Berghahn Series

The Human Economy

Series Editors:
Keith Hart, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London
Theodoros Rakopoulos, Associate Professor, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo

Editorial Board:
Catherine Alexander, Durham University
Sophie Chevalier, Université de Picardie Jules Verne
Horacio Ortiz, East China Normal University, Shanghai
Theodore Powers, University of Iowa
Mallika Shakya, South Asia University, New Delhi

"This series is more an agenda-setting enterprise than a mere book series. It promises to be the most important scholarly initiative to come from the global south in a very long time; one that is sure to change how we think about the world at large, about economy and humanity". · John Comaroff, Harvard University

“Human economy” is not an exclusive concept or method, but an umbrella term for a conversation between writers and readers who draw individually on a wide variety of intellectual and political precedents. The first volumes of the series (see below) have concentrated on money and power, its service to creating an unequal society as well as its potential for human emancipation; economic democracy; credit and debt; and a range of case studies from the gypsy economy to anti-mafia cooperatives. We now want to expand the series. In its next phase we will encourage single-authored monographs pitched in dialogue with related approaches of contemporary significance -- such as moral economy, global commodity chains, health, popular and informal economies, to mention a few examples.

We hope to launch many nodes of enquiry united by a desire to make economy more human than we currently find it. We do not aim for an exclusive monopoly, but a plural, inclusive and decentralized network with the books in this series as a common core. The economy is not a remote object reported online or in the TV news. It is an idea of how people should manage their lives with a view to getting by or even improving their lot. The tradition of economic thought has addressed this question historically with variable success. We know that world society now undermines the national vehicles for living that dominated the last century. Professional economic discourse seems increasingly impersonal and remote from daily life. The human economy approach seeks to inform scholars, activists and practitioners for whom building bridges between what people really do and human interests as a whole are a matter of urgent concern.

Manuscripts should be sent directly to Berghahn Books.

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