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- Convenors:
-
David Picard
(University of Lausanne)
Taylor Erin (Canela Consulting)
- Discussant:
-
Anastasios Panagiotopoulos
(Department of Social Anthropology, University of Seville)
- Location:
- A1.10, Reitoria/Geociências (Map 10)
- Start time:
- 10 September, 2013 at
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
The panel invites papers that interrogate the current obssession among anthropologists with "neo-liberalism" and how it relates to other forms of counterpoint culture produced by earlier anthropologies.
Long Abstract:
"Neo-liberalism" has become a widely unifying symbol streamlining much of the contemporary discourse produced by anthropologists. The panel invites papers that interrogate this current fashion and how it relates to other forms of counterpoint culture produced by earlier anthropologies. Paper presenters are requested to critically reassess the social logics of anthropological writing and its power to produce metaphors and allegories, through which to think about contemporary social life and the human condition at large. What values and visions of the world do anthropologists associate with "neo-liberalism"? Has anthropology become a field merely producing what Mary Pratt called anti-conquest narratives? Has the performance of counter-point culture become the raison d'être of the discipline? If anthropology continues to evolve within modern culture, what does its obsession with "neoliberalism" tell us about modern culture at large?
Accepted papers:
Session 1Taylor Erin (Canela Consulting) Heather Horst (The University of Sydney)
Paper short abstract:
Neoliberalism is not necessarily neo. In Haiti, it brought few discernible changes, because the conditions that have shaped poverty and social goods provision have remained relatively constant since plantation slavery. This paper argues for separating fashion from causation.
Paper long abstract:
Around the world, neoliberal policies have had significant effects on the structures of markets, government-citizen relations and the distribution of social goods. However, neoliberalism does not have one ubiquitous outcome in all places. The histories of individual nations and their configurations of governance, civil society and markets means that the effects of neoliberalism can differ greatly, either between nations or among subsections of population within them. Furthermore, some of the socio-economic phenomena that scholars have identified as resulting from neoliberalism actually precede it by significant periods of time. In Haiti, it brought little discernible policy break or change in circumstance for the impoverished majority, because the conditions that have shaped Haiti's poverty and social goods provision have remained relatively constant since plantation slavery. In this paper, we examine the roles of states, companies, non-profits and citizens in the creation of a market society that perpetuates "structural violence" (Farmer 1997), yet provides some of the more viable mechanisms available for the distribution of social goods. We present a case study of mobile money services, introduced in late 2010, as indicative of the kinds of longstanding partnerships between for-profit and non-profit actors to provide governance through markets. We suggest that the market-based provision of social goods tends to be relatively successful because Haiti was created at the outset to be receptive to market solutions. Neoliberalism does not represent a radical policy shift. Rather, it is the currently fashionable term for processes that have been in place for at least half a millennium.
Steffan Igor Ayora Diaz (Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán)
Paper short abstract:
This paper addresses changes in the contemporary kitchen in urban Yucatán. Focusing on the capital city I examine everyday transformations that may or not be perceived as tied to neoliberal transformations and discuss the emergence of new discursive formations within a neoliberal economic regime.
Paper long abstract:
This paper addresses changes in the contemporary kitchen in urban Yucatán. Focusing on the capital city, Merida, I examine everyday transformations that may or not be perceived as tied to neoliberal transformations. Thus, I take neoliberalism as a general name for a set of post-Fordist economic transformations that, as D. Harvey (1989) suggests, are accompanied by its own mode of regulation; that is, consumers appropriate in their everyday lives the logic of capitalist transformations and bracket their historical, political, and economic sources. In this sense, in Merida, the foodscape and the technoscape have expanded providing consumers with the perception of self-agency as they navigate the commercial urban terrain. General stores, retail stores, corner stores, department stores; markets, supermarkets, and hypermarkets; specialty stores, all combine to fragment and multiply the technological and edible goods creating the perception of abundance and individual/ist choice. This context fosters the transformation and re/design of kitchen spaces, the acquisition of different appliances, and cooking technologies, to replicate meals ranging from "traditional" to "postmodern" gastronomadic lifestyles. At the same time, the market of edible goods has expanded allowing a variety of comestibles that range from industrially processed, packaged and chemically altered ingredients, to fresh produce and on the other end of the market, organic, natural, alternative foodstuffs. This papers discusses the emergence of discursive formations that explain individuals' perception of empowerment and self-agency as they change their culinary habits within a neoliberal economic regime.
Gabriela Vargas-Cetina (Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan)
Paper short abstract:
In this paper I look at neoliberalism as the larger context within which music and technology come together in the hands of musicians and music fans, in Yucatan, Mexico.
Paper long abstract:
Starting in the 1980s, Mexico increasingly opened its national economy to foreign investors, selling national industries until then run by the post-revolutionary State to private bidders. The economic reforms that made this possible also opened the commercial borders, so that commodities of all kinds could come in and reach local markets and local buyers. Music-related commodities, in particular, quickly flodded the local markets throughout the country. Ghetto blasters, recorded cds, Hi Fi systems and music instruments drove down an incipient national industry of hi fi products, since those made abroad were cheaper and generally better. In Yucatan, the new massive influx of music products transformed the soundscapes and changed musicians and music lovers' outlook. With time, the opening of frontiers has extended to the musicians themselves, as foreign nationals are now regular part of the Yucatan system of orchestras and ensembles. In this paper I look at neoliberalism as the larger context within which music and technology come together in the hands of musicians and music fans in the state of Yucatan, and particularly in the city of Mérida, the state capital. I propose that it is important to take into account this larger context because it can help us see constraints and connections that we would miss otherwise.