Frontiers of Capital

“[A]n interesting and provocative set of chapters. . . . [T]he strength of the collection lies in the ways in which the authors weave clear ethnographic discussions with rich theoretical concerns. Combined ethnography and theory allow us to more clearly understand the give and take that exists between the creators and users of new technologies.” - Jeffrey H. Cohen, American Anthropologist

“Reading this valuable collection of essays . . . made clear to this reader that good old participant observation has lost none of its force. True, new challenges are there, concerning field access, the apparent lack of face-to-face settings, and a reversed asymmetry of power between the ethnographer
and the observed subjects, to name but a few. Yet, if we are to cognitively mine out the depths of the technologies which are taken as definitional for the new forms of capital, then, as many essays in this volume show, we cannot easily discard the miner’s old tools.” - Alex Preda, Canadian Journal of Sociology

“This volume is a convincing display of the continuing power of ethnography to explore the embeddedness of contemporary economic relations in the social world. These essays are impressive for their eagerness to make sense of some of the latest changes in a fast-moving economy.” - Mitchel Y. Abolafia, American Journal of Sociology

“Frontiers of Capital is a synthetic state-of-the-art account of anthropology’s contribution to thinking about the current economic moment. The essays are—without exception—brilliant ethnographic excursions into the terrain of what the editors call the ‘New Economy.’ Together they enable an understanding of the post–Cold War, neoliberal, information-saturated, finance-capital-dominated world we inhabit.” - Charles Piot, author of Remotely Global: Village Modernity in West Africa

“Capital will go anywhere if there is a profit to be turned or value to be found. That is its nature. This important collection provides a further chapter in this natural history, but one which has a much greater range, not least because it deploys a range of ethnographic techniques which allow it to cover the full spectrum of the ways and wheres in which the global economy works. An important and inspirational book which is willing to tread the delicate dividing line between within and without the system.” - Nigel Thrift, author of Knowing Capitalism