Rachel Smith
@valuequestion.bsky.social
Scotland-based Lecturer in Anthropology & Museum Studies. Vanuatu/Pacific; economic anthro, value, labour migration. Co-Editor, Anthropology of Work Review @anthropologyofwork.bsky.social
Reposted by Rachel Smith
At last, some properly rigorous reporting on the vampiric management consulting behind proposed cuts at Edinburgh Uni.
Grab some garlic, read and weep.
Grab some garlic, read and weep.
🔴 NEW: The University of Edinburgh has quietly paid more than £750,000 to a controversial consulting firm amid job cuts - staff say bosses ignored "repeated" questions about its role.
Read more about 'Nousferatu' 👉 www.theferret.scot/p...
Read more about 'Nousferatu' 👉 www.theferret.scot/p...
November 30, 2025 at 8:59 AM
At last, some properly rigorous reporting on the vampiric management consulting behind proposed cuts at Edinburgh Uni.
Grab some garlic, read and weep.
Grab some garlic, read and weep.
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Our new issue of @transformanthro.bsky.social is out! Featuring an editorial by me and Christen Smith, unpublished manuscripts and translations from Marlene Cunha, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, and Ellen Irene Diggs, and articles by Pyar Seth and Nala Williams. www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/tra/2025...
November 25, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Our new issue of @transformanthro.bsky.social is out! Featuring an editorial by me and Christen Smith, unpublished manuscripts and translations from Marlene Cunha, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, and Ellen Irene Diggs, and articles by Pyar Seth and Nala Williams. www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/tra/2025...
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Vale Keith Hart (1943–2025),
an influential figure in economic #anthropology who passed earlier this month.
Suomen antropologi published his 2010 keynote lecture "Building the Human Economy: A question of value?" given in Helsinki. The lecture is now available in full digital #OpenAccess.
an influential figure in economic #anthropology who passed earlier this month.
Suomen antropologi published his 2010 keynote lecture "Building the Human Economy: A question of value?" given in Helsinki. The lecture is now available in full digital #OpenAccess.
Building the Human Economy: A question of value?
The author has always been sceptical about the use of value theory in anthropology. Here he considers its scope in relation to a project linked to the publication of The Human Economy: A Citizen’s Gui...
journal.fi
November 26, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Vale Keith Hart (1943–2025),
an influential figure in economic #anthropology who passed earlier this month.
Suomen antropologi published his 2010 keynote lecture "Building the Human Economy: A question of value?" given in Helsinki. The lecture is now available in full digital #OpenAccess.
an influential figure in economic #anthropology who passed earlier this month.
Suomen antropologi published his 2010 keynote lecture "Building the Human Economy: A question of value?" given in Helsinki. The lecture is now available in full digital #OpenAccess.
Reposted by Rachel Smith
The new issue of @roadsides.bsky.social includes my photo essay "Roads, Marketplaces and Plantations" in #PapuaNewGuinea.
I discuss how the unequal relations and struggle between plantation companies, workers and peasants are materialized in enacted through food and #infrastructure.
#anthropology
I discuss how the unequal relations and struggle between plantation companies, workers and peasants are materialized in enacted through food and #infrastructure.
#anthropology
Roads, Marketplaces and Plantations (Roadsides Journal Article)
www.roadsides.net
November 26, 2025 at 10:04 AM
The new issue of @roadsides.bsky.social includes my photo essay "Roads, Marketplaces and Plantations" in #PapuaNewGuinea.
I discuss how the unequal relations and struggle between plantation companies, workers and peasants are materialized in enacted through food and #infrastructure.
#anthropology
I discuss how the unequal relations and struggle between plantation companies, workers and peasants are materialized in enacted through food and #infrastructure.
#anthropology
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Twitter accounts are based in Russia. BlueSky accounts are based in homes with, frankly, too many books, plants, obsolete cables, and pieces of rustic pottery, that could do with a bit of a tidying up, to be honest.
November 23, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Twitter accounts are based in Russia. BlueSky accounts are based in homes with, frankly, too many books, plants, obsolete cables, and pieces of rustic pottery, that could do with a bit of a tidying up, to be honest.
Reposted by Rachel Smith
AI in education is being treated as an unbelievable, better-than-Covid opportunity for profitmaking by the exploitative, predatory, extractive edtech industry
November 15, 2025 at 12:39 AM
AI in education is being treated as an unbelievable, better-than-Covid opportunity for profitmaking by the exploitative, predatory, extractive edtech industry
Reposted by Rachel Smith
If you care about the future of University of Edinburgh, call or email your local MSP on Monday:
Monday, 17 November: Call your MSP. UCU has prepared a briefing here, but you can also simply call and tell your story. These cuts will affect the whole city.
www.ucuedinburgh.org.uk/lobby-your-m...
Monday, 17 November: Call your MSP. UCU has prepared a briefing here, but you can also simply call and tell your story. These cuts will affect the whole city.
www.ucuedinburgh.org.uk/lobby-your-m...
Lobby Your MSP! — UCU Edinburgh
www.ucuedinburgh.org.uk
November 16, 2025 at 10:47 AM
If you care about the future of University of Edinburgh, call or email your local MSP on Monday:
Monday, 17 November: Call your MSP. UCU has prepared a briefing here, but you can also simply call and tell your story. These cuts will affect the whole city.
www.ucuedinburgh.org.uk/lobby-your-m...
Monday, 17 November: Call your MSP. UCU has prepared a briefing here, but you can also simply call and tell your story. These cuts will affect the whole city.
www.ucuedinburgh.org.uk/lobby-your-m...
Reposted by Rachel Smith
IT'S '6-7', COOPER. A GENERATION ALPHA TREND. WHAT THEY CALL A 'MAY-MAY'. IT'S AN ORPHANED SIGNIFIER, NO SIGNS ATTACHED. ONE COULD CALL IT DADAIST, BUT SOMME SAY IT'S TOO STUPID TO BE DADA. IT'S ANTI-MEANING, ANTI-HUMOUR, BUT DAMN IF THOSE KIDS DON'T FIND IT A CRACK-UP.
November 12, 2025 at 12:31 PM
IT'S '6-7', COOPER. A GENERATION ALPHA TREND. WHAT THEY CALL A 'MAY-MAY'. IT'S AN ORPHANED SIGNIFIER, NO SIGNS ATTACHED. ONE COULD CALL IT DADAIST, BUT SOMME SAY IT'S TOO STUPID TO BE DADA. IT'S ANTI-MEANING, ANTI-HUMOUR, BUT DAMN IF THOSE KIDS DON'T FIND IT A CRACK-UP.
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Dear Britain:
Your polls look very "European" and NOW would be a really really really really really really really good time to switch to PR.
➡️ RFM: 26% | 170 (+74)
🟥 LAB: 19% | 124 (-110)
🟦 CON: 18% | 118 (-38)
🟩 GRN: 15% | 98 (+55)
🟧 LDM: 14% | 91 (+10)
🟨 SNP: 3% | 19 (+2)
🔲 PLC: 2% | 12 (+7)
Your polls look very "European" and NOW would be a really really really really really really really good time to switch to PR.
➡️ RFM: 26% | 170 (+74)
🟥 LAB: 19% | 124 (-110)
🟦 CON: 18% | 118 (-38)
🟩 GRN: 15% | 98 (+55)
🟧 LDM: 14% | 91 (+10)
🟨 SNP: 3% | 19 (+2)
🔲 PLC: 2% | 12 (+7)
November 11, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Dear Britain:
Your polls look very "European" and NOW would be a really really really really really really really good time to switch to PR.
➡️ RFM: 26% | 170 (+74)
🟥 LAB: 19% | 124 (-110)
🟦 CON: 18% | 118 (-38)
🟩 GRN: 15% | 98 (+55)
🟧 LDM: 14% | 91 (+10)
🟨 SNP: 3% | 19 (+2)
🔲 PLC: 2% | 12 (+7)
Your polls look very "European" and NOW would be a really really really really really really really good time to switch to PR.
➡️ RFM: 26% | 170 (+74)
🟥 LAB: 19% | 124 (-110)
🟦 CON: 18% | 118 (-38)
🟩 GRN: 15% | 98 (+55)
🟧 LDM: 14% | 91 (+10)
🟨 SNP: 3% | 19 (+2)
🔲 PLC: 2% | 12 (+7)
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Higher Education, where consultants advocate death as a means for survival and everyone else knows they're simply murdering everything.
Very sad news. Arts and Humanities are vital.
Why is it that when trying to cut costs, university execs go for the arts and humanities subjects that are frequently cheaper to teach and bring in strong income?
Don’t they realise this will create less income and cause additional cuts in the future?
Why is it that when trying to cut costs, university execs go for the arts and humanities subjects that are frequently cheaper to teach and bring in strong income?
Don’t they realise this will create less income and cause additional cuts in the future?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Closing vital programmes is not the answer to resolving the issues faced by Universities- senior management need to work with students and staff to find long term solutions.
Closing vital programmes is not the answer to resolving the issues faced by Universities- senior management need to work with students and staff to find long term solutions.
November 11, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Higher Education, where consultants advocate death as a means for survival and everyone else knows they're simply murdering everything.
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Very sad news. Arts and Humanities are vital.
Why is it that when trying to cut costs, university execs go for the arts and humanities subjects that are frequently cheaper to teach and bring in strong income?
Don’t they realise this will create less income and cause additional cuts in the future?
Why is it that when trying to cut costs, university execs go for the arts and humanities subjects that are frequently cheaper to teach and bring in strong income?
Don’t they realise this will create less income and cause additional cuts in the future?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Closing vital programmes is not the answer to resolving the issues faced by Universities- senior management need to work with students and staff to find long term solutions.
Closing vital programmes is not the answer to resolving the issues faced by Universities- senior management need to work with students and staff to find long term solutions.
University of Nottingham students fight 'insane' cull of courses
Traitors composer Sam Watts is among those against plans to cut University of Nottingham courses.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 8, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Very sad news. Arts and Humanities are vital.
Why is it that when trying to cut costs, university execs go for the arts and humanities subjects that are frequently cheaper to teach and bring in strong income?
Don’t they realise this will create less income and cause additional cuts in the future?
Why is it that when trying to cut costs, university execs go for the arts and humanities subjects that are frequently cheaper to teach and bring in strong income?
Don’t they realise this will create less income and cause additional cuts in the future?
Reposted by Rachel Smith
📢 Varieties of academic precarity across (and beyond) Europe: @easainfo.bsky.social Anthropology of Labour network Webinar TOMORROW w/ Bhargabi Das, Martin Fotta, @mariya-ivancheva.bsky.social , Roberto Mozzachiodi & Aslı Vatansever ! easaonline.org/event/variet...
Varieties of academic precarity across (and beyond) Europe: Anthropology of Labour Network Webinar
Join us for the upcoming Anthropology of Labour Network webinar on experiences of academic precarity. 12 November, 17-19 CET. With Bhargabi Das, Martin Fotta, Mariya Ivancheva, Roberto Mozzachiodi and...
easaonline.org
November 11, 2025 at 7:32 AM
📢 Varieties of academic precarity across (and beyond) Europe: @easainfo.bsky.social Anthropology of Labour network Webinar TOMORROW w/ Bhargabi Das, Martin Fotta, @mariya-ivancheva.bsky.social , Roberto Mozzachiodi & Aslı Vatansever ! easaonline.org/event/variet...
Reposted by Rachel Smith
A titan. humanityjournal.org/issue7-1/ref...
November 7, 2025 at 10:04 PM
A titan. humanityjournal.org/issue7-1/ref...
Reposted by Rachel Smith
The latest OPEN ACCESS volume of Museum Worlds has been published! View the TOC for Vol. 13 here: bit.ly/47Gl3zG
Featuring research by:
@jordankistler.bsky.social
@tattersdill.bsky.social
@clairewintle.bsky.social
@fengschoeneweiss.bsky.social
@mnystudio.bsky.social
@tibetcurator.bsky.social
Featuring research by:
@jordankistler.bsky.social
@tattersdill.bsky.social
@clairewintle.bsky.social
@fengschoeneweiss.bsky.social
@mnystudio.bsky.social
@tibetcurator.bsky.social
November 5, 2025 at 2:02 PM
The latest OPEN ACCESS volume of Museum Worlds has been published! View the TOC for Vol. 13 here: bit.ly/47Gl3zG
Featuring research by:
@jordankistler.bsky.social
@tattersdill.bsky.social
@clairewintle.bsky.social
@fengschoeneweiss.bsky.social
@mnystudio.bsky.social
@tibetcurator.bsky.social
Featuring research by:
@jordankistler.bsky.social
@tattersdill.bsky.social
@clairewintle.bsky.social
@fengschoeneweiss.bsky.social
@mnystudio.bsky.social
@tibetcurator.bsky.social
Reposted by Rachel Smith
New article alert 🔬📚 "...labor management practices associated with soft skills have as much to do with old ways of disciplining labor as new and highlights the co-constitution of labor anxiety and racial ideologies", writes Sydney Pullen in "Don't Complain." @anthropologyofwork.bsky.social 👏 📣
In “Don't Complain”: Labor Anxiety, Racial Ideologies, and Moral Micromanagement in Rural South Carolina Sydney Pullen situates the neoliberal turn towards “soft skills” training programs w/in historical context, showing how they represent continuity of racial ideologies and racialized labor regimes
Anthropology of Work Review | AAA Labor Studies Journal | Wiley Online Library
South Carolina's Black Belt counties are perennial targets of economic development programs. Economic development personnel focus on industrial recruitment and workforce development to remedy the eco...
anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 6, 2025 at 12:04 PM
New article alert 🔬📚 "...labor management practices associated with soft skills have as much to do with old ways of disciplining labor as new and highlights the co-constitution of labor anxiety and racial ideologies", writes Sydney Pullen in "Don't Complain." @anthropologyofwork.bsky.social 👏 📣
Reposted by Rachel Smith
"Academia is precarious" - a statement most (if not all) of us have come to experience in one way or another. The EASA Anthropology of Labour Network invites you to a webinar on experiences of academic precarity on 12 November.
We encourage you to attend this timely event.
Info in the comments.
We encourage you to attend this timely event.
Info in the comments.
November 7, 2025 at 11:16 AM
"Academia is precarious" - a statement most (if not all) of us have come to experience in one way or another. The EASA Anthropology of Labour Network invites you to a webinar on experiences of academic precarity on 12 November.
We encourage you to attend this timely event.
Info in the comments.
We encourage you to attend this timely event.
Info in the comments.
Reposted by Rachel Smith
In “Don't Complain”: Labor Anxiety, Racial Ideologies, and Moral Micromanagement in Rural South Carolina Sydney Pullen situates the neoliberal turn towards “soft skills” training programs w/in historical context, showing how they represent continuity of racial ideologies and racialized labor regimes
Anthropology of Work Review | AAA Labor Studies Journal | Wiley Online Library
South Carolina's Black Belt counties are perennial targets of economic development programs. Economic development personnel focus on industrial recruitment and workforce development to remedy the eco...
anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:54 PM
In “Don't Complain”: Labor Anxiety, Racial Ideologies, and Moral Micromanagement in Rural South Carolina Sydney Pullen situates the neoliberal turn towards “soft skills” training programs w/in historical context, showing how they represent continuity of racial ideologies and racialized labor regimes
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Last chance to save St Fittick's Park!
Today, Aberdeen's Planning Committee will be discussing the latest planning application for the development and industrialisation of St Fittick's Community Park - Torry's last remaining green space.
I strongly oppose the development. Read more in the thread
Today, Aberdeen's Planning Committee will be discussing the latest planning application for the development and industrialisation of St Fittick's Community Park - Torry's last remaining green space.
I strongly oppose the development. Read more in the thread
November 6, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Last chance to save St Fittick's Park!
Today, Aberdeen's Planning Committee will be discussing the latest planning application for the development and industrialisation of St Fittick's Community Park - Torry's last remaining green space.
I strongly oppose the development. Read more in the thread
Today, Aberdeen's Planning Committee will be discussing the latest planning application for the development and industrialisation of St Fittick's Community Park - Torry's last remaining green space.
I strongly oppose the development. Read more in the thread
Reposted by Rachel Smith
good morning specifically to the FBI agent who introduced Mamdani’s dad to Marx
November 5, 2025 at 2:21 PM
good morning specifically to the FBI agent who introduced Mamdani’s dad to Marx
Reposted by Rachel Smith
The university is threatening cuts on a massive scale with little to no justification. Truly surreal moment in HE.
Staff at Edinburgh Uni to continue strike action #WeAreTheUniversity #StopTheCuts #SaveHE www.heraldscotland.com/news/2557921...
Edinburgh University lecturers to continue strike action
Staff at Edinburgh University have voted to continue strike action over proposals to cut £140m from the institution’s annual budget.
www.heraldscotland.com
October 29, 2025 at 7:59 AM
The university is threatening cuts on a massive scale with little to no justification. Truly surreal moment in HE.
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Congratulations to the winner of 2025 @saw-anthroofwork.bsky.social Book Prize
Hector Beltran's
@teflonbeltran.bsky.social
Code Work: Hacking Across US-Mexico Techno Borderlands!
@princetonupress.bsky.social press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Hector Beltran's
@teflonbeltran.bsky.social
Code Work: Hacking Across US-Mexico Techno Borderlands!
@princetonupress.bsky.social press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Code Work
How Mexican and Latinx hackers apply concepts from coding to their lived experiences
press.princeton.edu
October 27, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Congratulations to the winner of 2025 @saw-anthroofwork.bsky.social Book Prize
Hector Beltran's
@teflonbeltran.bsky.social
Code Work: Hacking Across US-Mexico Techno Borderlands!
@princetonupress.bsky.social press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Hector Beltran's
@teflonbeltran.bsky.social
Code Work: Hacking Across US-Mexico Techno Borderlands!
@princetonupress.bsky.social press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Reposted by Rachel Smith
Review of William Max Nelson's new book Enlightenment Biopolitics: A History of Race, Eugenics, and the Making of Citizens @nybooks.com www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
A Baleful Legacy | David A. Bell
Enlightenment writers who proposed ways of improving and even perfecting the human species laid the theoretical foundations of modern racism.
www.nybooks.com
October 27, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Review of William Max Nelson's new book Enlightenment Biopolitics: A History of Race, Eugenics, and the Making of Citizens @nybooks.com www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Reposted by Rachel Smith
We are excited to announce the winner of the Eric Wolf Prize for the Best Graduate Paper (2025).
The winner is: Yanping Ni "China’s Dust Archives: Black Lung, Testimonial Surplus, and the Ghosts of Reform."
The winner is: Yanping Ni "China’s Dust Archives: Black Lung, Testimonial Surplus, and the Ghosts of Reform."
October 20, 2025 at 8:53 PM
We are excited to announce the winner of the Eric Wolf Prize for the Best Graduate Paper (2025).
The winner is: Yanping Ni "China’s Dust Archives: Black Lung, Testimonial Surplus, and the Ghosts of Reform."
The winner is: Yanping Ni "China’s Dust Archives: Black Lung, Testimonial Surplus, and the Ghosts of Reform."
Reposted by Rachel Smith
"AI returns to the university as part of a broad effort to further corporatize universities, vocationalize higher-education instruction, and diminish both research and research-based pedagogy."
October 24, 2025 at 11:45 AM
"AI returns to the university as part of a broad effort to further corporatize universities, vocationalize higher-education instruction, and diminish both research and research-based pedagogy."
Reposted by Rachel Smith
... and for Honourable Mention from the judges of the @saw-anthroofwork.bsky.social Book Prize! Congratulations to
Hemangini Gupta!
Hemangini Gupta!
Join us in congratulating Ideas on Fire author Hemangini Gupta @hgupta.bsky.social on her new book Experimental Times: Startup Capitalism and Feminist Futures in India, out now from @ucpress.bsky.social!
https://buff.ly/3OGaNOP
https://buff.ly/3OGaNOP
October 20, 2025 at 1:38 PM
... and for Honourable Mention from the judges of the @saw-anthroofwork.bsky.social Book Prize! Congratulations to
Hemangini Gupta!
Hemangini Gupta!