REALEURASIA · Realising Eurasia: Civilisation and Moral Economy in the 21st Century

In an age of unprecedented globalisation apparently conducive to homogenisation, the laws of economics are inflected not only by localised cultural variation (the familiar argument of the anthropologist) but also by broader traditions for which the most appropriate term (in spite of many difficulties) remains “civilisational”. REALEURASIA is a multidisciplinary comparative project which draws on classical work in several branches of anthropology and sociology to analyse the civilisational diversity and unity of Eurasia in the early 21st century. The research team will draw together the large literatures on moral economy (Thompson) and Wirtschaftsethik (Weber) and apply these concepts at multiple levels within the civilisational frame. The focus will be on the five “world religions” identified by Max Weber a century ago. Ethnographic work will initially be based in a renowned centre of the civilisation, in order to assess the ways in which this heritage is invoked in contemporary processes of identity construction and political legitimation in large, multi-ethnic states. Each fieldworker will then move to a second urban site not directly affected by the civilisational centre to uncover what is much less evident: the extent to which the civilisational economic ethic determines behaviour today. In towns selected to ensure structural comparability, researchers will investigate a spectrum of family-controlled firms and the domestic group per se. It is hypothesised that, civilisational pluralism notwithstanding, the long-term evolution of Eurasia has established a deep unity across the landmass, with far-reaching social and geopolitical implications.""