City of purposes : free life and libertarian activism in London
Abstract
This essay looks at the ideas and practice of right-libertarian activists in London. It focuses on the value placed on purposefulness, and on the city as the terrain for a free life. Their activism is explored through an engagement with the centrality of ‘freedom’ in the emergent anthropology of ethics, and by reference to alternative theories of power or action. In particular, attention falls on the challenge of representing subjects who seem to embody and profess overly familiar theories of individual freedom and responsibility. The essay is meant as a contribution to political and urban anthropology, and the ethnography of Britain.
Citation
Reed , A D E 2015 , ' City of purposes : free life and libertarian activism in London ' , Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute , vol. 21 , no. 1 , pp. 181-198 . https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12152
Publication
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1359-0987Type
Journal article
Rights
© Royal Anthropological Institute 2015. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Reed, A., City of Purposes: free life and libertarian activism in London, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2015, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9655.12152/full. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with the Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
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