Beyond “Rabota” and “Otdykh”: Indeterminacy in the Wild Berry Industry in Karelia

Abstract

How do contemporary Russian workers, caught up in the mechanisms of the seasonal labor market, conceptualize work and leisure? Fieldwork among seasonal berry pickers in Karelia shows how commercial picking, through which some Russians make a living, escapes from the field of definitions available to them: “rabota” as employment and “otdykh” as time free from employment. The article attempts to find out what causes such classificational indeterminacy. The author shows how these causes are not only to be found in the specific organization of seasonal labor relations, but also the opposition of commercial picking to “rabota” and “otdykh” on the basis of the hierarchy of experiences of labor relations from the past and present. In such a case, the definition of “rabota” and “otdykh” is almost always defined through images of wage labor. Such images are linked in this article to what might be called a mode of perception of the mode of production. The author concludes that the dichotomy of “rabota” and “otdykh” becomes an instrument of vernacular critique through which workers navigate the labor market.