‘Edgy’ politics and European anthropology in 2016

Abstract

Focusing on anthropological publications in Europe‐based journals in 2016, this review reflects on the politicisation of anthropology in recent years, tracing the contours of this scholarship through the trope of ‘edges’. From debates about the marginalisation of Euro‐anthropology and analyses of lives ‘on edge’ within Europe, to efforts to push political thinking to its conceptual edges as a form of ‘alter‐politics’, this review explores the ‘edgy’ politics of Euro‐anthropology in 2016. The paper examines how the edges of state and solidarity, self and sociality, human and non‐human futures intersect in the political emphasis of European scholarship in 2016. At the same time, it critically reflects on how and why it is important not to allow this form of political optimism to turn into Eurocentrism, arguing for the continued importance of comparison and encounter outside of epistemic central Anglo‐European worlds.

Towards an anthropology of global inequalities and their local manifestations: social anthropology in 2017

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Nations of bankers and Brexiteers? Nationalism and hidden money

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European social anthropology in 2018: an increasingly recursive public

“…This review marks the third iteration of an emerging annual practice of taking stock of the state of European social anthropology. Whereas previous reviews have focused on how the discipline is boldly venturing out to solve the world's problems through political engagement (Coates ) on pressing issues like inequality (Koch ), I would like to focus on a certain sort of turning inward that has also become apparent in recent years. Indeed, the very practice of amassing these annual reviews is itself symptomatic of this increasing reflexivity – including an appreciation for social anthropology's status as a public , which is to say its status as a community that is brought into being through the circulation of texts (Habermas et al .…”