The Night Shift

The nadir point is sometimes reached between 4 and 6 in the morning and represents the lowest level of activity of the human body during the 24-hour life cycle. During that time, I often felt like I was losing my balance and my whole body was getting tired. It was strange, physically and mentally, as if the ground was running from underneath my feet, as if I would ‘hear’ my body ‘screaming’ that it wants to lie down, but I couldn't stop, because I had to carry crates and bags, most of the time with a client in my shadow. I have heard and felt what nadir is for the first time in my life during the nightshift as a night ethnographer.
NOTE: This episode is also available to listen to in Romanian: Tura de noapte.
If you like what you heard in this episode and wish to find out more about the topic here are a few resources to watch and read:Film: Nightworkshop on VimeoArticle: While Others Sleep (2020). DOI doi.org/10.21428/1d6be30e.fb029d9bBlog: Voices from Backstage (2020). DOI: doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.13110635.v2 Web: Nightworkshop | A project set up to research nightwork communities in urban spaces
Follow me @tweetsfromdrjc | @anightworksop
Dr. Julius-Cezar MacQuarie is a nocturnal anthropologist trained at Central European University, concerned with the invisibility of migrant nightshift workers from discussions on today's capitalism. He set up the NIGHTWORKSHOP project to research night work communities in urban spaces.