Paper long abstract:

The paper is based on fieldwork research on the Indian Ocean island Mauritius during an economic crisis in the early 21st century and archival research on the early neoliberal restructuring of the global economy after World War II. It is argued that core concepts of anthropology such as culture and reciprocity are better understood as inherent features of capitalism arising from within this economic system's contradictory nature, than as alternative arenas inhibiting resistance and opposition. The concept of scale, which I introduce, is informed by Tsing's call to analyse the era of globalisation as a prolongation of evolutionist modernisation. The talk will show that it provides a useful tool to unite the analysis of capitalism's political economic and phenomenological structure.