Johanna Mugler, Miranda Sheild Johansson, and Robin Smith are happy to announce that our volume, Anthropology and Tax: Ethnographies of Fiscal Relations, has been published with Cambridge University Press!
One of our many wonderful endorsements came from Professor Bill Maurer, who wrote:
‘Anthropology and tax? But of course! Fiscal questions are, after all, moral ones, and taxes are that peculiar and ancient form of payment stitching peoples to polities, remaking value, subjecthood, citizenship and state in the process.
‘This compelling volume brings together contributions reflecting the crucial insights that deep, ethnographic work on tax relations can yield, including inquiry into the very nature of wealth, governance, recognition, rights, and redemption. With cases spanning the globe, it provides a fantastic starting point for anyone hoping to gain a richer understanding of the one constant in life-besides death-and the machinations of both states and their subjects to evade both death and taxes.’
– Bill Maurer, Professor of Anthropology and Law, University of California
The editors would like to thank each one of our fourteen contributors for their participation in this project. It was really fun and rewarding to work with each of you. It has been a joy to be part of the transformation of these chapters over the years, and we hope that the volume has the positive impact we imagine for it.
The book is a product of a network meeting organized by Lotta Björklund Larsen and Nicolette Makovicky in late 2019 that was also the catalyst for many other collaborations.
We would also like to thank Thomas MacGregor for his original cover art.
The official description of the volume is:
‘From the perspective of individual taxpayers to international tax norm negotiators, the anthropologists in this collection explore how taxes shape our world: our social relationships and value regimes, how we exclude and include, the categories we think with, and the way we share with each other. A first of its kind, it presents an anthropological discussion about tax rooted in ethnographic work. It asks fundamental questions such as: what is tax, what is taxable, and what do taxes do? By forwarding multiple perspectives from around the world about fiscal systems and how they are experienced and constituted, Anthropology and Tax reconceptualises tax in society. In doing so, this volume makes an incisive intervention in what might be one of the most important debates of our time – that of fiscal sociality.’
The volume includes 14 chapters from network members, including:
Foreword, Janet Roitman
Advancing an Anthropology of Tax, Johanna Mugler, Miranda Sheild Johansson and Robin Smith
1. Becoming the Good Migrant: How Romanian Migrants Mobilise Taxpayer Status, Dora-Olivia Vicol
2. The Nurturing State: An Intimate Portrait of Becoming a Taxpayer in Ghana, Anna-Riikka Kauppinen
3. An Ecology of Payments: Taxes, Cuotas, and Fees in Highland Bolivia, Miranda Sheild Johansson
4. The Persistence of Kindred Spirits: Tax and Values in Istrian Distilling, Robin Smith
5. Taxation without Hegemony: Land, Fiscal Conflicts, and the Limits of Post-Neoliberalism in Ecuador, Jeremy Rayner
6. Gambling Away Fraud: Tax and Speculative Governance in Slovakia, Nicolette Makovicky
7. Mottos for a More Tax-Compliant Society: Strategies, Tax Compliance Research, and Fiscal Practices at the Swedish Tax Agency, Lotta Björklund Larsen
8. General Knowledge and Particular Society: Taxation as a Way of Knowing, Olly Owen
9. The Colonial Debris in the Digitalisation of Tax in Kenya, Nimmo Elmi
10. Fiscal Citizenship, Assimilation, and Colonial Governance in Settler States, Kyle Willmott
11. Fundraising in Fiji: Taxation, Proceduralism, and a Moral Economy of Accountability, Matti Eräsaari
12. Dead Zones of Tax Inspection: The New Strategic Direction in the Danish Tax Authority and its Consequences for Front Staff, Karen Boll
13. Tax Havens, Commodified Citizenship, and the Production of Home in a Globalised World, Greg Rawlings
14. Sharing Beyond the State: International Tax Norm Negotiations at the OECD, Johanna Mugler
The volume is open access on Cambridge Core!
And please recommend to your university library for hard copies! It’s a beautiful book!