Your Local Anthropologist with Elina

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Utopia of Play - an anthropological lens on the modern workplace - exploring play, work, and the worlds we can build when we stop to edit the script. Each episode weaves together personal experience, academic insight, and cultural analysis to trace how we resist invisible rules, reclaim agency, and begin to edit the scripts we’ve inherited. For anyone who's ever felt slightly out of step with the world's rhythm and wondered if that's a place worth pursuing.

  1. 12/17/2025

    Utopia of Play: after the dream

    In this season finale, we summarise all the ideas and themes explored throughout the season and land on the question: what is the power we are fighting for?

    38 min

  2. 12/10/2025

    Utopia of Play: a history of the commons - the new enclosures (part 2)

    In this episode of "Utopia of Play," Elina continues the history of the commons into present day and examines the new enclosures in the digital age. From the commons to cloud servers, explore how capitalism's relentless drive to privatise continues to shape our work and lives under the watchful eyes of platform algorithms. Keywords:techno-feudalism, digital panopticon, capitalism, enclosures, digital economy, algorithmic surveillance, privatization, dependency, digital estates, historical dynamics

    36 min

  3. 12/03/2025

    Utopia of Play: a history of the commons - the theft of the world (part 1)

    This episode delves into the intricate history of the commons and its enclosure, a pivotal transformation that reshaped social relations and laid the groundwork for modern industrial capitalism. This first part of a two-part series traces the global impact of these changes through British colonialism, highlighting the enduring legacy of enclosure in today's economy.

    44 min

  4. 11/26/2025 · BONUS

    BONUS Utopia of Play - we got union busting before GTA6 (Part 2)

    Elina explores the dynamics of the gift economy in the workplace, the challenges of union busting, and the nature of authority and solidarity within corporate structures. The stark contrast between reciprocal relationships and extractive practices, emphasises the importance of collective action and the need for workers to reclaim their power against oppressive systems. Keywords gift economy, union busting, workplace dynamics, power relations, solidarity, corporate culture, collective action, social bonds, reciprocity, labor rights

    23 min

  5. 11/19/2025 · BONUS

    BONUS Utopia of Play: we got union busting before GTA6 (part 1)

    This episode explores the concept of collective action through the lens of recent events at Rockstar Games, highlighting the contradictions within the culture industry and the threats posed by unionization to corporate power. The discussion delves into the dynamics of power, the role of the culture industry in pacifying dissent, and the significance of collective bargaining as a means of reclaiming agency for workers. Keywords collective action, union busting, corporate power, culture industry, labour rights, David Graeber, capitalism, worker agency, entertainment industry, social agreement

    19 min

  6. 11/12/2025

    Utopia of Play: the gift

    What would it look like if instead of owing 1s and 0s we built reputation and social capital through generosity and constant exchange of giving - of time, resources, care. If success was measured by what you gave rather than what you could keep. This is what is known as a 'gift economy'.

    21 min

  7. 11/05/2025

    Utopia of Play: rethinking debt

    Debt isn't just what you owe - it's an architecture of obedience. It colonises your time and keeps you trapped in b******t jobs. But in ancient societies, they knew permanent debt would destroy citizenship, so what can we learn from that?

    32 min

  8. 10/29/2025

    Utopia of Play: bodies on the altar

    We all live inside the cage of modern work culture, but that cage doesn't confine everyone equally. This episode asks: whose exhaustion counts as virtue, and whose is simply erased? Who gets to perform the sacrifice of overwork, and who is the sacrifice itself? From the masculine spectacle of Musk and Zuckerberg's 100-hour weeks to the corporate Cool Girl who laughs at sexist jokes to survive, we trace how the system recruits us - all of us - into performing our own oppression. We explore the invisible rules that were never designed for most of us to win, the sycophantic rituals that keep hierarchies intact, and why the WGA strike matters as proof that collective action works even when we're exhausted.

    31 min
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Utopia of Play - an anthropological lens on the modern workplace - exploring play, work, and the worlds we can build when we stop to edit the script. Each episode weaves together personal experience, academic insight, and cultural analysis to trace how we resist invisible rules, reclaim agency, and begin to edit the scripts we’ve inherited. For anyone who's ever felt slightly out of step with the world's rhythm and wondered if that's a place worth pursuing.

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