Students are also required to attend one of four possible weekly tutorials. Tutorials run Wed 4.00pm-5.00pm in C4A320; Wed 5.00pm-6.00pm in W6B315; Thur 3.00pm-4.00pm in C5A401; and Thur 5.00pm-6.00pm in W5C310.

Changes Made to Previous Offerings of the Unit

The sample of subjects covered in lectures and tutes constitutes one of the main changes made to previous offerings of the unit. I have elected to focus largely upon my fieldwork experiences and areas of interest and expertise - i.e., I have modified aspects of this course to encompass the role that conflict and violence play in peoples' identities and economic activities. More directly, several weeks consider the nature of the macro- and micro-economic systems that prevail within environments where extreme scarcity is commonplace (refugee camps, developing countries, and conflict zones).

Additionally, the weighting and nature of the individual assessment tasks have been altered slightly. In terms of the nature of assessments, I have assigned a take-home examination to give students time to reflect on the subjects covered during the course and to reconsider academic and other materials provided (by me) and gathered (by you).

Tutorial participation and report essay writing tasks have been given more weight with respect to the final grades than in the past. This is to encourage students to complete the readings and involve themselves more intensely in class discussions.

OUTLINE OF LECTURES AND READINGS

The unit outline includes a short description of each lecture and tutorial followed by a listing of the readings for each week; these readings are available online. 

WEEK ONE: What is Economic?

What do we mean by ‘economic’? What types of human activity do we call economic? And what might anthropology have to say about the economic activities of human beings? Do people everywhere behave in a relatively consistent fashion when deciding how to allocate resources, produce the necessities of life, or distribute what they make? What sorts of economic systems have anthropologists encountered in cultures around the world?

The introductory lecture will discuss the history of relations between anthropology and economics, the goals and requirements of this unit, and an introduction to the topics we will be discussing in this course.

NO TUTORIAL THIS WEEK

WEEK TWO: Rationality & Substantivism

The dominant model in neo-classical economics makes certain assumptions about what motivates human beings and how they make decisions, especially that they use a means-ends calculation when making decisions that economists call ‘rationality’. Anthropologists have disagreed, both with each other and economists, about whether or not these traits (such as rationality, utility maximization, and profit seeking etc.) exist amongst all people, or if the terms are just too general. Some have argued that the terms are circular – for example, by definition, you are pursuing ‘utility’ with every decision you make to allocate your resources; therefore, we can be confident that you will always choose the option that gives you the most utility (rather than act out of fear, loyalty, morality, laziness, short-sightedness, habit, etc). 

In this lecture, we will discuss some of the most basic assumptions of economics as well as consider the polarised anthropological responses to neo-classical economic assumptions. We will ask if the economic model of ‘markets’ resembles actual markets or daily economic activity; in particular, we will ask if market economics describes non-economic behaviour.

Tutorial Questions

What do economists treat as universal human traits? What sorts of factors might shape your decisions about how to spend money, what occupation to pursue, how to invest time and resources, and other economic choices?  To what extent is economic behaviour embedded within social life in Western and non-Western Society?

Tutorial Readings

Smith, Adam, 1910 (1776) Excerpt from An Inquiry in the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Volume One. Pp. 4-19. London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd. 

Antonioni, P and Sean Masaki Flynn, (2007) Getting to Know Homo Economicus, The Utility Maximizing Consumer. In Economics for Dummies Pp. 191-209

Recommended

Granovetter, M., 1985 Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 91, No. 3, Pp. 481-510

Oritz, S.,  Decisions and Choices: The Rationality of Economic Actors. In A Handbook of Economic Anthropology. Carrier, J.G., 2005, Pp. 59-77

WEEK THREE: Irrationality

If we are all rational actors, as some economic theories seem to argue, what are we to make of crazy, hare-brained get-rich-quick schemes? For instance, every year, millions of dollars are defrauded from westerners as a consequence of Nigerian 4-1-9 scams. Despite the obvious risk of sending large sums of money to persons who explicitly introduce themselves as corrupt African bureaucrats, such scams are efficacious largely because they play off the distorted understandings about Africa that some westerners hold.

Likewise, traditional societies in the South Pacific follow religions characterised by a seemingly ‘irrational’ use of resources. Following World War II, a number of groups in the pacific islands became the cradle of religious movements that awaited the return of yankee G.Is who had brought material wealth during the war. Called Cargo Cults because they awaited goods from abroad, these groups are an example of how people who have not fully understood the economic processes around them and yet have tried to harness economic power.

And finally what are we to make of the billions of dollars that move between migrants in developed countries and their friends and family in developing countries in the form of remittances? The total sum of such flows eclipses the total sum of money poured into official development and relief projects. This lecture looks at the role of irrational forces in the economic behaviours of social actors; special attention is given to my research into the motivations of resettled refugees to support their friends and family living in refugee camps in West Africa.  

Tutorial Questions

How are cargo cults, like John Frum’s, similar to Nigerian 419 scams? How do both economic institutions propose to work?  What part does faith and trust play in cargo cults, 419 schemes, and more generally in our own economic confidence? In what ways are Nigerian ‘419’ schemes reflective of the social, political, and cultural structures in both Africa  and in the West?

Tutorial Reading

Smith, D 2007: ‘Urgent Business Relationship’: Nigerian E-Mail Scams, in A Culture of Corruption: Everyday forms of Deception and Popular Discontent in Nigeria, Pp. 53-88, Princeton University Press 

Raffaele, P, 2006. In John They Trust. Smithsonian Magazine 36 (11) (February 2006): 70-77

WEEK FOUR: The Gift

In his book The Gift, French anthropologist and sociologist Marcel Mauss famously contrasted gifts with commodities.  He asked: what power is in the gift that compels the recipient to give a gift in return? Ironically, he concluded that gifts were ultimately inalienable, that is, they retain a connection to their giver, building a relationship of reciprocity.

During this week’s lecture and discussion, we will think more about the rules of gift giving in our own and others’ cultures, as well as how exchanges of money, objects and assistance form an important part of our social relationships. Although economic models tend to assume that transactions are determined only by rational consideration of one’s own benefit, the relationships we actually observe often involve many other social considerations. We will look at different forms of reciprocity across a variety of cultures.

Tutorial Questions

To whom do you give gifts and what sorts of gifts? What are the ‘rules’ of the gift? What does it mean to receive a gift? When do we give gifts without expectation of reciprocity?

Tutorial Readings – Required

Mauss, M. 1967 The Gift and Especially the Obligation to Return It. In The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Society. Pp. 1-16. New York and London: W. W. Norton.

Zelizer, V A 1996, Payments and Social Ties. Sociological Forum 14 (3) 481-495.

Recommended

Ruth, J A., Otnes CC, Brunel F. F., 1999. Gift Receipt and the Reformulation of Interpersonal Relationships. Journal of Consumer Research 25: 385-402

WEEK FIVE: Livelihoods and Identity Work

Amongst other things, economic anthropology examines how people engage with their environment in order to eek out a living. Building on the core concept of ‘embeddedness’, this lecture examines the concept of ‘livelihoods’ as a means of understanding ‘production’. I will discuss the notion of ‘identity work’ in order to explore the ways in which livelihoods are attained under conditions of extreme hardship. Drawing on my fieldwork experience in the internet cafes of Buduburam refugee camp, I will describe how performances of ‘refugee identity’ in online chat rooms enable Liberians in exile to elicit resources from distant – often unfamiliar – others.   

Tutorial Questions

In what ways is the notion of livelihoods useful for the analysis of economic activities, in particular the concept of work? Why, do you think, has the notion been popular in refugee studies? What are the limitations of such a notion in humanitarian contexts? 

Tutorial Readings

Porter, G., Hampshire, K., Kyei, P., Adjaloo, M., Rapoo, G., Kilpatrick, K.,  2008, Linkages Between Livelihood Opportunities and Refugee-Host Relations: Learning From The Experiences Of Liberian Camp-Based Refugees in Ghana. Journal of Refugee Studies, Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press Pp. 230-252

WEEK SIX: Wage Labour and Resistance

This lecture examines the ways in which ‘work’ has been conceptualised by leading philosophers and sociologists. We will consider the different functions of production, the organisation of production in capitalist – and not least traditional - societies, and the consequences of such modes of organisation upon our experience of work.

We will also consider the forms of resistance that have emerged in different workplaces, in both western and traditional societies.

Far from being passive objects that are manipulated by employers, workers around the world have developed innovative ways of expressing discontent with prevailing work conditions. The so-called ‘weapons of the weak’ are explored in this lecture.  

Tutorial Questions

How important is control over time to the experience of work? How might workers respond to - and negotiate - the culture(s) of the workplace? What social, cultural or political factors shape the forms that resistance that individuals employ when at work?

Tutorial Readings

Ong, A,. The Production of Possession: Spirits and the Multinational Corporation in Malaysia. American Ethnologist, Vol. 15 no. 1.

WEEK SEVEN: Commodities and Consuming

Commodity fetishism, described by Marx and discussed by many theorists, has been one of the most important concepts for understanding illusions created by market relations. That is, many economists argue that the market and market transactions are a model for transparent social relations; Marx argues that the form of the commodity conceals more than it reveals, hiding the social relations and conditions of its production. In the end, Marx argues, commodities seem to have the qualities of people, as if the objects were themselves animated. This lecture considers both the classical and Marxist theories of commodities, how they are given prices, and what effect this has on the price of labour, part of a persons life.

If the commodity fetish helps us understand the ways that social relations of production are concealed by the market, under contemporary capitalism it is clear that many people see themselves as constituted in their acts of consumption. That is, what we buy and consume is often treated as our truest and freest expression of our essential self. Material restrictions, demands that we work, and social constraints, from this perspective, are all inauthentic obstacles to our self-expression in buying.

During this week’s lecture, we will talk about theorists who argue that our choices of what we consume are shaped by powerful cultural and structural systems. Instead of being an expression of a purely individual independent self, these theorists argue that consumption obeys various logics. Some acts of consumption may resist dominant frameworks of meaning for things, but others merely reproduce forms of distinction among people. That is, we try to create difference in part through what we consume, defining the kind of people we are or are not through ‘taste’.

Tutorial Questions

How does Koptyoff’s discussion of the biographies of things build upon Marx’s idea of a commodity as a fetish? From these two authors, how do we better understand commoditization? What does commoditization accomplish? Do you have non-commoditized objects in your life? What are they and why are they ‘not-commoditized’? 

Tutorial Readings

Marx, K. 1867. Section 4. The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof. In Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. 1 Pp. 76-87. New York

Koptyoff, I   The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as a Process. In The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Arjun Appadurai, ed. Pp. 64-91. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press

WEEK EIGHT:  Globalization and Volunteer Work

The process of globalisation is both the consequence of rapid technological innovation, as well as the result of neo-liberal rationality. For Foucault and other scholars interested in governmentality, neo-liberalism is the 'way of doing things' that many countries have adopted since the 1970s, which consists of using the free-market mechanism for the government or management of society.   

Neo-liberalism holds that the market should organise relations between companies, as well as relations between individuals and between communities. All of which are seen as micro-enterprises that should be autonomous and compete with one another in search of resources and manpower. In this context, many academics and policy makers have paid increasing attention to the role of volunteer work as a means of checking the power of the sovereign state and as constituting a means of resistance to market ideology.

This lecture discusses the various ethical positions that international volunteers - e.g., aid workers, volunteer tourists, and NGO interns - come to occupy in local economies. Such individuals are framed by academics and policy makers as: a means by which the wealth of western nations may be redistributed; a force for the production of social capital for 'isolated' groups; and as consumers of poverty for tourism and various personal purposes (e.g., their latent or explicit interests in building CVs and careers). 

Tutorial Discussion

In what ways can volunteer work be regarded as an economic activity? How might global forces act on local systems of production, consumption and distribution? What positive forces might voluntourism have on local economies? What are its negative implications? 

Tutorial Readings

Guttendag, D., 2009 The Possible Negative Effects of Volunteer Tourism. International Journal of Tourism Research, 11. Pp. 537-551

Simpson, K., 2004  Doing Development, the Gap Year, and a Popular Practice of Development. Journal of International Development. 16, Pp. 681-692

WEEK NINE: Money

Classical philosophical studies of money have described it as a kind of social acid and economic lubricant. On the one hand, money dissolved previous social ties, just as wage labour eventually undermined serfdom and slavery; on the other, money made transactions easier, smoother, and faster, so that trade did not have to wait for the slower price of barter. We tend to see money as transparent, as having inherent in it; our day-to-day activities virtually demand that we have confidence in the concrete value of coloured paper notes.    

In fact, money takes many forms across cultures. Its ubiquity in our lives makes us unaware of the extraordinary social accomplishment that money represents. In this lecture, we will talk about some of the different forms that money can take, and what these unusual forms teach us about the almost magical properties of our own currencies, including new forms of money generated by financial markets, electronic banking, credit cards, and other technological innovations. 

Tutorial Questions

Is money a universal means of exchange? What is meant by special purpose moneys and why are anthropologists interested in them? Are there any special purpose moneys in your life?

Tutorial Readings

Parry, J.P. On The Moral Perils of Exchange in Parry, J.P., and Bloch M., Money and The Morality of Exchange. CambridgeUniversity Press pp., 64-93

WEEK TEN: Reading Week

WEEK ELEVEN: Poverty, Society, and (Structural) Violence

The gap between the rich and the poor is immense.  For many of us in the developed world – or in the middle and upper classes of the developed world – it is almost inconceivable that anyone could survive on  a daily income less than we might spend on a cup of coffee.

During this lecture, we will consider the objective measures of poverty in the world, together with the social causes and consequences of extreme inequality. Although we tend to think of deprivation as the outcome of a simple lack (i.e., a ‘scarcity’ of money, of resources, of skills), some societies are structured so as to deny opportunities to some members; for example, we will consider economist Amartya Sen’s discussion of ‘entitlement problems’ and the possibility of famine, as well as the controversial theory that a ‘culture of poverty’ engenders socio-economic deprivation.  Finally, we look also at the ways in poverty is related to affluence, mapping out the precise nature of the social-relationships that engender deprivation.   

Tutorial Questions

What social and political phenomena produce poverty? What measures, do you think. would be required to challenge – or indeed disrupt - the ‘structural violence’ that poverty entails?

Tutorial Readings

Farmer, P., 2004, On Suffering and Structural Violence: A View From Below. Current Anthropology, vol. 45 no. 305-325

WEEK TWELVE: Experiencing Poverty

Turning our attention away from the scholarly and the institutional understandings of poverty, as well as its social causes and the consequences, this lecture explores the ways in which poverty is experienced. We look first at the ways in which poverty is represented in the popular media. Then, we explore a sample of the ways in which experience has been theorised, and the extent to which the notion of experience is relevant to a better understanding the struggles of the poor.  Finally, we look at the espoused answers to deprivation and poverty, and question the degree to which the poor’s perspectives, needs and experiences are addressed by such solutions.   

Tutorial Questions

What does it really mean to be poor and how does poverty manifest itself? What types of choices do the poor face?

Tutorial Readings 

Abhijit, B., and Duflo, E., 2006. The Economic Lives of the Poor. Journal of Economic Perspectives 21 (1): 141-167

Desjairlais, R,. Struggling Along: The Possibility for Experience Amongst the Homeless Mentally Ill, American Anthropologist, Vol. 96, no. 94 Pp. 886-901

WEEK THIRTEEN: Economies in Crisis and Conflict

Contemporary neo-Liberal theory proposes that ‘free trade’ is essential to national security and common prosperity. At the same time, liberal thinkers believe that ‘non-liberal’ economies and black markets foster crisis, as well as constitute a threat to national and international peace.  Particular kinds of economies – and the so-called ‘weak states’ in which they are ‘embedded’ – are thus linked to disorder, crisis and conflict, both at home and abroad.

Such understandings do not acknowledge the ways that contemporary forms of liberalism may promote insecurity and conflict; nor how non-liberal and black markets in the midst of conflict zones may express the failings of free-trade, or function to re-structure and re-organize the inequalities latent in the prevailing socio-economic system. Put differently, neo-liberal philosophy has yet to grapple with the ways that economies in conflict zones produce – and express – certain kinds of ‘order’. 

This lecture looks at economies in the midst of crisis from a macro- and micro-economic perspective. It raises questions about the actual relationships between ‘weak states’ and capitalism, as well considers the ways that persons within conflict zones behave in the market under conditions of extreme scarcity.   

Tutorial Questions

How might conditions of extreme scarcity – as well as limited social mobility – nurture eruptions of conflict? How might the prospect of wealth generation nurture the outbreak of violence? What economic functions does conflict serve for combatants in conflict zones?

Tutorial Readings

Outram, Q.,   2007 Its terminal either way: An Analysis of Armed Conflict in Liberia, 1989-1996. Review of African Political Economy, 24:73, Pp. 355-371

Schetter, O.,  ‘The Bazaar economy of Afghanistan’ access online at http://www.zef.de/fileadmin/webfiles/downloads/conferences/Bazar_Economy_of_Afghanistan.pdf