The current spread of globalization and the homogenizing power of Western culture, as exemplified by the spread of neoliberalism, challenge pluralistic values.  Ethnographic fieldwork in Asia and Africa, however, has revealed complex responses to these macro-level currents.  Such responses transcend the analytical scope of simple adaptation or resistance.

In this Satellite Workshop, we will examine these local responses as instances of value encounters.  By focusing on actions and reflections that construct multiple and potentially conflicting values, we aim to set out the foundation for a new theory of social transformation.

As noted by D. Graeber, “Value is the way in which actions become meaningful to the actor by being incorporated in some larger, social totality,” a totality that, “in many cases exists primarily in the actor’s imagination.” Society thus can be construed as measuring the importance of an action through its value, which can be seen as a reflexive construct of actions.

Taking the above theory as a starting point, we will analyze micro-level negotiations observed in actual cases of food sharing, informal trade, and land disputes.  These actions and their relevant values will be examined in relation to negotiations that occur in macro-level contexts involving development, democratization, and global religion.

In real life, actions seldom receive equal evaluation.  Values are often visualized as their fetishes, products of the sort of power that naturalizes a particular evaluation of action.  Our approach to value therefore focuses on the conflicts masked in this process, conflicts that arise over the attribution of action and its potential, creative energy.  This perspective should allow us to perceive the very elusive nature of value, and constitute a step towards understanding society as a flux, a continuity of actions.