Abstract

MCGUIRE, Randall. Using an archaeology of the contemporary to slow down fast capitalism. Discursos del sur [online]. 2023, n.11, pp.19-34.  Epub July 31, 2023. ISSN 2617-2283.  http://dx.doi.org/10.15381/dds.n11.25858.

The great intellectual myth of the late 20th century was that the 21st century dawned in a world of "posts"; post industrial, post colonial and, most importantly, post capitalist. Sociologist Ben Agger has argued that we do not live in a post-capitalist world, but rather in a world of exaggerated capitalism or fast capitalism. More recently, the economist Thomas Piketty has redirected economic research toward the study of wealth and capital. His work supports Karl Marx's fundamental observation that the processes of capitalism tend to increase inequalities in wealth. In this paper, I build on my earlier arguments for a praxis of archaeology to challenge the status quo and stop fast capitalism. I am pessimistic of grand plans to change the world, but I suggest that we can slow the rush of fast capitalism a bit. We can do this both in the practice of archaeology and in the world at large. The contradictions of fast capitalism shape the practice of archaeology in both CRM and academia. We can also use archaeology to challenge the ideological lies that support, naturalize, and justify growing inequalities in wealth. The paper demonstrates how archaeology can reveal these lies in the study of workers' rights and the US-Mexico border.

Keywords : Fast capitalism; praxis; archaeology of the contemporary; labor; borders.

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