Crisis and its aftermath in Iceland: Kinship as recovery after economic collapse ...

• Main Author: Heffernan, Timothy
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: UNSW Sydney 2021
• Subjects: Crisis; Recovery; Kinship; Economic Crisis; Iceland; Southern theory; Europe; 440107 Social and cultural anthropology; Reykjavík
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/1631; http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/100031

This thesis is an anthropological study of kinship among residents in Reykjavík, Iceland, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Through ethnographic research with families and citizens’ collectives, kinship is explored as the cultures of relatedness developed in response to an economic crisis that turned into a political one. I argue that kin bonds provide affective support to recast the moral landscape after the economic collapse and revelations of corruption among politicians. The backdrop to this thesis is the effect of the crisis on culturally sanctioned ideas about accepted behaviours for the benefit of present and future kin. This is traced through debates over legislating a new constitution drafted after the crisis. While a distinction is often made between the domains of politics and kinship, this thesis engages recent anthropological literature on collective action and protest against the nation-state to illustrate the political utility of affective support and social intimacy among kin ...