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economic modelling and thought. Part three presents two case studies as examples of deceptive autonomy and shows the impact of this deception on the situation of women from the viewpoint of cultural studies and social anthropology. Part four relates methodological reflections on feminist and mainstream economics to the theme of the book. The first part of this book is devoted to a reconsideration of Adam Smith as a starting point for feminist perspectives on exchange. Drawing on Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments Caroline Gerschlager sets the stage for expanding the economic concept of exchange. She analyses and develops Smith's insight that deception is inevitable in the social setting...
Exchange is a pervasive concept in everyday life, affecting phenomena as diverse as interpersonal relationships and market transactions. In addition, economists have used the concept in a highly specific and clearly delineated way. Against this background, Expanding the Economic Concept of Exchange sets out to expand the concept of exchange by crossing the boundaries laid down by economists and by examining the function played by deceptions, self-deceptions and illusions. The main motivation for expanding the concept of exchange was the realization that in the prototypical economic model deception is not taken into account. Hence, economists traditionally regard deception as some sort of irr...
Assuming that women’s empowerment would accelerate the pace of social change in rural Nepal, the World Bank urged the Nepali government to undertake a “Gender Activities Project” within an ongoing long-term water-engineering scheme. The author, an anthropologist specializing in bureaucratic organizations and gender studies, was hired to monitor the project. Analyzing her own experience as a practicing “development expert,” she demonstrates that the professed goal of “women’s empowerment” is a pretext for promoting economic organizational goals and the interests of local elites. She shows how a project intended to benefit women, through teaching them literary and agricultural ...
Answering a range of questions and written by a rising star in feminist economics, this book provides explanations of the different kinds of feminism, the evolution of feminist thought and, the history and sources of utopias as a theoretical and/or literary tool.
The Tapestry of Culture: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology provides students and the interested public with a concise picture of the field of cultural anthropology today. From the first edition of Tapestry of Culture published in the early 1980s until now, anthropology has changed greatly, responding to scholarly and political influences as well as changing generations; the ninth edition reflects this ongoing transformation. The influence of postmodernism has generated new debates over theory and practice in anthropology. The content of Tapestry explains these debates, as well as what is still generally accepted and agreed upon by most anthropologists. This edition provides the instru...
The Altai Republic in southern Siberia is renowned for excavations of frozen mummies from high-altitude burial sites. Less well-known is the fact that it hosts fallout zones for the second stages of rockets launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome. Local inhabitants blame ‘evil spirits’ released by archaeological work and toxic fuel from rocket debris for their misfortunes. This book explores the divergent fates of such claims when confronted with state-fostered ‘rationalisms’ of science and governance.
Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the most celebrated literary work of medieval England, portrays the culture of the late Middle Ages as a deeply commercial environment, replete with commodities and dominated by market relationships. However, the market is not the only mode of exchange in Chaucer’s world or in his poem. Chaucer’s Gifts reveals the gift economy at work in the tales. Applying important recent advances in anthropological gift theory, it illuminates and explains this network of exchanges and obligations. Chaucer’s Gifts argues that the world of the Canterbury Tales harbours deep commitments to reciprocity and obligation which are at odds with a purely commercial culture, and demonstrates how the market and commercial relations are not natural, eternal, or inevitable – an essential lesson if we are to understand Chaucer’s world or our own.
A comprehensive history of fraud in America, from the early nineteenth century to the subprime mortgage crisis In America, fraud has always been a key feature of business, and the national worship of entrepreneurial freedom complicates the task of distinguishing salesmanship from deceit. In this sweeping narrative, Edward Balleisen traces the history of fraud in America—and the evolving efforts to combat it—from the age of P. T. Barnum through the eras of Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff. This unprecedented account describes the slow, piecemeal construction of modern institutions to protect consumers and investors—from the Gilded Age through the New Deal and the Great Society. It concludes with the more recent era of deregulation, which has brought with it a spate of costly frauds, including corporate accounting scandals and the mortgage-marketing debacle. By tracing how Americans have struggled to foster a vibrant economy without encouraging a corrosive level of cheating, Fraud reminds us that American capitalism rests on an uneasy foundation of social trust.
Animal Others brings together original contributions that explore the status of animals from the continental philosophy perspective. Examined are the moral status of animals, the question of animal minds, an understanding of what it is to be an animal and what it is to be with an animal, as well as the roles animals play in the work of philosophers such as Husserl, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Merleau-Ponty, and Derrida. Those already immersed in continental philosophy will find the subject matter of the animal to be a new interest and a promising new venture. Analytic philosophers and other academics will be rewarded by a different approach to old questions, while the general reader interested in animal rights issues will discover new arguments to back up their positions and fresh challenges which may question long-held beliefs. Contributors include Ralph R. Acampora, Elizabeth A. Behnke, Lynda Birke, Carleton Dallery, James G. Hart, Monika Langer, Steven W. Laycock, Alphonso Lingis, William McNeill, Luciana Parisi, H. Peter Steeves, and David Wood.