Connecting Diverse Logics in Global Capitalism: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Keywords

economic anthropology,capitalism,connection

Objectives

In this research project, I strive to understand the junctures between the diverse spheres in which people live and global capitalism, from an interdisciplinary perspective that takes anthropology as its starting point. The study aims not only at understanding these various junctions concretely from an ethnographic perspective, but also at developing them into theories by incorporating sociological and geographical perspectives.
　Anthropology has long made clear that capitalism is not a self-contained economic system, but rather a system that is deeply linked with external spheres that operate according to different logics (e.g., communities, families, colonies) and organized from the resources derived from those spheres. Some arguments assert that this diversity has been lost as capitalism has subsumed the world around it. However, it may also be that globalization has joined these diverse logics together. As an example, the outsourcing and international relocation of manufacturing has strongly connected niche locations across the world in a single supply chain, despite their highly diverse cultural and social milieu. As capitalism is transformed, family and community spheres of reproduction are also taking on new forms.
　In light of this, how can we understand the diversity that emerges from such junctures? This study attempts to construct a model from the field by comparing case studies from around the world, and to shape theories through dialogues between anthropology, sociology, and geography.