The Good Life Aspiration, Dignity, and the Anthropology of Wellbeing [Hardcover]

What could middle-class German supermarket shoppers buying eggs and impoverished coffee farmers in Guatemala possibly have in common? Both groups use the market in pursuit of the good life. But what exactly is the good life? How do we define wellbeing beyond material standards of living? While we all may want to live the good life, we differ widely on just what that entails.

InThe Good Life, Edward Fischer examines wellbeing in very different cultural contexts to uncover shared notions of the good life and how best to achieve it. With fascinating on-the-ground narratives of Germans' choices regarding the purchase of eggs and cars, and Guatemalans' trade in coffee and cocaine, Fischer presents a richly layered understanding of how aspiration, opportunity, dignity, and purpose comprise the good life.

Fischer has carved out an important piece of the wellbeing puzzle . . . It will be interesting to see how positive anthropology develops as a new branch of the discipline. That is where anthropology can get exciting. In this excellent book, Ted Fischer introduces us to Guatemalan farmers and German consumers and shows us how culturally-held values enter into economic decision-making, exposing the similarities that exist even while investigating separate corners of the world. An important contribution to economic anthropology that will be of interest to anyone concerned with the ethical dimensions of economic life. In the burgeoning literature on markets and moralities,The Good Lifeis a benchmark exercise in reconciling well-being, rationalities and in balancing the study of economic externalities with ethical internalities. It will be of great interest to ethnographers of the economy and to all thinkers concerned with the value of values. Homo economicus, the representative rational actor assumed in economists' models, is a social moron. Fischer's keen eye for social detail reveals how markets populated by actual people often behave very dil“%