Second Year Hon. Mention: Human Resources: Livestreaming as a Form of Biolabour in Neoliberal Society

ANTH 2100, Global Capitalism, Culture, and Conflict. CD: Jillian Fulton-Melanson.

Abstract

“Human Resources: Livestreaming as a Form of Biolabour in Neoliberal Society” is an interesting and erudite formal essay. The author carefully describes how life-work balance has been overwhelmed in neoliberal societies, resulting in both an “emotional famine” for the average worker, and the rise of livestreaming, where emotional intimacy has been commoditized and become transactional. By Livestreaming, the artist can monetize activities as banal as eating on camera to satisfy the deprived workers wishing for some kind of connection with another.

Though the Livestreamers (a largely female community) rely on donations, they are mostly bound by restrictive contacts and see little actual profit from their emotional labour. In this well-researched and convincing paper, the author has done well to note that even as patriarchal and capitalist norms constrain them, the gendered Livestream community is deeply subversive. Just as accurately though, an excellent conclusion underlines that Livestreaming is unlikely to fundamentally challenge a neo-capitalist order that knows the price of every human activity, but the value of none of them.