About the masterclass

This masterclass introduces PhD candidates to political economy as a central analytical framework in contemporary anthropology. It builds on foundational approaches that understand economic relations, production, circulation, and consumption, as shaped by power, inequality, and conflict . Moving beyond theory, the session demonstrates how political economy can be mobilized as a conceptual and methodological tool for ethnographic research, enabling participants to connect global economic transformations with everyday lived realities.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

• Develop a grounded understanding of key political economy concepts (capital, labor, value, accumulation);
• Examine how political economy informs anthropological analysis and ethnographic method;
• Connect macro-economic processes to local, lived experiences;
• Apply political economy perspectives to their own PhD research;
• Critically reflect on the limits of political economy and its extensions (e.g. feminist, decolonial, ecological approaches).

Core Readings in advance of the Masterclass

Berman, Marshall (1982). All That Is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity. New York: Simon & Schuster. Introduction: Modernity—Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow & Chapter 2: Marx, Modernization and Modernism (pp. 15–86)

Harvey, David (2005). A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapter 1 (pp. 1–38)

Fraser, Nancy (2014). Behind Marx’s Hidden Abode: For an Expanded Conception of Capitalism. New Left Review 86: 55–72.

Graeber, David (2011). Debt: The First 5,000 Years. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House.• Chapter 12: The Beginning of Something Yet to Be Determined (pp. 381–406)

Expected Outcomes

By the end of the session, participants will have:

• A clear conceptual toolkit for engaging with political economy;
• The ability to connect theory and ethnographic analysis;
• A preliminary framework for integrating political economy into their doctoral research design.

NESA

This masterclass is part of the course Contemporary Anthropology of the Netherlands School of Anthropology. Each masterclass takes 3-4 hours and offers a combination of a lecture and a seminar.

The NESA masterclasses are for all Cultural Anthropology PhD students from Utrecht University, University of Amsterdam, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Radboud University and Leiden University. 

• nesa

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