I. Questions about structure of course?

 

II. The Relationship between Economics and Economic Anthropology, continued

A. Manning Nash, "The Meaning and Scope of Economic Anthropology" in Primitive and Peasant Economic Systems, (San Francisco: Chandler, 1966), 1-17.
B. Economy: patterns through which goods and services flow, part of society, every society has one
C. Economy = whatever involves people exercising choice primarily in an economizing fashion
D. Substantive versus formal rationality (page 6)
E. Replicates West vs. Rest divide

 

III. The Creation of the Economy

A. Timothy Mitchell, "The Character of Calculability," Chapter 3, Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity (2002).
B. Sociology of knowledge
C. "Economy" becomes "the economy"

1. Simmel, "The Metropolis and Mental Life"
2. 1930s: economy = "'the principle of seeking to attain, or the method of attaining, a desired end, with the least possible expenditure of means'" (Palgrave's Dictionary of Political Economy, 1925, cited on Mitchell 81).
3. 1950:"the economy" = "a distinct social sphere...the realm of a social science, statistical enumeration, and government policy" (81) or "a self-contained structure or mechanism whose internal parts are imagined to move in a dynamic and regular interaction" (82)
4. Today: Google dictionary definition
5. Mitchell: "one of the most profound intellectual and political changes of the twentieth century. Its importance is only confirmed by the fact that no one noticed it took place" (81).

D. Why "the" economy matters

1. Statistical and algebraic representation
2. Material and cultural components, concrete and abstract
3. Representation and reality: "It was both a method of staging the world as though it were divided in this way into two, and a means of overlooking the staging, and taking the division for granted" (82-83).

E. Late imperial rule

1. Maps in Egypt
2. 1907: Ministry of Finance survey of land cultivation and ownership
3. Discussion: What specifically did maps do? With what effects?

F. Cadastral map not only made political power rest on "knowledge and command of space" (90) but also separated reality from its representation, the land from the map
G. This separation, Mitchell argues, allows "the economy" to emerge as a thing
H. Other important factors

1. Measures of cotton production as an index of country's economic situation
2. Joint stock company
3. City as center of economic activity and calculability

 

For more information, contact:  aleshkow@holycross.edu