On the notion of exchange within the voluntary work circuit: insights from pop music festivals

This paper offers reflections on exchange relations in markets by exploring the concept of voluntary work. In the article we focus on the connection between market value and forms of ‘unpaid’ work that rely on social relationship among people and we explore this relation within the context of pop music festivals in the UK. Indeed, this is the context in which we identify an interesting recruitment pattern where volunteers are offered a specific ‘exchange deal’ during the provision of their labour. Starting from the assumption that voluntary labour is a kind of labour rich in social components and interwoven with an explicit or implicit goodness, we draw from the notion of ethical value to explore how this ‘exchange of goodness’ generates economic value showing the Janus face of volunteering. We argued that it is precisely this ambiguity rooted in volunteering, as Work and as Gift that allows the festival profit making industry to engender a circuit of value which involves production, exploitation and consumption of voluntary work.