Resumo

MATHEWS, Gordon. Hong Kong anthropologists within global neoliberalism and national and local politics. Etnográfica [online]. 2024, vol.28, n.2, pp.533-547.  Epub 01-Set-2024. ISSN 0873-6561.  https://doi.org/10.4000/11xjl.

There are global neoliberal pressures on the academy that are more or less faced by anthropologists around the world. To what extent are anthropologists required to publish in English in SSCI-ranked journals to keep their jobs and get promoted? But there are also distinctly national and local pressures to some extent counteracting or eclipsing these global pressures. In this article I explore these counteracting pressures in the context of Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, my home society, neoliberalism has reigned supreme, with a remarkably short-term mentality. Yet despite this, anthropology has been flourishing, and has operated with great freedom and generous funding that is quite exceptional by global standards. However, this may be coming to an end. In China there is direct government control over anthropology. Hong Kong, following the protests of 2019 and the advent of the national security law in 2020, may be following suit, with many democratic political figures and some journalists now in jail. In light of this ongoing narrowing of room for freedom of inquiry, what will happen to Hong Kong academics and to anthropology?

Palavras-chave : anthropological practice; Hong Kong; audit culture; national security law; China.

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