Conclusion

Boredom, the conclusion argues, is not just a matter of time but also a matter of one’s place amid the global production of desire. Boredom registers the inability of displaced persons to move toward valued opportunities. This ethnographic observation allows for a dramatic rethinking of both boredom and alienation in the global economy. The boredom that characterizes globalization does not drift back and forth over a bourgeoisie, as it did in earlier times, but instead grinds down on those who are alienated from global circuits of production and consumption. The challenge posed by globalism’s deeply felt sense of alienation, ultimately, is to get the displaced caught up in global flows of opportunity.