Global Magic: Technologies of Appropriation from Ancient Rome to Wall Street

by Alf Hornborg

Modern thought on economics and technology is no less magical than the world views of non-modern peoples. This book reveals how our ideas about growth and progress ignore how money and machines throughout history have been used to exploit less affluent parts of world society. The argument critically explores a middle ground between Marxist political ecology and Actor-Network Theory.

211 pages, Hardcover

Published March 8, 2016

About the author

Alf Hornborg, Ph.D. (Cultural Anthropology, University of Uppsala, 1986), is an anthropologist and Professor of Human Ecology in the Department of Human Geography at Lund University, Sweden. Previously he taught at Uppsala University and University of Gothenburg. He serves on the editorial boards of The Journal of Ecological Anthropology, Signs,, Journal of World-Systems Research, and Ecological and Environmental Anthropology.

Reviews

[San Diego Book Review · Rating 4 out of 5]

From Professor Hornborg's Introduction to Global Magic:

Magic is not merely a practice constrained by the absence of objectively efficacious knowledge but a particular kind of social strategy for achieving specific ends. As defined here, magic hinges on the attribution to certain objects of an agency that is actually contingent on human perceptions rather than on the physical properties of the objects themselves, but to humans appears to be independent of their perceptions.

Put another way, Charlie Brown and Linus look at clouds. Linus sees in them the tale of Nebuchadnezzur and the stoning of St. Stephen. Charlie Brown sees a ducky and a horsey. A climatologist however sees clouds....You can read this entire review at San Diego Book Review