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.
Research
I am a specialist on the anthropology of class, labour, corruption and race, 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. I am also preparing a new collection about Mixed-Race thought and politics.
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
2025 (in press). 'A Mixed Race Imagination' Critique of Anthropology
2023. ‘Kill Your Ancestors: The Wars of Decolonization’ American Ethnologist 50(3):439-445
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
2025 (in press). 'Mixed-Race Thought' Critique of Anthropology
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
2024. ‘The Alchemy of the Circular Economy’. Circular Economies in an Unequal World: Waste, Renewal and the Effects of Global Circularity. O’Hare, P and Rams, D. (eds). Bloomsbury. pp. 215-224
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
Other Publications
In Press 2025. Comment: McNamara, T. ‘Multi-Unionism, Union Bureaucracy and Untruth in Collective Ethical Self-making’. Current Anthropology
In Press 2025. Comment: Alvi, A. & Werth, L. ‘Generosity as Ethics: The Double Transaction in Marcel Mauss’s The Gift’. Current Anthropology 2024 65:6, 1010-1027
2024. 'Can a Circular Economy Ever Work' Bloomsbury Academic Blog April 19th 2024
2024. 'Why Do We Need the Gens Manifesto?' Boasblog April 16th 2024
2023. 'Decolonization: What’s the Point?' CUSAS Magazine Lent 2023
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
Book Reviews
2023. 'A Labour of Love'. Review of ‘Classes of Labour: Work and Life in a Central Indian Steel Town’ by Jonathan Parry. Dialectical Anthropology 47 135-138
2022. ‘I am the People: Reflections on Popular Sovereignty Today’ by Partha Chatterjee. Anthropological Quarterly 95(1): 233-236
2021.‘Making Cars in the New India: Industry, Precarity and Informality’ by Tom Barnes. Journal of South Asian Development 16 (2):313-315
2017. ‘Gangster States: Organized Crime, Kleptocracy and Political Collapse’ by Katherine Hirschfeld. American Anthropologist 119 (1):162–163
2016. `Dream Zones. Anticipating Capitalism and Development in India´ by Jamie Cross. South Asia 39 (4): 908-909
2014. `Anthropology in the City: Methodology and Theory´ by Italo Pardo and Giuliana B. Prato (eds). Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 20 (2): 379-380
2009. 'Anthropology, Politics and the State: Democracy and Violence In South Asia' by Jonathan Spencer. Nations and Nationalism 15 (3): 555-556
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
Javier Ruiz
Mary Tate
Sumedha Chakravarty
Tarina Franklin
Charlotte Hickman
Yisha Zhu
Andrew Sanchez is accepting applications for PhD students.
