An Anthropologist Goes Offshore, or, Creating an Actor-Network Among Finance Elites
Health, Money, Commerce, and Wealth
ISBN: 978-1-83549-034-1, eISBN: 978-1-83549-033-4
Publication date: 30 May 2024
Abstract
This article discusses the methodological implications of a recent study on Luxembourg's offshore financial center. Insight from actor-network theory was essential in undertaking its ethnographic research with elites from the country's state and financial institutions. My intention in documenting this approach is to provide a template for ethnographers studying other localized contexts of global politico-economic significance, in which elite actors usually seek to curtail the enquiries of investigators. With this actor-network from Luxembourg as an example, I demonstrate how elite and difficult-to-access milieus can be entered via “networking” coupled with outreach via interviews and email correspondence. As I show, by initiating various modalities of entry into the context in question, ethnographers can establish themselves within an actor-network for the purposes of conducting interviews and participant observation with elite interlocutors.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
This article is dedicated to the memory of Christine, Albert, Teresa, and Louis Weeks – RIP. Special thanks go to my interviewees for answering patiently all my questions, Donald C. Wood for his encouragement, as well as to my life partner Elizabeth Collins for her wisdom, guidance, and support. Additional thanks go to the staffs at the Bibliothèque nationale du Luxembourg, the BiblioLab Belval, and the TJU-Gutman Library. This research was generously supported by Thomas Jefferson University, the Fulbright Association, and the Department of Anthropology of the University of California, Los Angeles.
Citation
Weeks, S. (2024), "An Anthropologist Goes Offshore, or, Creating an Actor-Network Among Finance Elites", Wood, D.C. and Swamy, R. (Ed.) Health, Money, Commerce, and Wealth (Research in Economic Anthropology, Vol. 43), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 63-80. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0190-128120240000043005
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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