Anthropologies of class : power, practice and inequality

248 Pages·2015·2.33 MB·English

by  Carrier

Anthropologies ofClass
Risingsocial,politicalandeconomicinequalityinmanycountries,andrising
protestagainstit,hasseentherestorationoftheconceptof“class”toapromi-
nentplaceincontemporaryanthropologicaldebates.Atimelyinterventionin
thesediscussions,thisbookexplorestheconceptofclassanditsimportance
forunderstandingthekeysourcesofthisinequalityandofpeople’sattemptsto
dealwithit.Highlytopical,itsituatesclasswithinthecontextofthecurrent
economic crisis, integrating elements from today into the discussion of an
earlieragenda.UsingcasesfromNorthandSouthAmerica,WesternEurope
andSouthAsia,itshowsthe–sometimessurprising–formsthatclasscan
take,aswellasthevariouseffectsithasonpeople’slivesandsocieties.
james g. carrier is an Associate at the Max Planck Institute for Social
Anthropology, and the Departments of Anthropology at the University of
IndianaandatOxfordBrookesUniversity.
don kalb is Professor of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Central
EuropeanUniversity,Budapest,andSeniorResearcherintheAnthropology
DepartmentatUtrechtUniversity,theNetherlands.

Anthropologies of Class
Power, Practice and Inequality
Editedby
JamesG.Carrier
and
DonKalb
UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom
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Contents
Listoffigures pagevii
Listofcontributors viii
PrefaceandAcknowledgments xii
Introduction:classandthenewanthropologicalholism 1
don kalb
1 Theconceptofclass 28
james g. carrier
2 Dispossession,disorganizationandtheanthropologyoflabor 41
august carbonella and sharryn kasmir
3 TheorganicintellectualandtheproductionofclassinSpain 53
susana narotzky
4 Throughaclassdarkly,butthenfacetoface:praxisthrough
thelensofclass 72
gavin smith
5 Walmart,Americanconsumer-citizenshipandtheerasureof
class 89
jane collins
6 Whenspacedrawsthelineonclass 102
marc morell
7 Classtrajectoriesandindigenismamongagriculturalworkers
inKerala 118
luisa steur
8 Makingmiddle-classfamiliesinCalcutta 131
henrike donner
9 Working-classpoliticsinaBraziliansteeltown 149
massimiliano mollona
v
vi Contents
10 Exportprocessingzonesandglobalclassformation 164
patrick neveling
11 Globalsystemiccrisis,classanditsrepresentations 183
jonathan friedman
References 200
Index 224
Figures
11.1 Thelogicoftwocrises page191
11.2 NewcapitalraisedbyUScorporations(percentofnewcapital
worldwide) 192
11.3 PercentoftotalwealthintheUnitedStatesheldbytherichest
1percentofhouseholds 195
11.4 Thedoublepolarizationofclassandculturalidentities 195
11.5 Schemesofthepassageofdiametrictoconcentricdualism 197
vii
Contributors
august carbonella isAssociateProfessorofAnthropologyatMemorial
UniversityofNewfoundland.Heisauthorofnumerouspublicationsonlabor,
historicalmemory,thepoliticalcultureoftheUnitedStatesandglobalization
and war. He is co-editor of the series Dislocations, and co-editor, with
Sharryn Kasmir, of the forthcoming volume Blood and Fire: Towards an
AnthropologyofGlobalLabor.
james g. carrier is a Research Associate at Oxford Brookes University,
Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at the University of Indiana and Asso-
ciate of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. He has done
researchandwrittenonaspectsofeconomyinPapuaNewGuinea,theUnited
StatesandtheUnitedKingdom.HispublicationsincludeWage,Tradeand
ExchangeinMelanesia(1989),GiftsandCommodities:ExchangeandWest-
ern Capitalism since 1700 (1995) and the edited volumes Meanings of the
Market (1997) and A Handbook of Economic Anthropology (2005, revised
edition2012).
jane collins isProfessorofCommunityandEnvironmentalSociologyand
GenderandWomen’sStudiesattheUniversityofWisconsin,Madison.She
is the author of Threads: Gender, Labor and Power in the Global Apparel
Industry (2003), and recently co-wrote, with Victoria Mayer, Both Hands
Tied: Welfare Reform and the Race to the Bottom in the Low Wage Labor
Market(2010).
henrike donner isaSeniorLecturerinAnthropologyatOxfordBrookes
University. She has undertaken extensive fieldwork in Calcutta (now
Kolkata),India,andherresearchinterestsincludegenderandkinship,class
and urban politics. Her publications include Domestic Goddesses: Mater-
nity,GlobalisationandMiddle-ClassIdentityinContemporaryIndia(2008)
andtheeditedvolumesBeingMiddle-ClassinIndia:AWayofLife(2011)
and, with Geert De Neve, The Meaning of the Local: Politics of Place in
Urban India (2006). Her current research focuses on processes of urban
restructuring.
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