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- The Optimistic Anthropologist Volume 27
The Optimistic Anthropologist Volume 27
The human connection is the value
FEBRUARY 2020 | VOLUME 27
Dear ,
In the weeks before
and I moved to our new row home, I was thinking a lot about how I could furnish the new space while being mindful of my environmental impact.
I challenged myself to do as much as I could with what I currently owned and could buy from other people used! Creating these boundaries proved to be creatively freeing. I would scour
and
and on these platforms there were items that I would never have discovered or not been willing to spend the money on.
What ended up being particularly great about buying used from other people was the human connection. As an anthropologist, I've always loved the story behind the thing. And when you buy from another person, there's always a story. Buying used also introduced me to the
, which has the mission to “offer people a way to give and receive, share, lend, and express gratitude through a worldwide network of hyper-local gift economies in which the true wealth is the web of connections formed between people who are real-life neighbors.”
As I unpacked items I didn’t need in the new house, I posted them to
. I passed along three carloads of moving boxes and bubble wrap to a young family with an adorable 1-month old son. An extra shower curtain rod picked up by a neighbor led to a scheduled coffee outing where she’s offered to share wisdom about listing a guest room on Air BnB. And when I picked up some cookbooks from another neighbor, she generously pointed out a few of her favorite recipes.
These experiences have been hearteningly connected to
.
And there are some clear, but unexpected links between the philosophy of the Buy Nothing Project and what Optimistic Anthropology considers foundational behaviors --
-- for teams seeking to make measurable progress on complex social, economic, and environmental problems. In fact, the Project’s
are so optimistic and poetic, it seems fitting to end this month’s missive by sharing just a few:
We believe in abundance, we give, we ask, we share, we lend, and we express gratitude.
We value people and their stories and narratives about the ‘stuff.’
We measure wealth by the personal connections made and trust between people.
We believe every community has the same wealth of generosity and abundance.
Be well and do good,Alison
P.S. In keeping with
if we haven't been in touch in a while, I'd love to reconnect and hear about how you're making the world a more positive and equitable place!
P.P.S. I will be working from
Scottsdale, AZ
from March 3-10;
Washington, DC
for the rest of March, and
Sarajevo, Bosnia - Herzegovina
for the month of April. If you'll be in any of these locations and want to catch up in person,
LATEST
February 20, 2020 was
– a day for anthropologists to celebrate our discipline while sharing it with the world around us – so I figured it was a great time to do a bit of sharing about my practice of
.
Especially since it’s a term that I made up – so neither my fellow anthropologists nor anyone else quite knows what to make of it!
We've officially moved to Optimistic Anthropology's new headquarters, Optimism House! We will continue to operate as a location-independent business, but our home base is now in the
neighborhood of Washington, DC.
(we have ample natural light, wifi, and snacks). And in March we will be launching short-term housing (for those coming to DC to work for positive and equitable social change for a week or more). Stay tuned for more details on that!
Please update your address book to reflect our new mailing address: Optimistic Anthropology LLC, 5109 8th St NW, Washington, DC 20011.
is our monthly round-up of job, consulting, and fully-funded fellowship and accelerator opportunities that people connected to
are recruiting for. It's updated on a rolling basis because
we love connecting people who share our values to great resources!
has the capacity to take on new projects and clients in 2020! If you are part of a team, organization, or cross-sector collaboration which is passionate about making the world a more positive and equitable place, we would love to help you in 2020.
We help clients do this by:
conducting qualitative research (interviews, focus groups, lessons learned, case studies, etc.)
building emergent learning and strategy practices to navigate complexity and ambiguity;
developing a theory of change or learning/evaluation strategy; and/or
shaping cross-sector collaborations and/or community engagement efforts.
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