ISRF Early Career Fellow 2022
ISRF Early Career Fellow 2022
Dr Anthony Pickles is a social anthropologist and Lecturer in the School of International Development at the University of East Anglia. His published work has ranged from the theorisation of transactions to the intersection of religion and corruption, from the transformative power of pockets to the colonial subjugation of counting systems. He is the author of Money Games: Gambling in a Papua New Guinea Town, and several articles on the anthropology of gambling. Anthony’s ISRF project marries his existing expertise in the study of gambling with his developing interest in global politics.
Political Gambling vivisects 21st Century politics by bringing together critical gambling studies, anthropology, political science, and economics. It starts with a hypothesis: an upsurge in political betting during our snowballing ecological, democratic, health and economic crises reveals a profound collective anxiety about our fragile future, and the drive to profit from fear. Exploiting emerging technologies, the gambling industry has moved into decaying high streets, onto our personal devices and into politics. This project studies political gambling and the resulting ‘prediction markets,’ where ideological beliefs, historical trends and national moods are all condensed down to prices, blunting political difference. The project ethnographically researches the market-makers, bookies, bloggers, academics, political analysts, punters and arbitragers as they negotiate volatile currents of opinion, interests and insider knowledge. It aims to uncover why gambling on politics is surging and how market speculation refracts political understanding in a time of existential crisis.
If you would like to contact any of our Fellows to discuss their ISRF-funded work, please contact Dr Lars Cornelissen (Academic Editor) in the first instance, at [email protected].