Dialectical Anthropology - Special Issue Proposal - Call for Papers

 Anthropology and the labor theory of value

This special issue calls for papers that engage the labor theory of value from anthropological perspectives. It has two primary aims: 1) generating theoretical contributions to ongoing debates on the role of anthropology in the study of value from Marxian perspectives; 2) providing new arguments to explain the ways in which ‘universalist’ theories (such as the labor theory of value) can be deployed in anthropological studies of social process, human behavior and cultural production.

            We welcome contributions backed by original ethnographic work, but also theoretically oriented interventions that tackle ongoing debates on the creation of value in contemporary capitalism. Reflections on methodological and epistemological questions are also welcomed as part of the theoretical contributions we expect to facilitate. The following questions constitute examples that could help orient those theoretical reflections: what type of ethnographic work does the labor theory of value demand? what benefit can anthropologists obtain from their knowledge of the labor theory of value and the questions this theory enables us to explore? what can anthropology do with the labor theory of value in a historical period in which capital accumulation is increasingly conditioned by new forms of rent-capture?

Manuscript length:

Approximately 7,000 words including notes and bibliography.

Due Dates:

Abstract: 04 Dec 2020

Full Version: 01 February 2021

Please indicate your interest by contacting:

Guest editor:

Luis Angosto-Ferrandez, University of Sydney, email: luis.angosto-ferrandez@sydney.eu.au