects. The analysis suggests that theories of gift exchange and material culture offer useful resources to reinvigorate community studies literature by identifying the ways in which gifts and objects remain central to sustaining kinship and friendship relationships.

Refugees welcome: Arrival gifts, reciprocity, and the integration of forced migrants

Against competing political theories of the integration of immigrants, we propose to reframe the relationship between the populations of host countries and arriving refugees in terms of a neo-Maussian theory of gift exchange. Using the example of the European refugee crisis of 2015 and the welcoming attitude of significant parts of German civil society, we argue that this particular situation should be understood as epitomizing the trend toward internal transnationalism. Increasingly, the “international” is becoming part and parcel of the “domestic” sphere. Since Marcel Mauss was concerned with the question of how separate, culturally different communities can establish ties of solidarity and cooperation between each other, we use his work to answer key questions about the relations between international refugees and native citizens in their home countries: What are the expectations underlying gift-giving in the context of welcoming refugees? Should refugees feel obliged to repay the arrival gifts? How should we deal with the normative ambivalence of gift-giving and its potentially humiliating effects on those who receive gifts but are unable to reciprocate? Most importantly, how does gift theory help us to clarify the very concept of integration which is at the heart of recent debates on the ethics of immigration?

Structural Position of the Priest in Gift-Exchange Systems

In this paper, we argue that the priest has a unique structural position to initiate and promote gift exchange. Gift exchange is an important mode of economic integration, one that prevents both cutthroat competition and a parasitic dependence on a centralized hierarchy. In dwelling on gift exchange theory, we demonstrate why the promotion of gifts is largely suppressed nowadays: Marcel Mauss’ second imperative of the gift, that is, the obligation to receive gifts, becomes inoperative under neoliberal capitalism. We rely on Marshall Sahlins’ and Chris Gregory’s analyses to argue that gift giving can be de-blocked by introducing the position of the ‘excluded participant’ who takes part in the gift exchange system but is known to have no self-interest. His presence enables other participants to accept gifts without being afraid of falling into personal bondage. We analyze the Christian theological ideas of the function of the priest in reaching the conclusion that priests are predisposed to take the position of the ‘excluded participant’. On one hand, the priest in persona Christi acts neither on his own behalf nor for his own self-interest, while on the other hand, he remains a member and governor of the community. Historical sources confirm that generating the gift exchange has always been the key activity of priests in Christian communities.

The Gift Economy of Direct Transnational Civic Action: How Reciprocity and Inequality Are Managed in Religious “Partnerships”

AbstractHow does religion help facilitate civic action in transnational contexts characterized by material inequality and spatial separation? Short‐term mission (STM) travel, a popular activity among U.S. religious groups, exemplifies a recently emerged form of transnational civic action characterized by face‐to‐face, decentralized, pragmatic activity. Our research analyzes how participants in STM‐based relationships manage inequality while pursuing an ideal of partnership across distance. We match data from a mixed methods study of Arizona congregations that produce STM travel with interview data from foreign religious organizations that host STM travelers in El Salvador. We engage gift exchange theory (GET) to show how a discursive repertoire combines with organized gift exchange practices to manage inequality and produce partnership in STM‐based relationships. Our data provide evidence of a unique cultural process, the spiritualization of reception, which emerges during gift reciprocation. This process converts unequal material gifts from foreign hosts into spiritual understanding among STM travelers, stabilizing status indebtedness that could threaten a partnership. This research increases knowledge of STM travel, shows how gift exchange structures can facilitate transnational religious partnerships, and suggests ways to use GET to understand transnational civic action in general.

Worktime control and work stress: the moderating effect of self-comparisons and social comparisons

Perceived work-related stress has increased notably in recent years, reducing individuals’ well-being and increasing organizations’ and economies’ costs. This study focuses on worktime control as a key approach to reducing work stress, as the extant research on its effects reports inconsistent results. The study argues that comparisons play a major role in how work stress, conceptualized as effort-reward imbalance, occurs. Ordinary least squares is used to test hypotheses with a sample of 1721 employees from Germany to determine whether employees’ prior worktime control and employees’ referents’ worktime control affect the relationship between worktime control and work stress. Results show that (1) worktime control is negatively associated with the experience of work stress, (2) employees’ prior worktime control moderates the relationship between worktime control and work stress, and (3) there is no moderating effect of employees’ referents’ worktime control. The results are discussed in light of gift-exchange theory and related empirical findings.

“You can’t eat love”: “Getting by” in South Africa’s informal sexual economy

Transactional sex and sex work are defined as mutually exclusive in both popular parlance and scholarly debates in South Africa, and yet this qualitative study based in Johannesburg suggests that the lines between these practices are blurring under neoliberalism, as poor women are forced to rely extensively (and sometimes exclusively) on sexual exchange to support themselves and their families. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of gift exchange, the paper argues that the historic institutions of trust and reciprocity upon which transactional sex relies are threatened by the precarity instigated by neoliberalism. As a result, poor women’s habituses have been destabilized. They respond by buttressing symbolic distinctions that are no longer supported by structural scaffolding and incorporate imaginary identifications of an idealized time when South Africa had full employment and stable gender customs, as melancholic loss. The faltering of the symbolic economy of gift exchange affords women both increasing freedom and precarity. Overall, the project contributes to our understanding of how relations between intimacy and the economy are reconfigured in the face of structural crisis and how this shapes peoples’ subjectivities.

Science as Gift: NGO-Supported Informal Science Education for Rural Migrant Children in Contemporary China

ABSTRACTThis article explores informal science education (ISE) for rural migrant children in the Chinese context. Many of them are restricted from the public schools due to political exclusions enforced by the household registration system and their economic standing. As a result, they are often enrolled in quasi-legal migrant children schools with limited access to education in science. In response, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have stepped in to implement ISE projects. Applying gift exchange theory to organized non-profit undertakings, I examine three types of ISE programs and their ways of reinforcing a neoliberal logic of competition, selfresponsibility and self-governance.