New Frontiers of Philanthro‐capitalism: Digital Technologies and Humanitarianism

Digital technologies that allow large numbers of laypeople to contribute to humanitarian action facilitate the deepening adoption and adaptation of private‐sector logics and rationalities in humanitarianism. This is increasingly taking place through philanthro‐capitalism, a process in which philanthropy and humanitarianism are made central to business models. Key to this transformation is the way private businesses find supporting “digital humanitarian” organisations such as Standby Task Force to be amenable to their capital accumulation imperatives. Private‐sector institutions channel feelings of closeness to aid recipients that digital humanitarian technologies enable, in order to legitimise their claims to “help” the recipients. This has ultimately led to humanitarian and state institutions re‐articulating capitalist logics in ways that reflect the new digital humanitarian avenues of entry. In this article, I characterise this process by drawing out three capitalist logics that humanitarian and state institutions re‐articulate in the context of digital humanitarianism, in an emergent form of philanthro‐capitalism. Specifically, I argue that branding, efficiency, and bottom lines take altered forms in this context, in part being de‐politicised as a necessary condition for their adoption. This de‐politicisation involves normalising these logics by framing social and political problems as technical in nature and thus both beyond critique and amenable to digital humanitarian “solutions”. I take this line of argumentation to then re‐politicise each of these logics and the capitalist relations that they entail.     

Ethnographic filming: The scientific approach

Waika (Südamerika, Venezuela): Gewinnen von Curare und Herstellen von Giftpfeil‐Spitzen. Directed by Hermann Schlenker. Encylopaedia Cinematographica (EC) E 2001, color, 17 min., 1975. DM 952, 50.

!ko‐Buschmänner (Südafrika, Kalahari): Spiel “Oryx‐Antilope"mit einer Auseinandersetzung zwischen zwei Spielgruppen. Directed by Dieter Heunemann and H. J. Heinz. EC‐E 2107, color with synchronous sound, 11 min., 1975. DM 691,50.

Kirchfest “Romaria” von S. Bartolomeu do Mar (Südwest‐Europa, Portugal). Directed by Franz Simon. EC‐E 1889, color with synchronous sound, 21,5 min., 1973. DM 1311, 00.

Bali (Indonesien): Doppelikat in Tenganan Pegeringsingan. Directed by Urs Ramseyer and Nicole Ramseyer‐Gygi. A series of four films: EC‐E 2416, 43 min., DM 2896, 50; E 2417, 34 min., DM 2025,00; E 2418, 28 min., DM 1642,50; E 2419, 36 min., DM 2031,00. Color with German commentary 1978.     

起步探索的1956年

1956年,是社会主义制度在中国基本建立的一年,也是中国共产党人探索中国自己的社会主义建设道路 起步的一年。 一、中国进入了社会主义 1955年秋后开始在农村出现的农业合作化高潮很快在城市得到了响应,资本主义工商业者和手工业者纷 纷走上街头,敲锣打鼓要求公私合营。1956年1月3日,《人民日报》发表社论《进一步做好对私营工商业的 改造工作》,指出:从中华全国工商联执行委员会第二次会议闭幕以来,全国各地私营工商业中的职工和资本     

ACTION AS METHOD: Ethnographic approaches for impact

Anthropologists have persuasively made a case for critical ethnographic engagement with elites in recent years. The most significant risk of such an approach is that it may appear meaningless to powerful actors who claim they want to ‘do good’, such as impact investors and philanthropists. This article suggests that producing intermediary outputs targeted at these powerful actors first would generate the potential for solving contemporary problems, which, in turn, would help develop theory.     

Ethnographic responsibility: Can the bureaucratization of research ethics be ethical?

Globally, ethics reviews exhibit four significant flaws: (1) they transpose institutional fears of liability onto individual researchers; (2) they presuppose a universal ethical standard; (3) they create conflicts among formal requirements, academic freedom and respect for local ethics; and (4) they deny agency to informants. The author has nearly a half-century of research experience in a Cretan mountain community that was often at odds with officialdom. This exemplifies the kind of research and social engagement now increasingly unfeasible because rigid ethical review procedures ignore local values. Anthropologists are subject to more restrictive rules than journalists, despite the discipline’s greater attention to local values, practices (including language) and concerns. The article ends with a call for global action to protect anthropology’s commitment to respecting cultural diversity, especially as it appears in the form of local (and sometimes labile) ethics.     

National Frontiers,Great World Frontiers,and the Shadow of Frederick Jackson Turner

WILLIAM H. MCNEILL. The Great Frontier: Freedom and Hierarchy in Modern Times. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983. Pp. 79. $13.95 (US).     

Frontiers of Contact: Bioarchaeology of Spanish Florida

The arrival of Europeans in the New World had profound and long-lasting results for the native peoples. The record for the impact of this fundamental change in culture, society, and biology of Native Americans is well documented historically. This paper reviews the biological impact of the arrival of Europeans on native populations via the study of pre- and postcontact skeletal remains in Spanish Florida, the region today represented by coastal Georgia and northern Florida. The postcontact skeletal series, mostly drawn from Roman Catholic mission sites, are among the most comprehensive in the Americas, providing a compelling picture of adaptation and stress in this setting. Study of paleopathology, dental and skeletal indicators of physiological stress, stable isotope (carbon and nitrogen) analysis, tooth microwear, and skeletal morphology (cross-sectional geometry) reveals major alterations in quality of life and lifestyle. The bioarchaeological record indicates a general deterioration in health, declining dietary diversity and nutritional quality, and increasing workload in the contact period. The impact of contact in Spanish Florida appears to have been more dramatic in comparison with other regions, which likely reflects the different nature of contact relations in this setting versus other areas (e.g., New England, New France). The bioarchaeological record represents an important information source for understanding the dynamics of biocultural change resulting from colonization and conquest.     

Women in prison: Ethnographic reflections on gender and the carceral state

The criminal justice system is increasingly becoming the subject of national dialogue throughout the United States due to the sheer number of people it impacts: according to the Department of Justice, nearly 7 million, or 1 in 35, U.S. residents are under some form of correctional control. The four books reviewed in this essay derive their findings from ethnographic methods that offer deep insights into the carceral state’s everyday operations in individual women’s lives, while raising profound theoretical and practical questions about gender and governance. We engage with these texts from unique situated standpoints as insider-outsiders with intimate knowledge of the U.S. criminal justice system gleaned from our respective lived experiences, services provision work, and research with currently and formerly incarcerated Wyoming women.     

Speculative Realism and Public Theology: Explorations

Abstract

The paper argues that ideas emanating from the speculative realists can inform a new approach to public theology, one that is broadly consistent with Christian realism and opposed to that of radical orthodoxy. Linking the two disciplines through an exploration of the ethical consequences of speculative realism, it takes in particular the work of Latour, his concept of the "gathering," his distinction between matters of fact and matters of concern, and his questioning of the fact-value distinction, and through a lived example shows how the language of human and non-human offers a critique of reductionist approaches to the political.     

Rethinking Standardization: the Social Meanings of Mycenaean Metal Cups

Standardization can be conceptualized as a scale, from unique bespoke artefacts to uniform items produced on a factory line. It is usually analyzed in terms of whole objects, but is also applicable to their individual traits, such as shape, material, size, decoration or colour. Objects combining different levels of standardization across these traits are able to transmit more complex social meanings. Through the analysis of the standardization of their form and material, three metal cup types (shallow, stemmed and Vapheio) are singled out as having particular significance within elite Mycenaean culture. The combination of varying degrees of standardization in these vessels created gradients of value that expressed nuances of social identity whilst retaining their core message of high status. Differences in these combinations indicate that whilst shallow and Vapheio cups shared similar roles, the stemmed cup may have been intended to convey individuality within the elite community.