"Reflections on economic psychology in Heilongjiang and Oklahoma"

Religious Diversity Colloquium Spring 2014

  • Datum: 13.03.2014
  • Uhrzeit: 15:30 - 17:00
  • Vortragender: Charles Stafford (London School of Economics)
  • Charles Stafford is Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics. He is a specialist in the anthropology of learning and cognition, and has carried out fieldwork for many years in rural Taiwan, China and (more recently) America. He is the author of „Separation and reunion in modern China“ and the editor of „Ordinary ethics in China“. He is also the publisher and editor of the online review journal Anthropology of this Century (AOTC).
  • Ort: MPI-MMG, Hermann-Föge-Weg 12, Göttingen
  • Raum: Conference Room
"Reflections on economic psychology in Heilongjiang and Oklahoma"

For more details please contact vdvoffice(at)mmg.mpg.de.

This lecture draws on ethnographic material collected in rural China and rural America as part of a pilot project on economic psychology, very broadly defined. In particular, I compare the life histories of one man from Heilongjiang and one woman from Oklahoma. As one might expect, the Chinese man is notably focused on social connections as a means to socioeconomic advancement for his family; but the American woman - in her quiet way - is arguably just as concerned with the problem of getting things done via others. For both of them, this implies dealing with generic problems of human cooperation, i.e. with how to coordinate goals, intentions and actions with others over time.

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