Biography
I am a social anthropologist whose research is about economy, power and working life. I also write about race and decolonisation. Prior to joining the University of Cambridge in 2016, I held teaching and research positions at the LSE, the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, and the University of Kent. I am a member of the University Council, the principal executive and policy-making body of the University of Cambridge.
Research
I am a specialist on the anthropology of class, labour and corruption, and have conducted ethnographic fieldwork in urban India among industrial workers, trade unionists and entrepreneurs.
In 2016 I published my first book Criminal Capital: Violence, Corruption and Class in Industrial India,which considered how changing employment regimes relate to criminality in corporations and political institutions. Since then, my published work has explored a range of issues related to precarity, marginality, work, exchange, criminality, race, and anthropological theory.
I am currently writing a book about why it is in human nature to transform things, and how transformative efficacy is at the core of most major questions about political and economic life.
You can learn more about my anthropological work here: www.andrewsanchez.co.uk
Research interests
Capitalism; class; corruption; economy; India; industry organised crime; urban anthropology; race; work and labour.
Publications
Books
2019. Indeterminacy: Waste, Value and the Imagination. Berghahn (with Catherine Alexander)
2016. Criminal Capital: Violence, Corruption and Class in Industrial India, Routledge
Articles in peer-reviewed journals
Forthcoming 2023. ‘Kill Your Ancestors: Clickbait Wars and Decolonization’ American Ethnologist 50(3)
2020. ‘Transformation and the Satisfaction of Work’ Social Analysis 64(3): 68-94
2019. 'Understanding Labour Politics in an Age of Precarity' (with Sian Lazar) Dialectical Anthropology 43(1): 3-14
2019. 'Everyday Barricades: Bureaucracy and the Affect of Struggle in Trade Unions' (with Eeva Kesküla) Dialectical Anthropology 43(1): 109-125
2018.‘Canon Fire: Decolonizing the Curriculum’ The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology36 (2): 1-6
2017. ‘The Novelty of the Gift: A British Anthropologist & the Trends of Ethnography’ History and Anthropology 28 (5): 553-559
2016. ‘Profane Relations: The Irony of Offensive Jokes in India’ History and Anthropology 27 (3): 296-312
2014. ‘Anthropological and Historical Perspectives on India’s Working Classes’ (with Christian Strümpell) Modern Asian Studies 48(5): 1233-1241
2014. ‘Sons of Soil, Sons of Steel: Autochthony Descent and the Class Concept in Industrial India’ (with Christian Strümpell) Modern Asian Studies 48(5): 1276-1301
2012. ‘Deadwood and Paternalism: Rationalising Casual Labour in an Indian Company Town’ Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute18 (4): 808-827
2012. ‘Questioning Success: Dispossession and the Criminal Entrepreneur in Urban India’ Critique of Anthropology 32 (4): 435-457
2010. ‘Capitalism, Violence and The State: Crime, Corruption and Entrepreneurship in an Indian Company Town’ Journal of Legal Anthropology,1 (2):165-188
Edited Journal Issues
2019 . ’Labour Politics in an Age of Precarity’ (co-edited with Sian Lazar) Dialectical Anthropology 43(1)
2018. ‘Canon Fire: Decolonizing the Curriculum’ The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology 36(2)
2017. ‘The Indian Gift: a Critical Debate’. History and Anthropology 28 (5): 553-583
2014. ‘Class Matters: New Ethnographic Perspectives on the Politics of Indian Labour’ (co-edited with Christian Strümpell) Modern Asian Studies 48(5)
Chapters in Edited Collections
Forthcoming 2023. ‘The Alchemy of the Circular Economy’. Circular Economies: Between the Promise of Renewal and Unequal Global Circulation. O’Hare, P and Rams, D. (eds). Zed.
2022. 'Technologies of Transformation' Routledge Handbook of The Anthropology of Labor. Gill, L and Kasmir, S (eds). Routledge. pp.361-371
2022. 'Mauss and the Gift' A Handbook of Economic Anthropology (3rd Edition). Carrier, JG. ed. Edward Elgar. pp. 35-44
2021. ‘The Colour of Anthropology’. Reading Against Racism: A Berghahn Collection
2019. ‘Systemic Criminality, Work and The Politics of Labour’. The Handbook of Organised Crime and Politics. Gilmour, S & Allum, F. (eds). Edward Elgar pp.374-388
2019. ‘The Values of Indeterminacy’ (with Catherine Alexander) Indeterminacy: Waste, Value and the Imagination. Alexander, C & Sanchez, A (eds.) Berghahn. pp. 1-30
2018. ‘The Fall and Rise of Class’. The Handbook of Political Anthropology. Wydra, H & Thomassen, B. (eds.) Edward Elgar. pp. 410-422
2018. ‘Division of Labour’ International Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Hilary Callan (ed.) Wiley-Blackwell
2018. ‘Piece Rates’ International Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Hilary Callan (ed.) Wiley-Blackwell
2018. ‘Relative Precarity: Decline, Hope and the Politics of Work’ Industrial Labor on the Margins of Capitalism: Precarity, Class and the Neoliberal Subject. Hann, C & Parry, JP. (eds) Berghahn pp. 218-240
2017. ‘Coercion and Corporate Power: Notes on Class Struggle in an Indian City’. The Corporation: A Critical, Multidisciplinary Handbook. Grietje Baars & Andre Spicer (eds.) Cambridge University Press. pp. 470-478
2015. ‘Criminal Entrepreneurship: A political economy of corruption and organised crime in India’ Routledge Handbook of Political Corruption. Paul Heywood (ed.) Routledge pp. 67-76
Reports and Comments
2022. ‘Work is Complicated Thoughts on David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs’ FocaalBlog March 4th 2022
2016. ‘Corruption is both a symptom of the basic structures of capitalism, and a technology that supports them’. LSE South Asia. May 12 2016
2015. ‘FT could be more critical of a company town’ Financial Times. November 12 2015
2012. ‘Corruption in India’. India: The Next Superpower? LSE IDEAS SR010 March 2012: 50-53
2011. ‘Criminal Capital’ LSE Connect, Winter 2011:12-13
2011. ‘Taking Stock: Looting and the Left in the London Riots’ City Analysis
Teaching and Supervisions
SAN1: Social Anthropology: The comparative perspective Critical issues: Politics and economic life
SAN2: The foundations of social life: Economic anthropology
SAN4: Ethnographic areas: South Asia: The Political Economy of Modern India
SAN6: Power, economy and social transformation: Organised Crime and Corruption
SAN7: Ethnographic methods & writing
SAN12: Cities and space: Concepts & Methods in Urban Anthropology; City Life
MPhil Paper 1: Production & reproduction: Anthropology and economics
MPhil SAR: The Anthropology of Violence
MRes/PhD First Year: Ethnographic methods
Andrew Sanchez is accepting applications for PhD students.