Finding One's Footing
Hidden Abodes of Production in the Global Running Economy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19220882 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Hannah Borenstein (0000-0003-3066-9453, Florida International University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-13 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Anthropology of Work Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0883-024X • E-ISSN: 1548-1417 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/awr.70021 |
| OpenAlex | W7161144169 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 13 |
This article is part of the special issue ‘Racialization and The Gig Economy’ (AWR July 2026; 47(1)) edited by Shreya Subramani and Christien Tompkins. This article examines how Ethiopian women distance runners labor within—and reveal the contradictions of—the global running economy. Drawing on multi‐sited ethnographic research in Ethiopia, Europe, and the United States, I analyze how athletes navigate two intertwined value circuits: the mass consumer markets of the Global North, where running shoes become lucrative lifestyle commodities, and the elite competitive circuit, where a small number of East African athletes generate the spectacular performances that confer value on those commodities. Through attention to everyday struggles over access to “super shoes,” contract negotiations, prize structures, and the social life of footwear, I show how Ethiopian athletes' labor forms a hidden abode of production that is indispensable yet structurally obscured. Racialized discourses of “marketability,” gendered hierarchies of visibility, and the fetishization of African “natural ability” shape how value is extracted from athletes while limiting their ability to realize it as income, mobility, or security. By centering women's critiques, misapprehensions, and aspirations, the article demonstrates how gig‐like athletic labor in the transnational running economy is simultaneously empowering and precarious, illuminating broader dynamics of racial capitalism, technological change, and global inequality
Athletes · Elite · Ethnography · Everyday life · Limiting · Production (economics) · Value (mathematics) · Diversity and Impact of Dance · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society
| Highly cited | No |
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