Marx in the Field (Anthem, 2021): Book Launch Video
Marx in the Field has been edited by Alessandra Mezzadri, Senior Lecturer Development Studies, SOAS. The book launch was organized on June 11th, 2021 as a friendly conversation between her and the contributors, who include Henry Bernstein, Barbara Harriss-White, Muhammad Ali Jan, Susan Newman, Adam Hanieh, Ben Selwyn, Satoshi Miyamura, Farai Mtero, Brittany Bunce and Ben Cousins, Lorena Lombardozzi, Tania Toffanin, Sara Stevano, Sigrid Vertommen, Gavin Capps and Subir Sinha. The session was chaired and moderated by Jens Lerche.
Marx in the Field: The Book
Marx in the Field is a unique edited collection illustrating the relevance of the Marxian method to study contemporary capitalism and the global development process. Essays in the collection bring Marx ‘to the field’ in three ways. They illustrate how Marxian categories can be concretely deployed for field research in the global economy. They analyse how these categories may be adapted during fieldwork and they discuss data collection methods supporting Marxian analysis. And crucially, many of the contributions expand the scope of Marxian analysis by combining its insights with those of other intellectual traditions, including radical feminisms, critical realism and postcolonial studies. The book defines the possibilities and challenges of fieldwork guided by Marxian analysis, including those emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Marx in the Field & Agrarian Change
Highlights particularly relevant to debates on agrarian change include: Barbara Harriss-White’s exploration of merchant capital; Subir Sinha’s cyber-fieldwork on rural migrant workers in India in COVID times; Ali Jan’s notes on fractions of capital in rural Pakistan; the analysis of class in rural South Africa by Farai Mtero et al; Sara Stevano’s exploration of ‘Marx’s diet’ in Western Africa; Lorena Lombardozzi’s mapping of unfreedom in rural Uzbekistan; Ben Selwyn’s analysis of learning Marx by doing in agricultural commodity chains in Brazil; and Gavin Capps’s study of tribal-landed property in South Africa. A full table of content is available here: https://anthempress.com/marx-in-the-field-hb
Agrarian Questions is pleased to host the full recording of the event:
