Johanna Mugler, Miranda Sheild Johansson, and Robin Smith, along with special guest Professor Janet Roitman, would like to invite you to celebrate the launch of our edited volume, Anthropology & Tax: Ethnographies of Fiscal Relations, published with Cambridge University Press at the end of 2024.

DATE: 3 June 2025

TIME: 10AM-12PM CEST

LOCATION: ONLINE!

Visit this link to register for this FREE EVENT!

Miranda Sheild Johansson (UCL, UK), Charles Dolph (UCL, UK), and Gustav Peebles (SU, Sweden) are organizing a workshop at the Stockholm Centre for Organizational Research at Stockholm University, 6 May 2025 and are seeking participants. Please visit our News page for details!

We close out 2024 with the announcement of a massive, multi-year collaborative project of which many of our members were a part: Anthropology & Tax: Ethnographies of Fiscal Relations. Please visit our News page to read more about this co-edited volume by Johanna Mugler, Miranda Sheild Johansson, and Robin Smith.

2024 was a busy year! We are closing out 2024 with new members to whom we extend a warm welcome: Mukulika Banerjee, May Hen, José-María Muñoz, Gayatri Sahgal, and Korinna Schönhärl!

We look forward to getting to know you and hope that you join or initiate new collaborations in the years to come!

To everyone else, check out our Researchers page to learn about their interesting research!

Network members convened a panel at the bi-annual conference, the European Association of Social Anthropologists, held this year in Barcelona, Spain.

Read all about it on our News page!

The publication of a long-awaited volume that many of our network have contributed to, is fast approaching!

See the News page to catch a glimpse of one of our contributors sending his final edits in from his fieldsite of Fiji.

Tax network members Robin Smith and Charles Dolph co-convened a hybrid workshop of anthropologists researching taxation to share one another's work-in-progress, in part as a run-up to EASA 2024 in Barcelona.

The aims of the event were to widen our anthropology of tax network, help us think through current weighty issues in our respective writing projects, and come up with new ideas.

Tax network member Miranda Sheild Johansson has published an article on The Conversation entitled, 'Taxes aren't just about the money -- they shape how we think about each other.

The Conversation is a unique collaboration between academics and journalists that in a decade has become the world’s leading publisher of research-based news and analysis.

You can read the full article by following this link:

https://theconversation.com/taxes-arent-just-about-money-they-shape-how-we-think-about-each-other-223889

In August 2022 Nicolette Makovicky received a Global Initiatives Grant to build capacity in anthropology through, "Tax, Society, and People – Using anthropology to teach young people about tax."

The aim of the GIG-funded Tax, Society and People project has been to draw on current anthropological research to challenge the way young people are being taught about tax. The project’s vision is ambitious yet profound: to develop educational materials for young teens that transcend traditional economic or legal frameworks, shedding light on the societal and cultural implications of taxes.

You can read the full description by following this link:

https://wennergren.org/article/global-initiatives-grant-report-tax-society-and-people-using-anthropology-to-teach-young-people-about-tax/

New member Korinna Schönhärl is announcing an international conference 29 Febraury - 1 March 2024 at Paderborn University, Germany. Click on the announcement text or the image on the left to see the full program.

Discussions about paying taxes (honestly) always concern the core of social order: Who must contribute how much to the community? Which groups are relieved? How much equality and redistribution is necessary or possible? What constitutes a 'just' tax system, how can the state legitimize its tax demands - and what does a 'just' society look like accordingly?

The aim of the conference is to bring firstly different religions (Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Protestant, and Catholic Christianity) into conversation about the topic of taxation and in this way to make an important contribution to the history of ideas on taxation. Secondly, we want to discuss the question from an interdisciplinary perspective on theological tax disputes of the past, including contributions from the fields of theology, law, history, and political studies.

With Miranda Sheild Johansson as Organizer, Horacio Ortiz as Chair, and Justin Richland as Discussant, a large group of anthropologists of tax convened a panel at the AAA2023 in Toronto.

Please visit the News page to read about it!

Nicolette Makovicky and Robin Smith are pleased to announce the publication of their co-edited volume with Berghahn, Beyond the Social Contract: An Anthropology of Tax.

Thank you to Hanna Stalenhoef for her incredible original artwork that graces our volume's cover.

Please visit the News page to read about its contents, admire the cover, and find a link to it! It's fully open access!

Lotta Björklund Larsen has published an article in the most recent issue of the Journal of Cultural Economy!

Please visit the News page to read about her article and find a link to it!

Gauri Natarajan has written a blog post in our Fiscal Governance as Memes series initiated by Andreas Streinzer.

Visit our Blog page for a very interesting read!

Enjoy!

Lotta Björklund Larsen, Andreas Streinzer, and Sylvia Terpe have published a special section in the most recent issue of the journal Economic Anthropology!

Please visit the News page to read about their articles and for the links to their articles.

Just in time for Halloween, a blog post on a spooky German tax law! Hannah wrote this piece as part of a social media assignment for Andreas Streinzer's course “Fiscal Governance: Knowing, Calculating, and Regulating Flows of Value” in the MA Science and Technology Studies at Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany.

Visit our Blog page or follow links. Her reference list is included as a downloadable PDF at the bottom of the post. Enjoy!

Gwen Burnyeat and Miranda Sheild Johansson have recently published a journal special issue in Critique of Anthropology, 'An Anthropology of the Social Contract: Interrogating Contractarian Thinking in State-Society Relations' (2022, 43:3) with which the anthropology of tax community will find much to engage!

To introduce it, Miranda has written a piece 'Digging Deeper into the Social Contract' on our Blog page inviting readers to learn more and within which there are links to all the contributions. Enjoy the read!

Dora-Olivia Vicol and Nicolette Makovicky have recently published a fascinating policy paper, Migrants and Taxes: Challenges of Fiscal Inclusion in the Digital Age, in the UK.

Please click on the links or go to the News page to read about its main findings and for access to their paper in PDF.

Miranda Sheild Johansson's project, The Sociality of Tax: A Multiperspective Study of Fiscal Relations, is hiring TWO Research Fellows on a multi-year contract.

Please click on the links to read about the positions at University College London!

Applications are due on the 26th of June, so please hurry and apply!

Andreas Streinzer and his students have translated concepts from economic anthropology, the social studies of finance, and tax law into social media memes as a class project.

Please visit our Blog page to read their creations and enjoy some links to the syllabus in case you want to use this in your own course!

VAT Fraud: Interdisciplinary Research on Tax Crimes in the European Union is an ongoing, multi-country project led by Dr Constantino Grasso and funded by the European Union under the HERCULE III program.

Please visit our News page to read more about this fascinating project!

After a forced hiatus, a bunch of researchers from our network made the journey to Stockholm to enjoy a reunion workshop.

Please visit our News page to read a bit about the fun they had!

Lotta Björklund Larsen and Benedicte Brøgger have published an article entitled Tax compliance dancing: The importance of time and space in taxing multinational corporations in the Journal of Legal Anthropology.

Please visit our News page to read the abstract and find the link to this excellent article on tax!

Hey everyone! Our network of tax scholars is growing! We just surpassed 20 members!

Check out our Researchers page to read about the work of Ida Hughes Tidlund, Yvette Lind, Marija Norkunaite, Gayatri Sahgal, and Andreas Streinzer, whose profiles have all been added to our network in the last couple of months.

Looking forward to getting to know more about the diverse tax research going on out there! If you have news to share please contact me, and if you have ideas for new collaboration, reach out to those in our network!

Happy researching! May it not be taxing...

A handful of members of our network have organized and will participate in a virtual roundtable at the American Anthropological Association's annual meeting. They will be joined by even more tax scholars and interested economic anthropologists to discuss the question, 'what is the anthropology of tax?'

Visit our News page to read the description of the roundtable and find links to how to attend!

Please join us in congratulating Miranda Sheild Johansson for earning a multi-year fellowship for an excellent multi-sited anthropological research project on taxation.

Visit our News page to read the description of her cutting-edge project and find links to the funder info!

Lotta Björklund Larsen and Karen Boll have published an article entitled Taxation in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology.

Please visit our News page to read the abstract and find the link to this excellent article on tax!

Please join this upcoming event that will address financial crime from an interdisciplinary perspective over the course of a series of workshops.

Please visit our News page to read the description and find links to register for this interesting event!

Please join this upcoming virtual event that will address tax culture in business from an anthropological perspective.

Please visit our News page to read the description and find links to register for this interesting event!

On April 15, 2021, Matti Eräsaari and Anna-Riikka Kauppinen published a piece on the Finnish Tax Administration's hipster turn.

Please visit our News page to read the description and find links to this excellent article on tax!

The Tax Justice Network has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize!

The nomination is shared with the Global Alliance for Tax Justice (GATJ) and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

Copenhagen Business School, LAW, invites you to attend the online seminar exploring 'the effect of relgion and religiosity on tax compliance decisions'. The presentation is by Recep Yucedogru, Assistant Professor in Law at Bülent Ecevit University, on his research on the Islamic stance on tax compliance. 

Sign up to attend on the following website, which also has more details about the presentation:

https://cbs.nemtilmeld.dk/230/

Miranda Sheild Johansson from University College London has just published an article entry for the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology on tax!

Please visit our News page to read her abstract and find links to this excellent peer-reviewed article on tax!

The organizers are pleased to announce that their panel, "Fiscal relations in a post-Covid world: Hopes, potencies, and discontents of tax" has been accepted by SASE, the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, for their conference 3-5 July, 2021.

Please visit our News page for the panel abstract and find links for how to apply with your paper!

Soumhya Venkatesan and Oliver Owen are pleased to announce that their panel, "Good Ends and Dubious Means: Rule Breaking and Justification" has been accepted by SIEF, the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore, for their virtual conference 21-24 June, 2021.

Please visit our News page for the panel abstract and find links for how to apply with your paper!

Robin Smith and Nicolette Makovicky are pleased to announce that their panel, "Tax Matters: Are Rules Made to Be Broken?" has been accepted by SIEF, the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore, for their virtual conference 21-24 June, 2021.

Please visit our News page for the panel abstract and find links for how to apply with your paper!

The 8th annual TARC Conference schedule has been announced and will take place online, December 15-17, 2020.

Please visit our News page for details and find links to the conference program.

Johanna Mugler, Lotta Björklund Larsen, and Nimmo Elmi will be on the Center for Taxpayer Rights program, Tax Chat!, on November 10, 2020 noon, Eastern Standard Time (17:00GMT), taking place live on Zoom. You can register to be part of the conversation.

Find the announcement with a link to access the Zoom meeting at the top of the page, here:

https://taxpayer-rights.org/tax-chat-no-3-the-anthropology-of-tax/

Karen Boll, Yvette Lind, and Saila Stausholm from Copenhagen Business School will introduce and discuss their work in tax at the Cambridge Tax Discussion Group, on Thursday October 29, 2020, 16:00-17:00 London time. It is open to all virtually!

Find the announcement with a link to access the meeting at the bottom of the page, here:

https://cambridge.tax/

Tom Goodfellow and Oliver Owen have recently published an article on taxation and property rights in Lagos in Economy & Society, and a corresponding article in The Conversation, July 2020.

Please visit our News page to read the article's abstract and to find links!

Lotta Björklund Larsen and Robin Smith have written a short blog post for the Tax Administration Research Centre Blog at the University of Exeter Business School to promote our website and some recent anthropological publications on tax, October 12, 2020, entitled The Anthropology of Tax. This is part of our ongoing effort to give voice to  anthropological research on tax in society!

The Blog can be found here: http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/tarc/

And TARC's homepage can be found here: http://tarc.exeter.ac.uk/

Miranda Sheild Johansson and Anna-Riikka Kauppinen have just published a timely piece on fiscal life in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic on Allegra Lab, September 14, 2020. 

Please visit our News page to read the article's abstract and to find links! It's a fantastic piece that highlights how the pandemic has brought fundamental tax questions back into public debate.

Based on three years of fieldwork at the Swedish Tax Administration, our network member Lotta Björklund Larsen depicts the inner workings of a bureaucracy of taxation in Shaping Taxpayers. Values in Action at the Swedish Tax Agency (Berghahn Books).

Please read Lotta's Blog post about her ethnography of taxation, as well as how taxpayers are understood and made to comply by a seemingly well-esteemed tax administration.

There's a journal special issue on fiscal practices in African countries to announce!

Oliver Owen edited the journal special issue, Governing through Taxation, for Politique Africaine, Vol. 151, No. 3, 2018.

Check out our News page for details and a link to this publication!

Get your coffee ready, there's new research on the anthropology of tax to read, and it's much more fun than doing your own taxes!

Nicolette Makovicky and Robin Smith co-edited a journal special issue for Social Analysis entitled, 

Beyond the Social Contract: An Anthropology of Tax. 

Check out our News page for details and a link to this open access publication!

Our diverse group of tax scholars met up in Stockholm for an inspiring week of workshops on all things tax, thanks to the hard work of organizers Lotta Björklund Larsen and Nicolette Makovicky.

Check out our News page for details!

While in Stockholm, we brainstormed ideas for future collaborations on the anthropology of tax.

Read about some of our new works in progress on the News page!