Creative destruction: Efficiency,equity or collapse? (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate) |
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| Authors: | Stephen Gudeman |
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| Institution: | 1. Professor of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota and an Associate Member of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (Halle) where he is Joint Director of the Economy and Ritual Project. He focuses on culture and economy;2. his latest book is Economy's tension (Berghahn). His email is gudeman@eth.mpg.de. |
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| Abstract: | Around the globe, unemployment and sub employment have risen, salaries are frozen, homes are being repossessed, economic inequality continues, and many are experiencing heightened emotional distress. We have heard many explanations for this economic and social mess. But the current crisis should make us question the standard narratives, which failed to predict it and now offer ambiguous solutions. I argue that the crisis represents a tectonic shift in material life that calls for rethinking our image of economy. Because the normal discourse of economics does not explain this world of contradictions, ironies, and unpredictability, perhaps anthropology's moment has arrived. I offer a sketch of the contemporary situation based on a vision of economy as a combination of value domains and the impact of growing specialization, beginning in the workplace and reaching to new financial instruments. If the idea of the growing division of tasks in markets has been a central thread in economics since Adam Smith, its counterpart in anthropology has been the assumption of value diversity within and between cultures. |
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