Dr Anthony Pickles

Dr Anthony Pickles

Department of African Studies and Anthropology
Assistant Professor in Social Anthropology

Contact details

Address
Department of African Studies and Anthropology
University 麻豆精选
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

I am a social anthropologist with interests in economy, politics, digital technology, societal transformation and the future. I have done research in Papua New Guinea, the UK and the USA. My published work is often about gambling, but also anthropological theory, corruption, spreadsheets, markets, money and even pockets. I am currently working on a project about political gamblers influence on wider perceptions of politics.

Qualifications

  • BSc in Anthropology (University College London)
  • MRes in Social Anthropology (University College London)
  • PhD in Social Anthropology (St Andrews, funded by ESRC)
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Biography

I am a political and economic anthropologist working on capitalism, economic innovation, risk, colonisation, development and globalisation through its local collisions. I focus on economic life as experienced by people on the ground, most notably on gambling activity as a crucible for examining wider experiences of socio-economic and political rupture.

I am currently conducting research into political gambling and prediction markets, as a global phenomena at the cutting edge of shaping contemporary political understanding.

My ethnographic fieldwork in urban and rural Papua New Guinea began in 2009 during my PhD (University of St Andrews, 2013). I joined the University 麻豆精选 as Assistant Professor in Social Anthropology in 2023. In the interim I held research fellowships, one from Trinity College, Cambridge and then one from The British Academy (held in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge). Then I taught social anthropology and international development at the University of East Anglia,聽

Teaching

  • Social Life of the Economy (optional module for second- and third-year undergraduates and masters)
  • Research in Practice (core module for second-year undergraduates)
  • Undergraduate dissertation supervision

Postgraduate supervision

Economic anthropology, Oceania, gambling, political anthropology, anthropology of the future, anthropology of finance, anthropology of elites


Find out more - our PhD African Studies  page has information about doctoral research at the University 麻豆精选.

Research

Locations: Oceania (the Western Pacific), Papua New Guinea, the UK, online ethnography.

Topics: cash/money, cash transfers, corruption, socio-cultural escalations, ethnomathematics, experimental ethnographic methods, gambling, gifts, history of anthropology, informal economy, intra- and extra- family transfers, markets, pocket-use, sports, social change, technological adoption, the theory of economic transfers, new technologies, forecasting, prediction.聽

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Pickles, A 2019, .

Article

Pickles, A & Costa, PSD 2021, '', Oceania, vol. 91, no. 3, pp. 349-366.

Pickles, AJ 2021, '', History and Anthropology, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 32-46.

Pickles, A 2020, '', Journal of Cultural Economy.

Pickles, A 2020, '', Current Anthropology.

Pickles, A 2017, '', Anthropology Today.

Pickles, A 2014, '', Oceania.

Pickles, A 2014, '', Oceania.

Pickles, A 2013, '', Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

Chapter

Pickles, A 2024, . in M Shapiro (ed.), Crypto Crowds: Singularities and Multiplicities on the Blockchain. Critical Interventions: A Forum for Social Analysis, vol. 21, Berghahn Books Ltd, pp. 66-83.

Pickles, A 2016, . in Cambridge Online Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology.

Pickles, A 2014, . in Pacific Futures Projects, Politics and Interests.

Pickles, A 2013, . in Qualitative Research in Gambling .

Comment/debate

Pickles, A 2023, '', Social Analysis, vol. 67, no. 1.

Review article

Pickles, A 2014, '', Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

Expertise

Gambling; political gambling; elections; UK; USA; Papua New Guinea

Languages and other information

English, Tok Pisin.

Media experience

Radio and television interviews and writing for cross-over media (e.g. The Conversation).