Keith Hart (born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

) is a British anthropologist and writer living in Paris. His main research has focused on

economic anthropology Economic anthropology is a field that attempts to explain human economic behavior in its widest historic, geographic and cultural scope. It is an amalgamation of economics and anthropology. It is practiced by anthropologists and has a complex re ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

and the African

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of birth, place of origin. The word is used in reference to people who identify with a specific geographic location, but currently resi ...

, and

money Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are: m ...

. He has taught at

universities A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

including

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

and the

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, as well as at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

where he was director of the African Studies Centre. He contributed the concept of the

informal economy An informal economy (informal sector or grey economy) is the part of any economy that is neither Taxation, taxed nor monitored by any form of government. Although the informal sector makes up a significant portion of the economies in developin ...

development studies Development studies is an interdisciplinary branch of social science. Development studies is offered as a specialized master's degree in a number of reputed universities around the world. It has grown in popularity as a subject of study since the ...

and has published widely on

. He is the author of ''The Memory Bank: Money in an Unequal World'' and ''Self in the World: Connecting Life's Extremes''. His written work focuses on the national limits of politics in a globalised economy.

Early life and education

Hart was born in Manchester and attended

Manchester Grammar School The Manchester Grammar School (MGS) is a highly Selective school, selective Private_schools_in_the_United_Kingdom, private day school for boys aged 7-18 in Manchester, England, which was founded in 1515 by Hugh Oldham (then Bishop of Exeter). ...

. He later studied at

. He started as classicist before switching to the anthropology of religion, and then studied his PhD at Cambridge in migrant politics in Ghana.Hart, K. (2000). The memory bank: Money in an unequal world. London: Profile.

Prickly Pear Pamphlets

In 1993, Keith Hart and Anna Grimshaw started a small press called Prickly Pear. Together, they published a series of ten pamphlets. "We emulate the passionate amateurs of history who circulated new and radical ideas to as wide an audience as possible," they said. "And we hope in the process to reinvent anthropology as a means of engaging with society." In 2001, Prickly Paradigm established itself as a new incarnation of Prickly Pear with

Marshall Sahlins Marshall David Sahlins ( ; December 27, 1930April 5, 2021) was an American cultural anthropologist best known for his ethnographic work in the Pacific and for his contributions to anthropological theory. He was the Charles F. Grey Distinguishe ...

as publisher.

Open Anthropology Cooperative

''Open Anthropology Cooperative'' was a social networking site for anthropologists founded by Keith Hart in June 2009 on the Ning. It acquired 8,000 members worldwide in its first decade and opened on Facebook, making a total membership of 22,000 members drawn from professional academics, postgraduates, undergraduates and amateur anthropologists.

Books

*''The Political Economy of West African Agriculture'' (1982) *''The Memory Bank: Money in an Unequal World'' (2000) *''The Hit Man’s Dilemma: Or Business, Personal and Impersonal'' (2005) *''Market and Society: The Great Transformation Today'' (edited with Chris Hann) (2009) *''The Human Economy: A Citizen's Guide'' (edited with Jean-Louis Laville and Antonio David Cattani) (2010) *''Economic Anthropology: History, Ethnography, Critique'' (with Chris Hann) (2011) *''People, Money and Power in the Economic Crisis: Perspectives from the Global South'' (edited with John Sharp) (2014) *''Economy For and Against Democracy'' (editor) (2015) *''Money in a Human Economy'' (editor) (2017) *''Self in the World: Connecting Life's Extremes'' (2022)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hart, Keith 21st-century British anthropologists Economic anthropologists Living people 1943 births Academic staff of the University of Pretoria Academics of Goldsmiths, University of London Academics of the London School of Economics Academics of the University of Cambridge People educated at Manchester Grammar School