JRAI Special Issue Launch Event
Monday 19th October 2026, 4.00 – 6.00 pm BST
This is an online event. A link to register will be added soon.
Nightmare Egalitarianism
Editors: Natalia Buitron, Florian Mühlfried, Hans Steinmüller
Associate Editor: Simon Coleman
Egalitarianism – creating equality among people – always requires levelling and measurement. Levelling, however, is often violent, and potentially in tension with local autonomy. Based on case studies from Amazonia, Burma, Georgia, India, Malawi, Morocco, and the Ancient Near East, this special issue probes into the dark sides of egalitarianism. Contributors show how the very forces that level differences also generate new exclusions.
The collection offers a solid framework to distinguish different modes of egalitarianism; the main variable being the strength of commensuration: universal levelling in ‘general egalitarianism’, partial commensurability in ‘segmentary egalitarianism’, and the refusal of equivalence in ‘non-egalitarianism’. By tracing the social dynamics of autonomy, imagination, and containment, the issue invites readers to rethink one of anthropology’s most cherished concepts.
The list of speakers to this event will be confirmed soon.
You can read the Special issue here: https://rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14679655/2026/32/S1