Short Abstract:

Taking Marxist movements as attempts to overcome the global polycrisis, the workshop approaches Marxism in its ethnographic manifestations. We aim for a comparative analytic of the commoning project and interrogate the relationship between empirical Marxisms and critical anthropological approaches.

Long Abstract:

Despite the assumed ‘end of history’, Marxism as theory and practice continues to thrive, taking on a multiplicity of shapes. Our workshop builds on the premise that anthropologists ought to take Marxist theories and practices seriously as attempts to overcome the global polycrisis. This implies sincerely engaging with Marxists’ own categories rather than purely analysing them through the lenses of cosmology or culture.

Our workshop pursues two interrelated aims: Firstly, we seek to explore empirically the relationship between theory and practice in ethnographic case studies of Marxisms. Pursuing a comparative approach, we ask how to best grasp a universalist and commoning project like Marxism analytically through empirical work and ask what different Marxisms do have ‘in common’ (or not).

Secondly, we interrogate the relationship between empirical Marxism and our own analysis. Whilst many anthropologists see themselves as ‘critical’, anarchist and liberal approaches are much more numerous than Marxist ones, owing to a scepticism of ‘orthodox Marxist’ structure-heaviness and universalism as well as the neoliberal restructuring of the academy. Taking our interlocutors seriously as intellectuals in their own right, also raises the question, which role Marxism could and should play in critical anthropology. We want to discuss the epistemological and methodological implications of Marxism’s dual role as theory and empirical subject with anthropologists who study Marxists and/or have a Marxian analytical outlook.

Due to the bipartite nature of our inquiry, we propose two sessions for the workshop and welcome abstracts that fit with either or both of our stated aims.

This Proposal has so far received 2 paper proposal(s).
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