Legacies, Logics, Logistics

"Legacies, Logics, Logistics brings together a set of essays, written both before and after the financial crisis of 2007{u2013}08, by eminent Africanist and economic anthropologist Jane I. Guyer. Each was written initially for a conference on a defined theme. When they are brought together and interpreted as a whole by Guyer, these varied essays show how an anthropological and socio-historical approach to economic practices{u2014}both in the West and elsewhere{u2014}can illuminate deep facets of economic life that the big theories and models may fail to capture. Focusing on economic actors{u2014}whether ordinary consumers or financial experts{u2014}Guyer traces how people and institutions hold together past experiences (legacies), imagined scenarios and models (logics), and situational challenges (logistics) in a way that makes the performance of economic life (on platforms made of these legacies, logics, and logistics) work in practice. Individual essays explore a number of topics{u2014}including time frames and the future, the use of percentages in observations and judgments, the explanation of prices, the coexistence of different world currencies, the reapplication of longtime e