Department ‘Anthropology of Economic Experimentation’

The world economy today is characterized by deep uncertainty and structural impasse. The climate crisis, rampant inequalities, and intensifying social and geopolitical conflicts call for fundamental change. Yet, even after such major shocks as the 2008 financial crisis and the 2019-2022 pandemic, systemic transformation comparable to the New Deal and the post-World War II era remains unlikely.

What can economic anthropology offer at this historical juncture?

Established in September 2021, the Department ‘Anthropology of Economic Experimentation’ conducts research that engages with public understandings of economic life and supports bottom-up experimentation with alternatives. Understanding how people face everyday questions—such as what makes for a good life, or what ‘convenience’ means—is crucial to addressing pressing contemporary issues, from the energy transition to ageing populations. At the same time, thanks to rapid increases in educational levels and advances in communications technology, a public of unprecedented size is ready to join scholars in critical reflection. More than ever, it is both possible and necessary to go beyond public outreach as a mere add-on to conventional research.

Common concerns

The department is developing a “common concerns” approach that addresses the need for new forms of research as social praxis. This approach starts with the concerns that people are grappling with in their everyday lives and aims to contribute ideas that help the public to analyse and respond to their situation. We consider our intellectual labour to be analogous to a carpenter’s work: just as a carpenter makes a chair fit for sitting and sends it out to the world, we strive to develop insights that can circulate and be put to practical use. For more information about how the department developed the common concerns research agenda, see the interview with Biao Xiang in Cargo: Journal for Cultural and Social Anthropology.

Our department members are currently developing the common concerns approach. We are working on research in a wide range of thematic and geographical areas:

Andrew Haxby (ethics of brokerage in the Kathmandu land market)

Biao Xiang (ambition and powerlessness in urban China)

Ceren Deniz (belonging, place-making and migration in Germany)

Christoph Brumann (common and private spaces in Asian urban development)

Ferda Nur Demirci Eryat (indebtedness and moral immunity in Turkey)

Franziska Nicolaisen (hope and disillusionment in urban Vietnam)

Ikuno Naka (liquidity and the urban fix in contemporary India)

Jagat Sohail (drive and sacrifice in Indian emigration)

Jeremy Rayner (commitment and collective action in Ecuador)

Max Fuchs (queer commoning practices in urban Namibia)

Siqi Tu (exile as a condition in the new Chinese diaspora)

Xenia Cherkaev (ethical governance and feral street dogs)

Ya Lu (the 'nearby' and urban scenarios in China)

Zhipeng Duan (the nearby, resources for critical thought and action)

Former department members:

Iain Walker (social identity and political processes in small islands)

Jingjing Liu

Kirsten W. Endres (infrastructural violence in colonial Vietnam)

Mario Schmidt (pressure and masculinity in contemporary Kenya)

Samuel Williams

Wanjing Chen (brutality among Chinese entrepreneurial migrants to Laos)

The collaborative research is organized into three thematic clusters:

Mobility

We examine mobility as a key means through which socioeconomic relations are rearranged.

Social Repair

We follow ordinary citizens’ experimental efforts to repair their social relations in daily life.

Repositioning
Global Thinking

We redefine global questions by drawing on social concerns and experimentation in the Global South as intellectual resources.

The department also co-sponsors the following research groups:

We welcome guest researchers whose interests align with the departmental research agenda. Applications can be sent here.

Web-View
Print Page
Open in new window
Estimated DIN-A4 page-width
Go to Editor View