Economic Anthropology

Author: Chris Hann
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745699391
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Book Description
This book is a new introduction to the history and practice of economic anthropology by two leading authors in the field. They show that anthropologists have contributed to understanding the three great questions of modern economic history: development, socialism and one-world capitalism. In doing so, they connect economic anthropology to its roots in Western philosophy, social theory and world history. Up to the Second World War anthropologists tried and failed to interest economists in their exotic findings. They then launched a vigorous debate over whether an approach taken from economics was appropriate to the study of non-industrial economies. Since the 1970s, they have developed a critique of capitalism based on studying it at home as well as abroad. The authors aim to rejuvenate economic anthropology as a humanistic project at a time when the global financial crisis has undermined confidence in free market economics. They argue for the continued relevance of predecessors such as Marcel Mauss and Karl Polanyi, while offering an incisive review of recent work in this field. Economic Anthropology is an excellent introduction for social science students at all levels, and it presents general readers with a challenging perspective on the world economy today. Selected by Choice as a 2013 Outstanding Academic Title

Economies and Cultures

Author: Richard R Wilk
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429974892
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 376

Book Description
This book introduces economic anthropology to countries where it has never been taught before, including Vietnam, China, Brazil, Argentina, and Italy. It identifies the fundamental practical and theoretical problems that give economic anthropology its unique strengths and vision.

Economy and Ritual

Author: Stephen Gudeman
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1785335197
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 214

Book Description
According to accepted wisdom, rational practices and ritual action are opposed. Rituals drain wealth from capital investment and draw on a mode of thought different from practical ideas. The studies in this volume contest this view. Comparative, historical, and contemporary, the six ethnographies extend from Macedonia to Kyrgyzstan. Each one illuminates the economic and ritual changes in an area as it emerged from socialism and (re-)entered market society. Cutting against the idea that economy only means markets and that market action exhausts the meaning of economy, the studies show that much of what is critical for a people’s economic life takes place outside markets and hinges on ritual, understood as the negation of the everyday world of economising.

Anthropology and the Economy of Sharing

Author: Thomas Widlok
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317369696
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 259

Book Description
This book examines the economy of sharing in a variety of social and political contexts around the world, with consideration given to the role of sharing in relation to social order and social change, political power, group formation, individual networks and concepts of personhood. Widlok advocates a refreshingly broad comparative approach to our understanding of sharing, with a rich range of material from hunter-gatherer ethnography alongside debates and empirical illustrations from globalized society, helping students to avoid Western economic bias in their thinking. Anthropology and the Economy of Sharing also demonstrates that sharing is distinct from gift-giving, exchange and reciprocity, which have become dominant themes in economic anthropology, and suggests that a new focus on sharing will have significant repercussions for anthropological theory. Breaking new ground in this key topic, this volume provides students with a coherent and accessible overview of the economy of sharing from an anthropological perspective.

A Handbook of Economic Anthropology

Author: Carrier, James G.
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1839108924
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 560

Book Description
This timely Research Agenda examines the ways in which public–private partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure continue to excite policy makers, governments, research scholars and critics around the world. It analyzes the PPP research journey to date and articulates the lessons learned as a result of the increasing interest in improving infrastructure governance. Expert international contributors explore how PPP ideas have spread, transferred and transformed, and propose a range of future research directions.

The Allure of Capitalism

Author: Emil A. Røyrvik
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 0857451863
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Book Description
The “managerial revolution,” or the rise of management as a distinct and vital group in industrial society, might be identified as a major development of the modernization processes, similar to the scientific and industrial revolutions. Studying “transnational” or “global” corporate management at the post-millennium moment provides a suitable focal point from which to investigate globalized (post)modernity and capitalism especially, and as such this book offers an anthropology of global capitalism at its moment of crisis. This study provides ethnographically rich descriptions of managerial practices in a set of international corporate investment projects. Drawing also on historical and statistical data, it renders a comprehensive perspective on management, corporations, and capitalism in the late modern globalized economy. Cross-disciplinary in outlook, the book spans the fields of organization, business, and management, and asserts that now, in this period of financial crisis, is the time for anthropology to yet again engage with political economy.

Explorations in Economic Anthropology

Author: Deema Kaneff
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 180073140X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Book Description
At a time of rising global economic precarity and social inequality, the field of economic anthropology offers solutions through the study of local and contextualized economic practices. This book is made up of an exciting collection of succinct essays authored by leading scholars primarily from the field of economic anthropology, but also featuring contributions from sociology and history. The chapters engage with debates at the cutting edge of research on the topics of Eurasia, the anthropology of postsocialism and the embeddedness of economic practices.

People, Money and Power in the Economic Crisis

Author: Keith Hart
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1782384685
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 245

Book Description
The Cold War was fought between “state socialism” and “the free market.” That fluctuating relationship between public power and private money continues today, unfolding in new and unforeseen ways during the economic crisis. Nine case studies -- from Southern Africa, South Asia, Brazil, and Atlantic Africa – examine economic life from the perspective of ordinary people in places that are normally marginal to global discourse, covering a range of class positions from the bottom to the top of society. The authors of these case studies examine people’s concrete economic activities and aspirations. By looking at how people insert themselves into the actual, unequal economy, they seek to reflect human unity and diversity more fully than the narrow vision of conventional economics.

Economic Anthropology

Author: Society for Economic Anthropology (U.S.)
Publisher: Lanham, MD : University Press of America ; [S.l.] : Society for Economic Anthropology
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 456

Book Description
Developed from the inaugural conference of the Society for Economic Anthropology, this collection of papers reflects an interdisciplinary dialogue and a joint interest in a critical review of the various approaches used to examine the organization and transformation of economic systems.

Gifts and Commodities

Author: Chris A. Gregory
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Book Description