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.

Research Results

This inter-university research project examined the problem of “economics” through both theories and case studies, not in the narrow sense of the word, but to reinterpret capitalism from the perspective of how people live. As a result, we built an approach that focuses on three points—emotion, materiality, and critique—and explored the possibility of ethnographic description based on this approach.
Theoretical examination revealed that focusing on the problem of junctures would enable a holistic understanding of capitalism from an anthropological, geographical, and sociological perspective. It is clear that as long as capitalism is defined as the pursuit of profit with wage labor, it cannot continue to exist alone. Capitalism is not possible without using elements created by the methods of others; namely, workers raised by family and community and minerals, plants, and animals produced by the natural environment. This leads to the problem of juncture. The inter-university research project examined the problem of junctures in the theories and concepts of social reproduction theory, Capitalocene, extractivism, cognitive capitalism, and Gens. It revealed that the transformation of capitalism has produced new diverse junctions and that ethnographical research focusing on how people live and their desires is crucial for understanding these junctions.
Based on this approach, the inter-university research project comparatively examined ethnographical case studies, which lead to three points of discussion: emotion, materiality, and critique. (1) Emotion: When women migrate to escape rural life where they are overwhelmed by housework and farm work, they often actively try to be involved in capitalism. There is a need to examine how people’s choice of lifestyle, and the emotions of desire, joy, and sadness that go along with that lifestyle, is related to the continuance of capitalism. (2) Materiality: Junctions are made possible through material mediation. Therefore, there is a need to examine which logistics and geological and political conditions accelerate and cut off junctions and in what way. (3) Critique: Research based on ethnographic description must take a delicate position in regard to the critique of capitalism. It must consider what kind of critiques can be justified. By sharing these three points, the inter-university research project built a foundation to enable the possibility of comparative ethnographic research.