Distance in Law and Globalization: Armchair Anthropology Revisited
Comparative Law and Anthropology, ed. James Nafziger, Edward Elgar Publishers (UK), (2017 Forthcoming)
34 Pages Posted: 21 Nov 2016
Date Written: October 30, 2016
Abstract
In this chapter I counterpose Law and Globalization studies with "armchair anthropology" to understand parallels between these disparate fields. I argue that Law and Globalization’s reproduction of armchair approaches may prove dangerous for the non-expert, lay publics of political-economic globalization around the world. In support of this, the chapter first revisits the disciplinary canon known as armchair anthropology. It turns to the subsequent period in western anthropology in which the problems of the former were, at least theoretically, rectified. It examines contemporary research in Law and Globalization to ask what trends have emerged and what role these have played in the wider legal academy. And finally it asks what, if any, problems of original armchair anthropology have been reproduced in Law and Globalization, and what dangers this may pose to subjects of the contemporary global system.
Keywords: law, globalization, anthropology, ethnography, colonialism, Third World, power, comparative
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation