Paper short abstract:

In this paper, women’s voluntary labour put in the operation of a Soup Kitchen in Xanthi, Northern Greece is argued to form an activity mediated by religiosity and blurring the boundaries between the public and domestic spheres.

Paper long abstract:

Schematic distinctions between paid and unpaid labour associate the former with the public domain and notions of objectivity, while they view the latter as being diffuse and forming a matter of the private/domestic sphere. European austerity's implications, evident in the increasing unavailability of paid work and the institutionalisation of voluntarism, could be seen as unfortunate occasions for reconsidering the aforementioned bipolarities. This paper examines unpaid labour through ethnographic data gathered from the soup kitchen of Xanthi, Northern Greece. Operating under the authority of the Greek Orthodox church, offering 150 meals to the poor daily, and run by unemployed and pensioner volunteering women, the soup kitchen of Xanthi facilitates an exploration of unpaid and voluntary labour with reference to gender, class and religiosity. Specifically, the paper argues that the soup kitchen can be understood both as a collective (and public) household and as an opportunity for (re)entering a (private) labour market. Similarly, the labour put in the soup kitchen can be seen both as another example of (gendered) exploitation, and an opportunity for the performance of solidarity and the acquisition of (philanthropic) power. Finally, while voluntarism forms an epitome of unpaid labour, religiosity often becomes a vehicle through which voluntary work is organised and perceived to have a meaningful exchange. In light of Xanthi's soup kitchen, unpaid labour emerges as austerity's symptom and remedy at once, it speaks of both public and domestic matters, and it becomes facilitated through expressions of religiosity.