Susana Narotzky | University of Barcelona (original) (raw)
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Papers by Susana Narotzky
Structural adjustment policies in Europe underscore the lack of sovereignty and responsibility of... more Structural adjustment policies in Europe underscore the lack of sovereignty and responsibility of nation-states towards the wellbeing of their citizens. As a result, in popular mobilizations arguments of inequality and injustice, expressed in a demand for dignity, are intertwined. The article explores this shift away from older arguments of exploitation and domination. Using ethnographic material from an industrial town in Galicia (Spain), I analyze two apparently different types of mobilization that have emerged after the 2008 crisis, trying to understand what grievances and objectives pull people together. One is the local expression of new social movements; the other is the remaining expression of working class organization. Each of these models reinterprets a particular historical tradition of struggle while developing a new interpretation of the social objectives and subjectivities of the future. My hypothesis is that a ‘moral economy’ framework has superseded a ‘political economy’ framework in the motivation for struggle.
Keywords: Inequality; Injustice; Crisis; Political Economy; Moral Economy
Identities, 2011
This lecture addresses the connection between the production in the present of particular memorie... more This lecture addresses the connection between the production in the present of particular memories of the past and the ability to frame present-day conflicts in ways that render certain possibilities legitimate while excluding others. Through the ethnographic material I have gathered during my career I will show how different projects of the future (personal and collective) appeal to memories of conflict that link responsibilities and generations at different scales. Taking as my object of observation the transformations in economic relations in a heavy industrial region of northwestern Spain I will trace the connections between the languages and practices of contention, the reconfigured structures of production and governance, and the production of diverse memories (and silences) of conflict. Diverse memories produce struggles framed in class terms, or struggles framed in terms of corporatist interests, or in terms of contingently defined social claims. Through this often ambivalent delimitation of conflicts between past and present, the field of possible futures gets configured and with it the spectrum of possible political action.
Ethnology, Jan 1, 2009
Ethnography underscores the need to historically contextualize and spatially localize economic mo... more Ethnography underscores the need to historically contextualize and spatially localize economic models such as the "industrial district" and concepts used as ahistorical typologies such as "social capital." This article is based on ethnographic research in Spain, where decentralized footwear production is structured around informal subcontracting networks, and on published works from the Wenzhou area of China. The essay demonstrates the usefulness of the extended case method for the comparison of economic regions whose destinies have articulated in a global political economy. It also illustrates how the abstract use of "social capital" in regional economy models seems to support and justify new forms of corporatism to the economic domain. (Extended case method, economic models, social capital, reciprocity, industrial district, economic anthropology)
Current Anthropology, 2008
Dialectical Anthropology, Jan 1, 2008
Current Anthropology, 2007
ABSTRACT Concepts such as "reciprocity," "embeddedness," and ... more ABSTRACT Concepts such as "reciprocity," "embeddedness," and "social capital" have been the main tools for description and analysis of social relations sustaining economic activities in areas defined as regional economies or industrial districts, becoming models for successful development in Europe. Historicizing these concepts, stressing the concrete political agendas of the scholars who produced them, reveals them as paradoxical in that, though they are abstract, their main force lies in their social, cultural, historical, and spatial situatedness. This situation points to the awkwardness of "ethnographic realism" and the need for a kind of "reflexive historical realism" to enhance viable anthropological communication.
Current Anthropology, Jan 1, 2007
Critique of Anthropology, 2007
■ In this article I address conflict during the Spanish Civil War and the immediate post-war year... more ■ In this article I address conflict during the Spanish Civil War and the immediate post-war years by searching for any discernible social bases for the coalitions that confronted each other locally in a particular rural area in Catalunya. I try to address the real complexity of how civilians locally, and often violently, confronted their close neighbors and how this
Etnográfica, 2006
The article is a critique of models of successful economic development in Europe based on the "ec... more The article is a critique of models of successful economic development in Europe based on the "economic region" idea. These models stress the usefulness of embedding economic relations in the social fabric ("social capital"). The ethnography reveals, however, a conflict-laden space where increased embeddedness produces increased tension within the family and the community. In this "modelic" regional economy in Southern Alicante (Spain), recent violent events have involved local actors in the shoe-wear industry, with resident Chinese entrepreneurs. I will show how this confrontation underlines the rise of local modalities of conflict that build upon the organic and culturally bounded elements of economic production that the model stresses: local homogeneity and common interest. The ethnographic evidence shows the complexity of a "regional economy" in a globalized context where appeals to the State to strengthen and enforce some regulations coexist with appeals to deregulate other areas of the economy. This article is based on an ethnography of the Vega Baja del Segura (Valencia, SE Spain) 1 and on recent events in the area -followed through the media and other secondary sources -that have developed as a consequence of the entrance of China in the WTO in 2001 and the opening of the European market to Chinese produced shoes. The area is one of small and medium family firms, some of which were among the more profitable in their sector (footwear) at the time of fieldwork. Following recent sociological and economic models, the area has been described by local experts as an industrial district -or a regional economy -, in reference to its dynamic and flexible economic structure and its entrepreneurial culture.
Revista d'Etnologia de Catalunya, 2006
... s'insisteix en la imatge de la nació com a 'ma-re' i de la lluita com a lluita... more ... s'insisteix en la imatge de la nació com a 'ma-re' i de la lluita com a lluita 'fratricida' moralment reprobable en termes de l'ètica 'natural' de la sang, sustentant implícitament una idea corporativista de la nació en la qual el conflicte és 'dolent' (Agui-lar, 1996; Julia, 2003; Narotzky ...
Petty Capitalists And Globalization: …, Jan 1, 2006
Movers and Fixers: Historical Forms of Exploitation and the Marketing of a Regional Economy in Sp... more Movers and Fixers: Historical Forms of Exploitation and the Marketing of a Regional Economy in Spain Gavin Smith and Susana Narotzky The Problem Laid Out The most influential work being done on what might broadly be described as petty capitalism in the European Union (EU) ...
A handbook of economic anthropology, Jan 1, 2005
Procoli, A.(ed.), Jan 1, 2004
Anthropological Theory, Jan 1, 2002
This article proposes the concept of negative reciprocity as a necessary and substantive aspect o... more This article proposes the concept of negative reciprocity as a necessary and substantive aspect of the general concept of reciprocity. We contend that the concept of reciprocity is useful only when conceived simultaneously in its negative and positive forms as they are articulated in historical processes. If treated in all its complexity the concept of reciprocity might help us to understand the ambivalence often present in social relationships. Reference to a moral domain is the central tenet that differentiates reciprocity from exchange. Reciprocity is based on a shared morality in its positive form and on the break, transformation or suspension of the moral order in its negative form. We base our discussion on the ethnographic account of the social relations that supported circulation of resources in the Auschwitz concentration camp. However, a comparative perspective indicates that the negative reciprocity pervading Auschwitz's social relations is an extreme example of a broader category of human interaction in no way unique.
Structural adjustment policies in Europe underscore the lack of sovereignty and responsibility of... more Structural adjustment policies in Europe underscore the lack of sovereignty and responsibility of nation-states towards the wellbeing of their citizens. As a result, in popular mobilizations arguments of inequality and injustice, expressed in a demand for dignity, are intertwined. The article explores this shift away from older arguments of exploitation and domination. Using ethnographic material from an industrial town in Galicia (Spain), I analyze two apparently different types of mobilization that have emerged after the 2008 crisis, trying to understand what grievances and objectives pull people together. One is the local expression of new social movements; the other is the remaining expression of working class organization. Each of these models reinterprets a particular historical tradition of struggle while developing a new interpretation of the social objectives and subjectivities of the future. My hypothesis is that a ‘moral economy’ framework has superseded a ‘political economy’ framework in the motivation for struggle.
Keywords: Inequality; Injustice; Crisis; Political Economy; Moral Economy
Identities, 2011
This lecture addresses the connection between the production in the present of particular memorie... more This lecture addresses the connection between the production in the present of particular memories of the past and the ability to frame present-day conflicts in ways that render certain possibilities legitimate while excluding others. Through the ethnographic material I have gathered during my career I will show how different projects of the future (personal and collective) appeal to memories of conflict that link responsibilities and generations at different scales. Taking as my object of observation the transformations in economic relations in a heavy industrial region of northwestern Spain I will trace the connections between the languages and practices of contention, the reconfigured structures of production and governance, and the production of diverse memories (and silences) of conflict. Diverse memories produce struggles framed in class terms, or struggles framed in terms of corporatist interests, or in terms of contingently defined social claims. Through this often ambivalent delimitation of conflicts between past and present, the field of possible futures gets configured and with it the spectrum of possible political action.
Ethnology, Jan 1, 2009
Ethnography underscores the need to historically contextualize and spatially localize economic mo... more Ethnography underscores the need to historically contextualize and spatially localize economic models such as the "industrial district" and concepts used as ahistorical typologies such as "social capital." This article is based on ethnographic research in Spain, where decentralized footwear production is structured around informal subcontracting networks, and on published works from the Wenzhou area of China. The essay demonstrates the usefulness of the extended case method for the comparison of economic regions whose destinies have articulated in a global political economy. It also illustrates how the abstract use of "social capital" in regional economy models seems to support and justify new forms of corporatism to the economic domain. (Extended case method, economic models, social capital, reciprocity, industrial district, economic anthropology)
Current Anthropology, 2008
Dialectical Anthropology, Jan 1, 2008
Current Anthropology, 2007
ABSTRACT Concepts such as "reciprocity," "embeddedness," and ... more ABSTRACT Concepts such as "reciprocity," "embeddedness," and "social capital" have been the main tools for description and analysis of social relations sustaining economic activities in areas defined as regional economies or industrial districts, becoming models for successful development in Europe. Historicizing these concepts, stressing the concrete political agendas of the scholars who produced them, reveals them as paradoxical in that, though they are abstract, their main force lies in their social, cultural, historical, and spatial situatedness. This situation points to the awkwardness of "ethnographic realism" and the need for a kind of "reflexive historical realism" to enhance viable anthropological communication.
Current Anthropology, Jan 1, 2007
Critique of Anthropology, 2007
■ In this article I address conflict during the Spanish Civil War and the immediate post-war year... more ■ In this article I address conflict during the Spanish Civil War and the immediate post-war years by searching for any discernible social bases for the coalitions that confronted each other locally in a particular rural area in Catalunya. I try to address the real complexity of how civilians locally, and often violently, confronted their close neighbors and how this
Etnográfica, 2006
The article is a critique of models of successful economic development in Europe based on the "ec... more The article is a critique of models of successful economic development in Europe based on the "economic region" idea. These models stress the usefulness of embedding economic relations in the social fabric ("social capital"). The ethnography reveals, however, a conflict-laden space where increased embeddedness produces increased tension within the family and the community. In this "modelic" regional economy in Southern Alicante (Spain), recent violent events have involved local actors in the shoe-wear industry, with resident Chinese entrepreneurs. I will show how this confrontation underlines the rise of local modalities of conflict that build upon the organic and culturally bounded elements of economic production that the model stresses: local homogeneity and common interest. The ethnographic evidence shows the complexity of a "regional economy" in a globalized context where appeals to the State to strengthen and enforce some regulations coexist with appeals to deregulate other areas of the economy. This article is based on an ethnography of the Vega Baja del Segura (Valencia, SE Spain) 1 and on recent events in the area -followed through the media and other secondary sources -that have developed as a consequence of the entrance of China in the WTO in 2001 and the opening of the European market to Chinese produced shoes. The area is one of small and medium family firms, some of which were among the more profitable in their sector (footwear) at the time of fieldwork. Following recent sociological and economic models, the area has been described by local experts as an industrial district -or a regional economy -, in reference to its dynamic and flexible economic structure and its entrepreneurial culture.
Revista d'Etnologia de Catalunya, 2006
... s'insisteix en la imatge de la nació com a 'ma-re' i de la lluita com a lluita... more ... s'insisteix en la imatge de la nació com a 'ma-re' i de la lluita com a lluita 'fratricida' moralment reprobable en termes de l'ètica 'natural' de la sang, sustentant implícitament una idea corporativista de la nació en la qual el conflicte és 'dolent' (Agui-lar, 1996; Julia, 2003; Narotzky ...
Petty Capitalists And Globalization: …, Jan 1, 2006
Movers and Fixers: Historical Forms of Exploitation and the Marketing of a Regional Economy in Sp... more Movers and Fixers: Historical Forms of Exploitation and the Marketing of a Regional Economy in Spain Gavin Smith and Susana Narotzky The Problem Laid Out The most influential work being done on what might broadly be described as petty capitalism in the European Union (EU) ...
A handbook of economic anthropology, Jan 1, 2005
Procoli, A.(ed.), Jan 1, 2004
Anthropological Theory, Jan 1, 2002
This article proposes the concept of negative reciprocity as a necessary and substantive aspect o... more This article proposes the concept of negative reciprocity as a necessary and substantive aspect of the general concept of reciprocity. We contend that the concept of reciprocity is useful only when conceived simultaneously in its negative and positive forms as they are articulated in historical processes. If treated in all its complexity the concept of reciprocity might help us to understand the ambivalence often present in social relationships. Reference to a moral domain is the central tenet that differentiates reciprocity from exchange. Reciprocity is based on a shared morality in its positive form and on the break, transformation or suspension of the moral order in its negative form. We base our discussion on the ethnographic account of the social relations that supported circulation of resources in the Auschwitz concentration camp. However, a comparative perspective indicates that the negative reciprocity pervading Auschwitz's social relations is an extreme example of a broader category of human interaction in no way unique.