Anthropology of Economy Network Events
FUTURE EVENTS
Series Radical Spotlights
A series organized by the Society for Economic Anthropology (SEA) in the AAA and the Network Anthropology of Economy in the EASA
The series will kick-off on March 6th and spotlight critical research in economic anthropology across the globe twice a year.
Radical Spotlight: The Economics (and Politics too) of Care
October 30th, 2024, 4-5.30pm Central European Time
Zoom meeting link
Theme
Care raises questions about labour, value, biography, kinship, and responsibility that are at the heart of economic anthropology. Looking at and through care reveals ideologies and practices of what a society is and ought to be, and who should be responsible for its reproduction. This concerns economic ideologies about state, kinship or market relations and the respective inequalities in accessing care and providing it. These inequalities concern human relations to nature and the various classifications of gender, race, sexuality, and other forms of differentiation and rule.
Care is an indicator of radical changes of the contemporary. Some of these are the financialization and marketization of healthcare on a global scale; value frontiers that render some care labour paid and some unpaid; demographic changes such as ageing and urbanization; familial ideologies, and the availability of ever more expensive medical treatments that create new hopes for longer lives.
How are changing care practices anchored in economic ideologies that offer scripts about who is deserving of or responsible for care? How do people ‘price’ the value of care and life itself, and struggle over economic and other values when organizing care? How does care feature in forms of violence in and of social reproduction? And more generally, what does economic anthropology have to offer to our understanding of the economics of care?
These are only some of the questions that the three speakers of this seminar will engage with. The aim of this seminar is to stimulate a conversation and our thinking about the directions and questions that are central to the economics of care.
Speakers
Erdmute Alber, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Bayreuth, Germany
Caring for future life chances in highly diverse kinship networks: Changing inter-generational responsibilities in moments of economic transformation
Catie Coe, Canada Research Chair of Migration and Care, Carleton University, Ottawa
The commodification of care: Does paying for elder care matter?
Elijah Adiv Edelman, Professor of Anthropology, Rhode Island College, United States
Necrocapitalism and the value of life: Radical care and queer and trans vitalities in a time of disposable life
Organization
Andreas Streinzer, University of St. Gallen and Institute for Social Research Frankfurt and Erik Bähre, Leiden University
Thanks to the “Moralizations of Inequality” project at the University of St. Gallen for the financial support to the seminar.
PAST EVENTS
Network meeting
September 4th 2024, Online
Anthropological Dialogues on Capitalisms and Fascisms continues
The Anthropological Dialogues on Capitalisms and Fascisms continue this spring, with three sessions planned.
This collaboration is organised by the Anthropology of Economy Network and the Anthropology of Fascisms Network, the European Network for Queer Anthropology and the Anthropology of Labour Network. We grouped together to investigate the current conjuncture of fascist tendencies and their relation to capitalist social reproduction.
Wed, March 27th 15.30 - 17.00 CEST
Challenging far-right anti-capitalism? Imaginaries, practices, critique. A conversation with Agnieszka Pasieka
Organized by Andreas Streinzer (AOE)
Thu, Apr 18th 16.00 - 17.30 CEST
Violent Borders: deterrence, detention, and deportation in times of extremes
Organized by Sabine Strasser
Mon, May 20th 16.30 - 18.00 CEST
Concluding discussion: Considering new avenues researching capitalism and fascism for critical anthropology
Chaired by Maddalena. Gretel Cammelli (ANTHROFA)
Workshop Capitalism, Fascism, and the Environment
Workshop of the EASA Network Anthropology of Fascisms (ANTHROFA), EASA Anthropology of Economy Network (AoE)
July 3rd and 4th 2023
Venue: University Cologne, Global South Studies Center (GSSC)
Convenors: Maddalena Gretel Cammelli, Michele Fontefrancesco, Ognjen Kojanić, Juliane Müller, Ingo Schröder, Andreas Streinzer, Sabine Teryngel
Global Meeting Economic Anthropology, June 30 and July 1, 2021
The EASA Anthropology of Economy network held a virtual event on June 30 and July 1 2021 to showcase, network, and to share experiences, themes, and knowledge in and about economic anthropology. The global meeting for economic anthropology was an attempt to make visible the breadth and depth of research in the sub-discipline today. The meetings were an exploration. Those asked to speak provided lead-ins into regional knowledges and contemporary themes, intended to spark conversation amongst the audience in a spirit of exploring, engaging, and sharing.
Thanks to the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of St. Gallen, and the EASA for supporting the event.
June 30th, 14:15–16:45 (CEST): Associations, Networks, Trajectories
Keynote: Biao Xiang (Max-Planck-Institute for Social Anthropology Halle)
Lead-Ins:
Cynthia Isenhour (University of Maine)
Mariya Ivancheva (University of Liverpool) and Dan Hirslund (Københavns Universitet)
Federico Neiburg (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro)
Patrick Neveling (Bournemouth University)
Jovia Salifu (University of Ghana)
Mengqi Wang (Duke Kunshan University)
July 1st, 14:15–16:45 (CEST): Themes, Moves, Possibilities
Lead-Ins:
Jiazhi Fengjiang (University of Edinburgh)
Verónica Gago (Universidad de Buenos Aires)
Keisha-Khan Perry (Brown University, Providence)
Ivan Rajković (University of Vienna)
Aditi Saraf (Ashoka University, New Delhi)
Tomás Undurraga (Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Santiago de Chile)
The Moral Dimensions of Economic Life: Cross-Regional Perspectives
EASA Anthropology of Economy Network Workshop:
March 22nd, 2019 Pavilion Room, St Antony’s College, Oxford
Organizers: Nicolette Makovicky (University of Oxford), Jörg Wiegratz (University of Leeds), and Dimitra Kofti (Panteion University)
Forming the culmination of three previous workshops dedicated to the moral dimensions of economic life in Eastern Europe, Russia and Eurasia (Oxford, 20-21/03/2019) and in Africa (Uppsala and Cologne, 14-15/06/2018 and 8-9/11/2018), this workshop sought to take a first step towards fostering cross-regional, comparative dialogue about the moral dimensions of capitalist restructuring and crisis, the dynamics of their contestation by citizens and social movements, and the historically grounded 'globality' of capitalist moralities. This one-day workshop followed straight after the end of “The moral dimensions of economic life in Eastern Europe, Russia and Eurasia” workshop (Oxford 20-21/03/2019) where discussions included themes on religion, work and production, entrepreneurship, trade, household and debt and brought out discussions about approaches on moral economy, on political economy and about doing ethnography in the context of global capitalism.
The convenors introduced the theme and reasoning behind the workshop, and this was followed by three sessions which focused around the key questions ‘why, what, and how’ to approach moral economy research from a cross-regional and global perspective. The format of the workshop was discussion-based; the invited speakers presented short position papers grounded in issues which were responded by a panel of discussants and the audience. There were 25 participants from all career levels working on different regions. The majority were anthropologists, but the workshop also drew participants from the fields of sociology, regional studies, and political science. We aim to publish our discussions in the form of a Journal Theme Section. The meeting was co-funded by the University of Leeds, by the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies and by the EASA Network Funding.
Roundtable I: Why Cross-Regional Research?
Challenge: What does a cross-regional focus on the morality-economy nexus offer to our understanding of global capitalism? What claims and theoretical advancements are we after and why?
Respondents: Dr Peter Bloom (Open University), Dr Theodora Vetta (University of Barcelona), Dr Jeremy Morris (University of Aarhus), Dr Carna Brkovic (University of Goettingen)
Chair: Dr Tijo Salverda (University of Cologne)
Roundtable II: What Cross-regional Research?
Challenge: What social phenomena (structures, actors, and practices) are ripe for comparative, cross-regional moral economy research? What can be gained from studying the moral-economic phenomenon of concern across countries and regions?
Respondents: Dr Tijo Salverda (University of Cologne), Clare Richardson-Barlow (University of Leeds), Dr Zuzana Burikova-Sekerakova (Masaryk University Brno), Dr Elisabeth Schimpfoessl (Aston University)
Chair: Dr Theodora Vetta (University of Barcelona)
Roundtable III: How Cross-Regional Research?
Challenge: How should we undertake such a project? What models and methodologies show potential? What are methodical issues to consider?
Respondents: Dr Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins (Aberystwyth University), Dr Veronika Siegl (University of Bern), Dr Chris Swader (University of Lund).
Chair: Dr Peter Bloom (Open University)
15:30 – 16:30 Final Discussion and Closing Statement
Dr Dimitra Kofti (Panteion University); Dr Nicolette Makovicky (University of Oxford)
Dr Jörg Wiegratz (University of Leeds)
Deservingness - power, morality and inequality in contemporary Europe and beyond
EASA Anthropology of Economy Network Workshop
27-28 October 2017, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna
Convenors: Jelena Tosic and Andreas Streinzer
The EASA Anthropology of Economy Network held its 2017 workshop at the University of Vienna, convened by Andreas Streinzer and Jelena Tosic. The theme of "Deservingness" focused on the transformations of power, inequality and morality in contemporary Europe and beyond. The core approach was to trace such assessments of deservingness in three ethnographic fields - refugees and migration, debt and austerity, and the privatization of care and welfare.
The convenors introduced the theme in an introductory talk and on the following one and a half days, ten papers were presented on deservingness under the three themes. All in all, there were 20 participants from all career levels between PhD students and professors. Furthermore, the workshop drew participants from neighbouring fields such as political anthropology, feminist anthropology and the anthropology of migration.
Besides the highly stimulating intellectual engagement and work on the ethnographic papers and conceptual approaches towards deservingness, the participants enjoyed the leisurely sides of Vienna and took their discussions further to coffee houses and restaurants. The convenors are pleased with the effort and commitment of the participants proving that deservingness is a topic of high relevance that deserves to be made explicit in further ethnographic and conceptual work.
Friday, October 27th
Introduction: Deservingness – Genealogies, Struggles and Ideologies, Andreas Streinzer, University of Vienna and IfS Frankfurt/ Main and Jelena Tošić, University of Vienna and University of Bern
DEBT RELATIONS - STATES, MARKETS AND DEBTORS
Insolvency, inequality and moral deservingness: the case of the Greek household-protection law, Theodora Vetta, University of Barcelona
Discussant: Carlo Capello
The Moral Economy of Debt: Contesting and (Re-) Regulating Household Debt in Post–Credit Boom Croatia, Marek Mikus, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/ Saale
Discussant: Esra S. Kaytaz
(UN)DESERVING MIGRANTS/REFUGEES
Deserving EU citizenship: The case of undocumented Italian migrants in Belgium, Jean-Michel Lafleur, Elsa Mescoli, Centre for Ethnic and Migration Studies of the University of Liège
Discussant: Patricia Matos
The construction of deservingness in co-ethnic and pro-refugee philanthropic actions in Hungary, Zakarias Ildiko, Institute for Minority Studies, HAS Center for Social Sciences, Budapest
Discussant: Don Kalb
Risk-taking and Deservingness in Migration: the case of irregular migration in Turkey, Esra S. Kaytaz, Coventry University
Discussant: Marek Mikus
Guests and other unwanted subjects: On im/moralities of deservingness between EU and Turkey, Sabine Strasser, University of Bern
Discussant: Theodora Vetta
Saturday, October 28th 2017
CATEGORIES, POLICIES AND NEGOTIATIONS OF DESERVINGNESS
The politics of needs and rights: charity, deservingness and distribution in austerity Portugal, Patricia Matos, University of Barcelona
Discussant: Elisa Lanari
“Here, morality is a sense of entitlement:” citizenship, deservingness, and inequality in suburban Atlanta, Elisa Lanari, Northwestern University
Discussant: Sabine Strasser
The Ritual Neoliberal: An anthropological insight into the policies of activation for unemployed people in Turin, Carlo Capello, University of Turin
Discussant: Ildikó Zakariás
The relational politics of deservingness in the context of postsocialist transition and the rise of neo-nationalism of a national-socialist bent, Don Kalb, University of Bergen
EASA2016 Panel: Emerging economic futures: the intersections of informality and formality
Convenors: Alan Smart (University of Calgary)
Filippo Zerilli (University of Cagliari)
EASA2016 Panel: New trends in the anthropology of unemployment after the economic crisis in 2008-2009
Convenors: Francisco Arqueros (National University of Ireland
Patrícia Alves de Matos (University of Barcelona
Michele Fontefrancesco (università di scienze gastronomiche)
Network meeting Tallinn in August 2014
Our second network meeting was held in Tallinn in August 2014. In attendance were 24 people, 12 of whom were
signing on as new members.
EASA2014 Panel: Local entrepreneurial responses to global forces: new and alternative enterprise re-configurations in times of crisis and economic hardship
The Anthropology of Economy Network also organized a panel at the 2014 EASA conference in Tallinn. Convened by Hugo Valenzuela, Allen Batteau of Wayne State University, USA, and Carmen Bueno of Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico, the theme of the panel was ‘Local entrepreneurial responses to global forces: new and alternative enterprise re-configurations in times of crisis and economic hardship’. The panel was global in scope, with 7 papers presenting research on topics ranging from a family jewelry company in Hong Kong, women in Japanese management, music entrepreneurship in Yucatan, and the new Italian working class, to the transformation of Moroccan argan oil into a global commodity.
Workshop: Solidarity, reciprocity, and economy in times of downturn: Understanding and articulating the logics of old and new values in late capitalism. U. Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain in February 2014,
The network held its first workshop at U. Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain in February 2014, organized by Hugo Valenzuela and Peter Simonič with the assistance of Marta Lobato. The theme of the workshop was ‘Solidarity, reciprocity, and economy in times of downturn: Understanding and articulating the logics of old and new values in late capitalism’. There were 15 participants, many of them PhD students, and 8 papers were presented on a variety of topics: microcredit and solidarity finance in Brazil; social entrepreneurship; ‘low-budget urbanity’; mortgage over-indebtedness; food cooperatives in Catalonia; Swiss dairy farming in the face of neoliberalization; and Slovenian squats as sites of emerging commons. Several of the papers from the workshop were subsequently published as part of a special issue in the journal Ars & Humanitas, under the guest editorship of Peter Simonič ( http://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/arshumanitas/issue/view/237 ). Writes Simonič in his introduction, “the number of doctoral students in anthropology present at the seminar gave the impression that the theme speaks to the generational turn in a time of crisis in the social welfare state, and that anthropological theory of economy pragmatically is shifting into activism among young and unemployed anthropologists”.
