New Directions in Economic Anthropology

By (author) Susana Narotzky

Publication date:

20 April 1997

Length of book:

264 pages

Publisher

Pluto Press

ISBN-13: 9781783718528

Using an historical perspective, Narotzky highlights the interdependent nature of the contemporary world economy, and includes case studies of Western societies. She gives special emphasis to current issues such as the anthropology of work, the informal economy, and the cultures of industrialisation.

Introduction
1. Production
The ecosystem
Technological processes
Access to resources
The question of 'work' in western societies
2. Distribution and exchange
Forms of Reciprocity and Redistribution
Exchange
Circulation
Market culture or market system?
3. Consumption
Defining consumption
The consumption unit
What happens within the consumption unit?
Beyond the domestic group boundaries
Producing while consuming
4. Social reproduction
Production and reproduction
5. Conclusion
Local culture and economic models
The case study. Local processes in the construction of labour/ capital relations
Models of analysis for a 'New Economic Organisation'
Work experiences and labour/ capital relations
Rethinking proletarianisation and class
Bibliography
Index

'Narotzky is particularly compelling in her discussion of the relation between the counted and unaccounted as it enters practices and ideology in the informal economy, family business and home life'