The New Internal Colonialism

Abstract

■ Anthropology's claims not only to special insight into systems of struc tural inequality, but a special mandate to expose and condemn them, become problematic in light of the discipline's studied inattention to the emergence of a large and growing underclass of underemployed and marginal professionals within its own ranks. Corporate outsourcing, downsizing and union-busting have analogues in the exploitative hiring practices of the academy, where they are mystified by appeals to departmental and institutional loyalty, and the need to maintain course coverage and student enrollment figures. There is evidence that serious attempts to bring this issue to the attention of the discipline at large are unwelcome; two cases, one involving the author, are described and analyzed. It is argued that a professional ethics worthy of the name cannot be limited to the study and representation of ethnographic Others, but must be conceptualized broadly enough to encompass our dealings with our colleagues.

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