On activism, the Occupy Movement, "spaces of democratic improvisation", financialization.
Interview on alternet.org by Lynn Stuart Parramore
Interviews
in media
“I found myself turning into an idiot!”: David Graeber explains the life-sapping reality of bureaucratic life
5 Mar 2015
The Paradox of the Iron Law of Liberalism: the more free market, the more bureaucrats. “Self-regulating” markets were created with government intervention and it is a political project. Bureaucracy often goes against common sense, but there’s a certain appeal to it. It does not need interpretive labour; it is a total separation of ends and means and it works like a machine.
Interview on salon.com
“Is This Even Capitalism Anymore?” Social democracy, fascism, and state communism are a lot more similar, in certain structural ways, than any of them want to admit.
25 Mar 2015
Transcribed from the 21 March 2015 episode of This is Hell.
Paperless does not mean less bureaucracy. 95% of bureaucracy is not coming from government.
“This is what democracy looks like”: A conversation with Direct Action Network Activists David Graeber , Brooke Lehman, Jose Lugo, and Jeremy Varon
2001
Over 40,000 activists disrupted Seattle WTO meetings in 1999. On their return, New Yorkers Brooke Lehman, David Graeber, Jeremy Varon and Jose Lugo launched their Direct Action Network (DAN) aiming at a model of direct democracy. In this discussion they explain the decision-making in DAN, its advantages and challenges.
Published in Social Policy 31: 25-30
A little bit beholden
1 May 2012
The trigger to research debt was the unexplainable moral power attributed to the idea of debt. The IMF imposed budget cuts on Madagascar and the result was ten thousand people dying from malaria. Why is debt morally superior to that many deaths?
Interviewed by Rebecca Solnit, published on guernicamag.com
About American elections
2020
Whether we should expect Trump to take any steps to deconstruct the American global Empire.
Interview by Nika Dubrovsky, published on academia.edu
About bureaucracy and unncessary jobs
21 Mar 2015
It has been commonplace to assume that bureaucracy means government. However, there are classic bureaucratic procedures everywhere. J.M.Keynes predicted that the future would bring 15-hour working weeks. This hasn’t happened. Meaningless positions have been created in the very capitalist system, which is claimed to be efficient.
Interview by Stuart Jeffries, published in the Guardian
Acting like an anarchist
1 Jan 2014
The Occupy movement started off naïve and the consensus rule was often misunderstood. It is a set of principles, not a process with rules. Anarchism is ethics about doing something as opposed to Marxist theories. Strategies for a world without states and capitalism do not mean much without corresponding actions.
Interviewed by Jo Lateu, published on newint.org
An Interview with David Graeber — Nina Živančević
This interview was conducted by Nina Živančević in London, in November 2015. It has never been published in English before. We publish it here to mark David’s tragic passing on September 2, 2020.
Basic Income and Meaningless Jobs
1 Feb 2016
The service administration and clerical jobs have tripled while manufacturing, farming jobs and domestic service have almost disappeared since the 1930s. Yet, with all the technology people are working more hours rather than less.
Interview by Austin D Munday, published in medium.com
Battle over the imagination
1 Jun 2012
- Is there such thing as immaterial labour?
- Why have the processes turned low-tech rather than high-tech?
- Individuality is a product of relationships
Talk with Michelle Kuo, published on Artforum.com
Bookforum talks
19 Mar 2012
Discussion about anthropology, activism and imaginations
Interview by Rachel Jones, published on bookforum.com