Chair ‘Economic Anthropology’

Curiosity and concern are two essential premises of anthropology: curiosity for the amazing diversity of human experience and cultural expression in the world; concern for the fact that many people lead lives full of precarity and marginalisation with little prospects to build up a sustainable future for themselves and their families. At our chair, we aim for an anthropology that utilises these two intrinsic motives and develops them towards a scientific endeavour combining fundamental research and theory building with contemporary issues in a rapidly transforming world. We do so, adopting a critical realist approach that grounds in the assumption that with the proper methods and theories we are able to uncover some of the regularities and causalities that shape our lives in a globally connected world.

Two thematic and one regional focus are defining for the work done at the chair, although they are by no means exclusive with regard to the research conducted by individual members. One focus is on Precarity and Opportunity, which looks at processes of economic and social transformations, and the way these lead to an unequal distribution of resources, chances and vulnerabilities among different groups or individual actors. The second looks at the relationship between Culture, Cognition and Society, or the way that models of and on the world are shaped by and in return shape social relations and institutional configurations.

Much of the research at our chair takes place in Central and Inner Asia, where processes of economic and social transformation are particularly pronounced and visible since the end of the socialist era. Projects are also conducted in other parts of the world, including Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, as well as on the interconnectivity of places and people across the globe by way of economic relationships, migration, and cultural exchange.

Enabling Transformative Actions to Leverage Sustainability of Eurasian Grasslands: ActSustainably (SNSF: Biodiversa+; 2026-2029)
https://data.snf.ch/grants/grant/232928

SOCIAL: Sociology of Authoritarian Law: Insights from Central Asia (Horizon-MSCA-2024 Doctoral Network; 2026-2029)
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101226419

POLCA: The Political Economy of Legal and Governance Reform in Non-Western Societies: Insights from Central Asia (Horizon-MSCA-2024; 2026-2029)
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101228676

Dealing with Institutional Volatility: Food Production, Processing and Trade in South-Eastern Qazaqstan (SNSF; 2025-2029)
https://data.snf.ch/grants/grant/10003314

Biocultural adaptation of resource management traditions under the effects of climate change (Belmont Forum; 2024-2027)
https://data.snf.ch/grants/grant/222651

MARS: Non-Western Migration Regimes in a Global Perspective (Horizon-MSCA-2022; 2024-2028)
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101130177

MOCCA: Multilevel Orders of Corruption in Central Asia (Horizon-MSCA-2021; 2023-2026)
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101085855

Central Asian Law: Legal Cultures and Business Environments in Central Asia (Horizon-2020-MSCA-Rise; 2020-2024)
https://https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/870647

HumMingBird: Enhanced migration measures from a multidimensional perspective (Horizon-2020-SC6; 2019-2024)
https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/444860-a-data-driven-approach-to-the-migration-challenge

Dealing with Uncertainty: Changing Strategies, Institutions and Perceptions among Pastoralists in Western Mongolia (SNSF 2014-2017)
https://data.snf.ch/grants/grant/149357

Ethnic Differentiation, Interethnic Relations and Conflict in Central Asia: The Case of the Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Kazakstan (SNSF/DFG; 2013-2016)
https://data.snf.ch/grants/grant/140434

Development and Trust in Upper Mesopotamia – The Social Impacts of GAP (SNSF; 2012-2016)
https://data.snf.ch/grants/grant/137795

Peter Finke, chair
Désirée Gmür, postdoctoral researcher
Werner Hertzog, postdoctoral researcher
Iuliia Koreshkova, doctoral researcher and lecturer
Meltem Sancak, senior researcher and lecturer
Michelle von Dach, postdoctoral researcher and lecturer

Mustafa Akcinar
„Understanding the Influence of the Ilisu Dam Project for local people in Hasankeyf in the context of uncertainty, risk and contingency”

Aliya Bolatkhan

Rūta Dapkūnaitė
„Local Cultural Models and Varying Responses Towards Immigrants: An Anthropological Analysis of Acceptance and Resistance in Lithuania”

Dilafza Haydaraliyeva
„The Local Lives of Built Heritage: Community Perspectives on Archaeology, Conservation, and Identity-Making in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan”

Aliya Kashaganova

Chekhros Kilichova

Qinhuai Ren

Munkh-Ochir Surenjav

Gulnaz Tulenova

Yelif Ulagpan

Georg Winterberger
„Livelihood Strategies in Myanmar. How do people in Myanmar cope with the making a living within the rapid economic opening and change of the country?“

Michelle von Dach
„Italy as a Migration Hub towards Europe“ (2026)

Huajing Yang
„Community Interaction and Identity Attachment in Transnational Mobility Contexts, Dependent Echoing and Dynamic Transitions: A Case Study of Uzbek Communities in Germany and Social Transformation in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan“ (2026)

Dinara Abildenova
„Celebrations in Qazaqstan: Social Norms and Their Change“ (2023)

Indira Alibayeva
„Uzbeks in Qazaqstan: cultural models of ethnicity, navigating ethnic differences and pathways of adaptation“ (2023)

Tara Bate
„Pastoralism without Herders in Limi, Nepal“ (2023)

Verena La Mela
„Solidarity in competition: Women, trade and social networks in south-eastern Qazaqstan“ (2023)

Zarina Mukanova
„Kinship and gender in patrilineal descent in rural area of South-Eastern Kazakhstan“ (2023)

Tabea Rohner
„The Edible Monotown: Gardening, Foraging and Human-Environment Relations in (Post)Industrial Kazakhstan“ (2023)

Hatice Söylemez
„Is Another School Possible? Rethinking Alternative Education in Turkey: The Case of BBOM Democratic Schools“ (2023)

Dominik Müller
„Negotiating Islam in the turkish community outside of Turkey: an anthropological perspective on Diyanet in Switzerland“ (2022)

Annelies Kuijpers
„Suddenly You Realize You are Living in a Hidden Paradise. Branding tourist space in Halfeti Turkey (an ethnographic study on destination branding)“ (2021)

Daniela Dietz
„InDifference: Living together (apart) in a Turkish urban neighbourhood“ (2019)

Linda Kelley
„Dealing with Uncertainty: Changing Strategies, Institutions and Perceptions among Pastoralists in Western Mongolia“ (2019)

Jovana Dikovic
„Post-socialist rural development and peasantry in Serbia“ (2018)

K. Zeynep Sarıaslan
„Housewives ‘in Progress’: Persistence of Turkey’s Gender Regime in the Context of Development“ (2018)

Eliza Isabaeva
„Migration into 'Illegality' and Looking Like the State in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan“ (2017)

Christopher Kelley
„Building Power. Trade Union Renewal in the Changing Swiss Construction Industry“ (2017)

Esther Horat
„Market Transformation and Trade Dynamics in Northern Vietnam: The Case of Ninh Hiep“ (2016)

Stefan Leins
„Cockpits of Capitalism: An Ethnography of Financial Analysis“ (2015)

Alessandra Pellegrini
„Becoming a Peasant Middle Class: Coca Growers and the Politics of Indigeneity in the Bolivian Yungas“ (2013)

Dilyara Suleymanova
„Schooling the Sense of Belonging: Identity Politics and Educational Change in Post-Soviet Tatarstan“ (2013)

Irina Wenk
„Ancestral Domain: Land Titling and the Conjuncture of Goverment, Rights and Territory in Central Mindanao“ (2012)