The Blind-Spot Effect: Critical Anthropology in Regard to Neoliberalism Cover Image

Efekt ślepej plamki. Antropologia krytyczna wobec neoliberalizmu
The Blind-Spot Effect: Critical Anthropology in Regard to Neoliberalism

Author(s): Marta Songin-Mokrzan, Michał Mokrzan
Subject(s): Anthropology, Social Sciences
Published by: Instytut Studiów Politycznych PAN
Keywords: critical anthropology;neoliberalization of academia;studies in governmentality;affect theory;dispositive;

Summary/Abstract: In this article, the authors argue that critical anthropology must inevitably recognize its intrinsic aporia, which can be illustrated by the “blind spot” metaphor. They use the metaphor to point to a cognitive bias that can be described as the tendency to claim one’s own epistemological objectivity and axiological neutrality while ignoring the fact of being entangled in the object of anthropological critique. To illustrate the blind-spot effect they refer to the visible neoliberalization of Polish academia in the last decade. Their aim is to show how critical anthropologists (re)produce the entrepreneurial regimes, power relations, and mechanisms of subjugation that they critique. For the sake of their argument they use theories drawn from studies on governmentality, namely affect theory and the idea of the dispositive.

  • Issue Year: 64/2020
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 119-137
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: Polish