Programme in anthropology and economy

Jointly organized by the Departments of International Development and Anthropology, this seminar series explores themes concerning the social life of the economy in its broadest sense.

Co-ordinators: Kate Meagher k.meagher@lse.ac.uk, Deborah James d.a.james@lse.ac.uk, Sohini Kar s.kar1@lse.ac.uk

This term sees an interesting set of broader events at LSE: we are ‘piggybacking’ on two of them. 

Week 2: More than money? How Anthropology can offer richer analysis for economists
Thursday 7 October 2021, 2-3.30pm

Gillian Tett and Deborah Rowland

Anthropology has often been seen as an academic version of Indiana Jones - namely a discipline devoted to exotic travel that does not have much relevance for the modern world. However, Gillian Tett argues that this image is completely wrong today, and anthropology can make a vital contribution to public policy, corporate and financial life, as well as our communities as we try to "build back better" after COVID-19. Indeed, she argues that a world drowning in Artificial Intelligence and other digital innovations desperately needs a second type of "AI" - Anthropology Intelligence - to enable us to flourish. But what does this mean for the economics profession? Could economists benefit by embracing this new type of AI? Gillian Tett will debate this with Deborah Rowland.

Gillian Tett is chair of the editorial board and editor-at-large, US of the Financial Times. She writes weekly columns, covering a range of economic, financial, political and social issues. In 2014, she was named Columnist of the Year in the British Press Awards.  

Deborah Rowland is a leading global thinker, speaker, writer, and coach in the field of leading big complex change. She is the co-author of Sustaining Change: Leadership That Works (Wiley, 2008), Still Moving: How to Lead Mindful Change (Wiley, 2017), and the Still Moving Field Guide: Change Vitality at Your Fingertips (Wiley 2020).  

More information and to register for the event here. Questions about the event should be directed to d.patel20@lse.ac.uk.  

For those who wish to get up to speed in advance of the event, Peter Tufano, the Dean of the University of Oxford’s Said Business School, interviewed Gillian about her book. 

Week 7: Debt.
Friday 12th November

Keith Hart (Goldsmiths and LSE Emeritus Professor) & Maka Suarez (Princeton Institute of Advanced Studies Fellow).

This is one in a series of LSE Anthropology Research Seminars that explores the legacy of the thought of David Graeber, our late colleague. In each session, two anthropologists will lead a critical discussion on one of the key themes that interested him

Please sign up for this seminar here (and others in the series if you wish to)

Join DavidGraeber Tribute LSE Anthropology Friday Seminar Series Tickets, Multiple Dates | Eventbrite

Week 11: Financial inclusion as future - the future of financial inclusion
Thursday 9th December, 5-6.30pm 

Chris Harker (Institute of Global Prosperity, UCL)

Chris is a longstanding member of the seminar group and author of the recent acclaimed monograph Spacing Debt: Obligations, Violence and Endurance in Ramallah, Palestine (2021: Duke University Press).  

Departments of Anthropology and International Development, LSE

When? Wed. fortnightly, 5.00-6.30 pm.
Where? Zoom/online

Jointly organized by the Departments of International Development and Anthropology, this seminar series explores themes concerning the social life of the economy in its broadest sense. During LT we will have 4 meetings to ranging in style from a panel discussion to seminar presentations on a variety of topic issues . Zoom links will be released shortly before each meeting. To be added to the mailing list in order to receive these, and to get a copy of the paper, contact k.meagher@lse.ac.uk.

LENT TERM

Wk 4, 11 Feb 2021 (Thursday 5pm): SPECIAL EVENT -- Coded Bias: Digital Bias and Decolonizing Development
Hellen Mukiri-Smith (Global Data Justice, Tilberg University) and Deborah James (Center for Econ and Policy Research, Washington DC)

Wk 5, 17 Feb 2021: Climate-resilient agriculture: what does it mean for rural development in India?
Marcus Taylor, (Queen’s University, Canada)

Wk 7, 3 March 2021: Digital Identity as a Platform for Improving Refugee Management
Shirin Madon, (LSE)

Wk 9, 17 March 2021: Alternative Economies
Mick Blowfield, (Oxford)

Co-ordinators: Kate Meagher k.meagher@lse.ac.uk, Deborah James d.a.james@lse.ac.uk, Sohini Kar s.kar1@lse.ac.uk

Departments of Anthropology and International Development, LSE

When? Wed. fortnightly, 5.00-6.30 pm.

Where? Zoom/online

Jointly organized by the Departments of Anthropology and International Development, this seminar series explores themes concerning the social life of the economy in its broadest sense. During the MT we will meet fortnightly to discuss pre-circulated papers. Zoom links will be released shortly before each meeting. To be added to the mailing list in order to receive these, and to get a copy of the paper, contact d.a.james@lse.ac.uk.

MICHAELMAS TERM

Wk 3, 14 October 2020: Privatizing Cash: Battles over Currency Issuance in Sweden
Gustav Peebles, The New School

Wk 5, 28 October 2020: Generating something to capture: struggles around wealth (non)taxation in Austria
Andreas Streinzer, University of Frankfurt

Wk 7, 11th November 2020: special event - Launch of Johnny Parry’s book Classes of Labour
Chair: Alpa Shah
Discussants: Nate Roberts, University of Göttingen; Nayanika Mathur, Oxford University

Wk 8, 18November 2020: Tech for Food? Digital refugee economies and the changing relationship between displacement and labour
Andreas Hackl, University of Edinburgh

Wk 10, 2 December 2020: ‘Making plans through people’: the social embeddedness of informal entrepreneurship in urban South Africa
Hannah Dawson, Wits
and 'These Aren't The Jobs We Want': Youth, Place and Anti-Work Politics in Urban South Africa.
Christopher Webb, LSE

Co-ordinators: Deborah James d.a.james@lse.ac.uk Sohini Kar s.kar1@lse.ac.uk Kate Meagher k.meagher@lse.ac.uk

CON 7.03 - Wed. Fortnightly, 5.00-6.30 pm.

Organized by Inclusive Economies Group, Department of International Development, in collaboration with the Anthropology of Economy programme in the Department of Anthropology, this seminar series explores how financialization is reshaping processes of development and economic inclusion.  It will focus on specific domains of the financialization of development, including the financialization of infrastructure, agriculture, health, aid, and philanthropy.  Within each of these various domains we seek a deeper examination of what financialization ‘does’ in terms of its micro as well as macro-effects on regulation, productive structures, livelihoods, resource distribution, social rights and political space.  This seminar series seeks to unravel the implications of financialization for processes of economic inclusion, and consider how it is reconfiguring organizations, regulatory systems, linkages with the state, and forms of investment. 

Seminar Schedule

LENT TERM

Wk 2, 29 January 2020: Caroline E. Schuster (Australian National University)*
The protective style: financializing security and damage in Paraguayan insurance markets

Wk 3, 5 February 2020:  Leigh Johnson (University of Oregon) 
Unmaking ‘risk capacity’: African sovereign drought insurance and its discontents   

Wk 5, 19 February 2020:  Stefan Ouma (University of Bayreuth) 
Agriculture as Financial Asset: Global Money and the Making of Institutional Landscapes 

Wk 7, 4 March 2020:  Susan Erikson (Simon Fraser University)
Risk Business:  How Pandemic Bonds Recalibrate Humanitarian Aid 

Wk 9, 18 March 2020:  Elisa van Waeyenberge (SOAS)
TBA

*Note that this ‘extra’ seminar will be held one week before the originally scheduled one in Wk 3.