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Re: First thoughts

Mark Moritz 1251727087|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Hidden / Per page discussions » NYT op-ed

I think that there are some very good points here. In particular, the questions that NYT readers may have for economic anthropologists.

First thoughts

Celia Emmelhainz 1251413644|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Hidden / Per page discussions » NYT op-ed

I've watched the listserv discussion with interest, and I think an op-ed is a great idea. My first concern would be with our audience's questions or concerns… and my suspicion is that they'll be asking questions like these:
- how do we get out of crisis?
- how do we avoid another one?
- why have I never heard of economic anthropologists before?
- what the heck is an economic anthropologist?
- how are economic anthropologists different from economists?
- so they're just hippie economists? Or marxist economists?
- what do economic anthropologists have to offer?
- so why haven't economic anthropologists done anything sooner?
- but how does this help business?
- how does this help the housing crisis? the banking crisis? the unemployment crisis?
- what would an economic anthropologist on Obama's council actually DO?

How do we address these? I'm not sure. We've started with: "Economic anthropologists do empirical research." Other possible concepts include:

Economic anthropologists are interdisciplinary.
- explain concept - between economics (study of money and markets) and anthropology (study of culture)
- so what? It's good to see things from multiple points of view. EA can address inadequacies in economics.

Economic anthropologists are anthropologists.
- so they are concerned with communities and individuals, as well as broad structures.
- the human face of economics: we value face to face time with poeple to see what's actually going on. Not just computing data.
- we look at interconnections between a lot of areas of society - politics, economics, culture
- we value understanding things from other people's perspectives

Economic anthropologists allow room for morality / ethics in economics.
- this has been a recent critique by the public of economics and finance
- many economic models have no room for morality except as a utilitarian 'preference'
- anthropologists can look at the ways in which economics intersect with other, non-quantitative values.
- this can mean we weigh decisions based on the obligation of the state to look after the interests of all people, not just the powerful or the majority

Economic anthropologists are concerned with people at all levels of society.
- a concern for the poor (citations)
- a concern for the wealthy (Ho? others?)
- econ anth can address econ disparity in human terms
- interrogating power - perspective outside of US / major world / powerful people

Economic anthropologists realize that neither economics nor anthropology can explain everything.
- economic anthropologists are committed to working with policy makers across many fields.
- they realize importance of experts from everything from politics to public health - not as providing more data for a model, but as people who give perspective on other ways of understanding what is going on.

Economic anthropology can address the crisis.
- not modeling, but how people think about and react to crisis - how individuals react, not just 'markets'
- a focus on ground-level impacts
- no 'ceteris paribus' - all else doesn't stay equal
- everyday language and concerns
- communication across boundaries
- A conclusion invited attendance at SEA conference on crisis???

Thoughts? I'm throwing out what I've got, but I'm still learning about economic anthropology myself. I look forward to perspectives from our more experienced SEA members!

Introduction

Mark Moritz 1229654731|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion General Discussion / General discussion » Introduction

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