Economies of advice

Because of academic divisions of labour anthropologists have come late to the study of the changing landscape of welfare and advice provision in Euro-America (and beyond). But it is crucial to understanding contemporary economies. Attention to the increasing informalization, hybridization, plurality and complexity of welfare/care/advice provision in the context of 21st-century austerity Europe challenges the widely-held view of how state bureaucracies operate. The corollaries are the difficulties in accessing what help is available (hence the increasing need for advice) and an increase in grassroots mutual aid and activism to supplement and in some cases even supplant state advice provision.