Talking Shop Session 4: The Gift and Autonomous Social Movements

dublin | education | event notice Thursday June 23, 2011 15:31 by Moira - Campaign for Old City Arts Building

The Talking Shop is a new discussion forum organised by the Campaign for Old City Arts Building, Dublin Housing Action and the Provisional University, but open to everyone. Our fourth session looks at the gift and autonomous social movements. 27th June 7:00 – 9:00pm Seomra Spraoi

This talking shop will explore non-market relations, in the form of gift/reciprocal exchange as a means of moving away from social interaction conditioned by the logic of the market and monetary gain. The giving of a gift, which need not be material but can be a contribution to a group, creates an obligation for reciprocation with the receiver being expected to return something of equal or greater value later on. This doesn’t mean that it becomes about self-interest rather it can lead to the construction of a social fabric of relationships, between people who in other cirumstances would not have interacted. Two questions we will explore are, To what extent do social movements use reciprocal exchange ? and, Is it possible to escape from the colonisation of market imperatives?

For some background people might like to watch one or both of the following videos by David Graeber:

Human Economy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Myy4eeIp8o

and

We are already Communists

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcK7rkajHKE&feature=related