Dr Andrew Sanchez

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