Table Of Content

ANTHROPOLOGICAL OPTIMISM This book theorizes the roles of optimism in anthropological thinking, research, writing, and practice. It sets out to explore optimism’s origins and implications, its conceptual and practical value, and its capacity to contribute to contemporary anthropological aims. In an era of extensive ecological disruption and social dis- tress, this volume contemplates how an optimistic anthropology can energize the discipline while also contributing to bettering the lives, communities, and envi- ronments of those we study. It brings together scholars diverse in background, career stage, and theoretical approach in a collective attempt to comprehend the myriad intersections of anthropology and optimism. The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic have recently underscored the larger, longer-term catas- trophes of climate change, ecosystemic collapse, social injustice, and antipathy toward scientific knowledge and those who produce it. In this context, exceed- ingly few anthropologists feel comfortable observing and documenting passively while their research communities face unrelenting waves of (un)natural disasters. We need to act. But we also need to hope. Discontent with the state of the world and cultural anthropology’s turn to increasingly positive, future-oriented, and engaged work have converged to unleash a courageously optimistic anthropology. This book is a timely springboard for this impactful and emergent approach. Anna J. Willow is Professor of Anthropology at The Ohio State University, USA. ANTHROPOLOGICAL OPTIMISM Engaging the Power of What Could Go Right Edited by Anna J. Willow Designed cover image: sutthiphorn phanchart, Getty Images First published 2023 by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 and by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 Anna J. Willow The right of Anna Willow to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Willow, Anna J., editor. Title: Anthropological optimism : engaging the power of what could go right / edited by Anna J. Willow. Description: First Edition. | New York : Routledge, 2023. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2022046075 (print) | LCCN 2022046076 (ebook) | ISBN 9781032386430 (Hardback) | ISBN 9781032386447 (Paperback) | ISBN 9781003346036 (eBook) Subjects: LCSH: Applied anthropology. | Optimism. Classification: LCC GN397.5 .A652 2023 (print) | LCC GN397.5 (ebook) | DDC 301--dc23/eng/20221024 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022046075 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022046076 ISBN: 978-1-032-38643-0 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-38644-7 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-34603-6 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/b23231 Typeset in Bembo by SPi Technologies India Pvt Ltd (Straive) For my mom, because we can always find hope. CONTENTS List of Contributors ix Foreword xiii Joel Robbins Introduction: Why Optimism? 1 Anna J. Willow 1 A World Made Safe for (Future) Difference: Anthropology and Utopian Possibility 29 Samuel Gerald Collins 2 Vertiginous Optimism: Optimistic Orientations in a Field of Chronic Crisis 46 Daniel M. Knight 3 “Moving on and Moving Up”: Productive Angles of Exploring Optimism 62 Kelly A. Yotebieng 4 Where Have All the Flowers Gone? Planting Optimism in a Disrupted Ecology 71 Mankei Tam 5 Indigenous Optimism in the Colonialcene 88 Natasha Myhal and Clint Carroll viii Contents 6 Putting the Pieces in Place: Optimistic Futuring in Transition Culture 104 Anna J. Willow 7 Optimism at Scale: Exploring Everyday Activism in Atlanta’s Alternative Food Networks 117 Hilary B. King 8 Fusing Outrage and Hope into Acts of Resistance, Volunteerism, and Allyships 131 Patricia Widener and Gail Choate 9 Optimistic Anthropology in the Work of Systems Changemakers 147 Alison Gold 10 China 2060: Envisioning a Human-Centered Approach to Energy Transition 164 Bryan Tilt 11 Doing Anthropology Forward: Emerging Technologies and Possible Futures 177 Sarah Pink Afterword: Optimism as Capacity 192 Rebecca Bryant Index 197 CONTRIBUTORS Rebecca Bryant is a Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University who studies forced migration, borders, and unrecognized states. Through those subjects, she investigates the state and sovereignty, with a special focus on tempo- rality, historicities, and the future. Much of Bryant’s ethnographic work focuses on ethnic conflict and displacement, border practices, post-conflict reconcilia- tion, and contested sovereignty on both sides of the Cyprus Green Line and in Turkey. She studied Philosophy (BA) and Cultural Anthropology (MA, PhD) at the University of Chicago and has held teaching and research positions at the London School of Economics, George Mason University, and the American University in Cairo. Clint Carroll is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. He received his doctorate from the University of California Berkeley in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona in Anthropology and American Indian Studies. A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, he works at the intersections of Indigenous studies, anthropology, and political ecology. His first book, Roots of Our Renewal: Ethnobotany and Cherokee Environmental Governance (University of Minnesota Press, 2015), explores how tribal natural resource man- agers navigate the material and structural conditions of settler colonialism, and how recent efforts in cultural revitalization inform such practices through tra- ditional Cherokee governance and local environmental knowledge. He is an active member of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology. He also serves on the editorial boards for Cultural Anthropology and Environment and Society.