An Economic Sociological Look at Economic Anthropology

Note from the Editor Article Patrik Aspers, Asaf Darr, and Sebastian Kohl: An Economic Sociological Look at Economic Anthropology Interview Keith Hart Answers Eleven Questions about Economic Anthropology Book Reviews New Centre for Economic Sociology Ph.D. Projects in Economic Sociolog

Occupy economic anthropology

What does it mean to 'do' economic anthropology, now, in the wake of the financial crisis and the re-energizing of public discussion over the nature of debt, credit, speculation, and inequality? Two recent books offer signal insights. This essay suggests they also point towards a specific kind of lingering that may be politically and analytically useful: an occupation of a uniquely anthropological kind. © Royal Anthropological Institute 2012

An Economic Sociological Look at Economics

Note from the editor Comment on Economic Anthropology by Chris Hann An Economic Sociological Look at Economics by Patrik Aspers, Sebastian Kohl, Jesper Roine, and Philipp Wichardt Interview Robert Salais Answers Five Questions about Economic Sociology Book Review

Reprises: Chris Gregory’s Gifts and Commodities and the frontier

Chris Gregory’s Gifts and Commodities (1982) is widely regarded as a classic in economic anthropology as well as in studies on Melanesia. The work offers a lucid typology and definition of the concepts of ‘gift’ and ‘commodity’based on the tradition of political economy and economic anthropology. It shows how in colonial Papua New Guinea (PNG) gift and commodity economies articulated with each other and—contrary to the assumption of neoclassical economists—expanded simultaneously. In recounting how labour and primary production were commodi ed in colonial PNG, Gregory analyses the development and demise of the plantation economy and utilizes the concept of the ‘labour frontier’ that moved to new areas and eventually closed leading to the crisis of the plantation sector. In this essay I will briefly discuss Gregory’s notion of the ‘labour frontier’, relate it to later theorizations of the concept of ‘frontier’ and discuss how Gregory’s accounts helped me to understand contemporary dynamics of oil palm development in contemporary PNG.Non peer reviewe

Karl Polanyi in Budapest: On his political and intellectual formation

Copyright © Archives Européennes de Sociologie 2009.A major thinker and inspiring teacher, Karl Polanyi's contributions have long been influential in a variety of disciplines, notably economic sociology and economic history. Two of his innovations, substantivist economic anthropology and the “double movement thesis,” are recognized as seminal. All of the works for which he is known, however, were written late in life, when in exile, and very little is known of his Hungarian writings, virtually none of which had, until now, been translated. Despite his fame, the biographical literature on Polanyi remains modest: some studies provide invaluable insights, yet all are brief. This article attempts to make some headway in remedying these lacunae. It sketches the contours of that extraordinary historical-geographical conjuncture in which he was formed, and explores his intellectual and political engagements in the Galilei Circle and the Radical Bourgeois Party. It seeks in particular to elucidate the complex roles played by questions of nation, ethnicity and class in the life of the young Karl Polanyi