James Greenberg

About James Greenberg

Dr. Greenberg's areas of expertise lie in political ecology, natural resource anthropology, economic anthropology, globalization, law and development, violence, urban anthropology, migration, household livelihoods, peasants, Latin America, and the borderlands. Dr. Greenberg has worked in peasant and fishing communities in Mexico, and has received numerous grants for borderlands research. His current research includes a project on the history of applied anthropology at the University of Arizona. "My research broadly examines the impact of global capital on development and on the well-being of both human populations and the ecosystems that sustain them. Specifically, my research looks both at the level of larger processes on the historical development of capital, and at the local variants of capital it has spawn. In pursuing these interests, I have focused on credit: looking at how it is culturally embedded and used as economic instrument, social relationship, and technology of power. At the level of local processes, my research examines the incorporation of local populations and local ecologies into wider systems, and how their inclusion in them changes their dynamics."

Research Interests

Political Ecology, Economic Anthropology, Complex Society, Urban Anthropology, Peasants
Studies, Mesoamerica, Borderlands, Marine Anthropology

James Greenberg's picture

Contact Information

Research Anthropologist
Telephone: 520-621-6316
Office: Geronimo 324

Degree(s)

University of Michigan, Ph.D. Anthropology 1978
University of Michigan, M.A., Anthropology 1971
University of Michigan, B.A., English, 1969
Jackson Community College, 1963-64

Disertation Title

Santiago's Sword: Chatino Peasant Religion and Economics. Roy A. Rappaport, Director.

Courses Taught

At the University of Arizona, Dr. Greenberg teaches graduate courses in Foundations of Applied Anthropology, Law and Development, and has taught course in Political Ecology, Mixed Methods of Research, Economic Anthropology, and Critical Theory.