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.

中文翻译：

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失业学位持有者的劳动实践：重新思考印度北部一个小山镇的工作、生产力和劳动

本文通过分析印度喜马拉雅地区失业学位持有者的劳动实践，批判了生产力主义和以工资为中心的劳动概念化。我利用人种学材料来阐明年轻人如何发展出以与他们的教育证书相关的技能为中心的无偿劳动形式。受过教育的青年能够通过他们的劳动产生积极的声誉，并将他们的活动理解为对他人的社会贡献。然而，他们的劳动实践也肯定了男性气质的主导模式，并重新铭刻了父权制的性别关系。虽然失业学位持有者被排除在他们想要的工作之外，但我认为他们能够通过体现白领工作所需的能力来获得地位和尊重。