Editorial Work and the Peer Review Economy of STS Journals

In this paper, we analyze the role of science and technology studies (STS) journal editors in organizing and maintaining the peer review economy. We specifically conceptualize peer review as a gift economy running on perpetually renewed experiences of mutual indebtedness among members of an intellectual community. While the peer review system is conventionally presented as self-regulating, we draw attention to its vulnerabilities and to the essential curating function of editors. Aside from inherent complexities, there are various shifts in the broader political–economic and sociotechnical organization of scholarly publishing that have recently made it more difficult for editors to organize robust cycles of gift exchange. This includes the increasing importance of journal metrics and associated changes in authorship practices; the growth and differentiation of the STS journal landscape; and changes in publishing funding models and the structure of the publishing market through which interactions among authors, editors, and reviewers are reconfigured. To maintain a functioning peer review economy in the face of numerous pressures, editors must balance contradictory imperatives: the need to triage intellectual production and rely on established cycles of gift exchange for efficiency, and the need to expand cycles of gift exchange to ensure the sustainability and diversity of the peer review economy.

Volunteerism in fandom

An examination of the topics of labors of love, the gift economy, and the digi-gratis economy related to volunteerism within fandom platforms highlights issues related to monetary compensation, enjoyment of labor, and relationships between fan labor and the job market.

Rembrandt’s Art as Gift

This chapter examines Rembrandt’s embrace of gift exchange over his career and analyzes the works he created to function as gifts among favored patrons, collectors, and intimates. Rembrandt’s gifts to important patrons and other figures in the 1630s largely conform to the conventions and courtesies expected of gift transactions. From the late 1640s through the 1660s, as Rembrandt’s primary supporters shifted to liefhebbers, gentlemen-dealers, and cultured members of the burgher class, however, he intensified his engagement and became more experimental with gift giving. Through highly distinctive prints designed to circulate as gifts, Rembrandt enlisted the gift economy to nurture ties with his inner sanctum, harnessing the ethics of gift giving to cultivate a unique position in the Dutch art world.

Poetry in Action: From the Gift Economy to Corporate Philanthropists

The role of patronage has been widely examined in studies in different disciplines, from the arts to sociology. This paper adopts a novel interdisciplinary approach to investigate the relationship between patronage, corporate philanthropy, and the economic (and non-economic) returns for donors. In an ancient Latin literature perspective, the case study analyzes the literary works of Horace, master poet and noteworthy exemplum of cursus honorum and Latin patronage. Highlighting some pivotal poetic lines (from a managerial standpoint), the study proposes a patronage and gift economy framework as the building blocks for corporate philanthropy and corporate social responsibility actions. While patronage fosters the development of economic relationships, even if in a non-linear and multi-faceted way, corporate philanthropy promotes relationships aimed at achieving positive returns for the donor, be they economic or meta-economic, instantaneous or delayed. Although more difficult to capture through the usual cash inflow and outflow measurements, corporate philanthropy and corporate social responsibility express an elusive but valuable economic relationship. Therefore, this study offers some managerial insights for non-profit corporations and those industries – for example, sports – where the economic returns may not be a central element of the investment. Finally, it is noteworthy that Horace is, among other things, an author of great modernity for his tension, articulated and complex, towards the active events of his time. His rediscovery, not only in literary studies, has allowed to add to other disciplines the analysis of an intellectual, divided between art and current life. Keywords: Latin literature, patronage, corporate philanthropy, gift economy, non-financial performance

The “Lucky Money” That Started It All—The Reinvention of the Ancient Tradition “Red Packet” in Digital Times

In August 2020, President Trump attempted to ban WeChat, indicating the growing impact of the most widely used social medium in China. WeChat enjoys a monthly active user base of 1.2 billion, but the Internet giant’s story started with a humble function, “Red Packet.” The function of Red Packet paved the way for WeChat to intelligently integrate into the Chinese financial sphere. This study examines the cultural, economic, and relational implications of the digital reinvention of traditional red packet gifts, and monetary giving that represents good luck and well wishes in festive situations. Drawing upon Mauss’ conceptualization of gift economy within the context of contemporary China and the art of social relationships, “ guanxi,” the author closely examines Tencent’s annual report and conducts semi-structured interviews to study WeChat Red Packet (hereafter WCRP) gifting. This article concludes that (1) the obligatory feeling of guanxi management renders WCRP giving, receiving, and reciprocity compulsory practices; (2) WCRP facilitates “immediate reciprocity,” in which, instrumental guanxi may be produced and dissolved instantaneously; (3) the phenomena of social comparison and social hierarchy are mirrored in virtual groups; (4) with platformed sociality and monetizing connectivity, WCRP paved the way for alternative economic practices within Chinese authoritarian capitalism; and (5) WCRP contains characteristics of a personalized gift and materialist commodity.

Elicüra: The “Feasts of Merit” Shawl of the Chakhesang Naga of Northeast India

Feasts of Merit are an important social way of life among different tribes in the world, especially in Southeast Asia. In Northeast India, the different Naga tribes were well-known for this practice before the advent of Christianity. However, among the Chakhesang Nagas, after the advent of Christianity, the practices of giving feasts continue to this day with minor modifications in terms of rituals and taboos while the symbolic meaning and values behind this practice are retained. The Feasts of Merit, among them, are intricately connected to their worldview, whereby the feast-givers distribute their wealth in terms of sacrificing mithun, buffalo, and/or other livestock, in consecutive feasts, and receiving in return a higher social rank and the right to wear a special shawl (“Feasts of Merit” shawl), variously known as hapidasa, elicüra, and thüpikhü and the right to adorn the house with special architecture (mithun and buffalo wood carvings on the wall, and to put up a horn at the pinnacle of the house front). This article discusses the “Feasts of Merit” shawl and how it is connected intrinsically to the ethos of the tribe, and in doing so it states that the Chakhesang feasts can be looked upon as gift economy.