Prof. Dr. Birgit Müller | Forscherin Fellow
Former Member
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Laboratoire d'anthropologie politique
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Anthropology
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Biography
Birgit Müller (PhD Cambridge 1986) is research director at the Laboratoire d'anthropologie politique LAP/ LAIOS (CNRS) and professor at the École des Hautes Études in Paris. Her current research explores how farmers, soils and seeds are embedded in the new global conjunctures of climate-smart agriculture - that is, in the development of private and public agricultural policies by states, corporations and a wide range of international intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations. His fieldwork has taken place in Canada, Nicaragua, France and most recently in California. His books include: Toward an Alternative Culture of Work. Political Idealism and EconomIc Practices in West Berlin collective Enterprises (1991), Disenchantment with Market Economics. East Germans and Western Capitalism (2008), The Gloss of Harmony. The Politics of Policy Making in Multilateral Organisations (2013).
The Berlin alternative movement - thirty years later
At the junction of three movements - the workers' movement against the deskilling of labour, the environmental movement against consumerism and programmed obsolescence, and the anti-authoritarian movement against the excesses of the German state, especially in the wake of the terrorist attacks of the 1970s - the alternative movement took off when activists from small far-left parties (Trotskyists, Maoists and Leninists) began to challenge the authoritarian structure of their organisations. "Instead of exhausting themselves in a hopeless confrontation with the state and propagating a revolution that was not about to happen, it was necessary to build alternatives, islands of real life in the bad system." (Sontheimer 2008)
In the book Toward an alternative culture of work. Political idealism and economic practices in Berlin collective enterprises published in 1991[1] I analysed how the critique of productivism and consumer society was put into practice in four Berlin production collectives. I would now like to re-edit the book and expand it with a new preface and afterword. With the benefit of thirty years of hindsight, I would like to explore to what extent the alternative movement was able to harness the critique of productivism and consumer society, and what impulses from its ideas still motivate the former members of the production collectives today? Some left-wing intellectuals today reinterpret the alternative movements as the German left's break with Marxism, and its retreat from the class struggle. Michael Sontheimer, one of the founders of the alternative newspaper die tageszeitung, who has since become an editor at the liberal weekly die Zeit, writes, disillusioned thirty years later, that few people suspected that they were about to embark on 'a long march back into society[2]' (Sontheimer 2008). This return to society interests me. By interviewing former members of the collectives I would like to retrace their professional, political and personal journey over the last thirty years and explore with them the significance of alternative ideas today. I would like to analyse the continuities and discontinuities in activist biographies, the transfer of commitments from the economic to the social and political spheres, from production to consultancy for example. My aim is also to revisit with former members the political and ecological ideas of the eighties, which are currently being revived. I have obtained contacts to new initiatives in and around Berlin that I would like to visit[3].
In the 1980s, the members of the alternative collectives claimed to have a changing and dynamic logic of practice, rejecting "any ideology", i.e. any corpus of dogmatic ideas established by an intellectual avant-garde, which alone would be capable of objectifying what other classes experienced in their daily lives. Without a total theory they nevertheless aimed at conscious action, which was supposed to emerge constantly from the activity itself. The members of the alternative enterprises claimed 'the critical return of the ordinary' (De Certeau 1990:28). Critical of their previous conventional jobs, they were determined to transform their reality through a different praxis which they regularly questioned. Sometimes from authoritarian Marxist groupuscules that had rejected their command structures, sometimes from young environmentalist and equally anti-authoritarian Spontis, they wanted to sow the seeds of a new anti-consumerist society based on production for need and ecological practice. Their objectives were threefold:
Firstly, to 'realise' themselves in the workplace, they sought to develop their manual as well as their intellectual capacities, by choosing their work rhythm, and by collectively determining the organisation of work.
Secondly, the collective organisation of work was based on the principles of consensus, material equality and collective ownership.
Thirdly, through the direct and politicised relationship between producers and consumers, they tried to realise a model of ecological consumption. They tried to create in alternative associations, enterprises and networks what de Certeau would call 'a place of their own' (de Certeau 1990: 60-61) that functioned according to other logics than society as a whole.
Constant reflexivity and self-criticism were an integral part of their practices, which they wanted to be experimental. Virtually endless discussions about the organisation of work, the division of tasks, power relationships and ways of making decisions were part of the daily life of all alternative enterprises. Conflicts, the sometimes heated exchange of opposing views, were seen as essential to move towards forms of organisation that suited all members.
To defend a space outside capitalist society, the collectives sought the abolition of private ownership of their means of production. To achieve this, they relied not on existing laws but on informal arbitration by commissions composed of members of other collectives. Their aim to live and work in the present in a different way went hand in hand with work in both design and production where they did not count hours. They created objects that were appreciated for their use value, such as repairable bicycles, electronic equipment for windmills, ecological and left-wing books and magazines. Without explicitly claiming to be followers of Marcuse, they sought freedom in work and not beyond work (Marcuse 1970: 62). They wanted to abolish the division between leisure time and work time in order to find pleasure in the tasks at hand and in the interaction with colleagues. Some of these ideas are nowadays found in spiritual and political initiatives such as 'work that reconnects', or are being reclaimed by the new management that makes each employee the entrepreneur of his or her own working time (Hielscher 2000).
The 'exploration of the interstices of society through work' was constrained by the fact that the collectives were producing for the market in competition with other conventionally organised enterprises. They used old machines not designed to allow the operator to thrive on the job. They compensated for their lack of capital by investing their labour, which was often poorly paid and at first not paid at all. They thus accumulated socialised property by exploiting themselves. On the other hand, it was the effort of accumulation, i.e. putting themselves at the service of this capital, even if neutralised, that co-determined the amount of their pay and the amount of work they had to do. As they were not paid for non-productive time, they soon reached the physical and social limits of their own capacity. Their fixed capital invested in machinery and equipment, their debts and their wages co-determined the configuration of power.
Producing became what Foucault calls 'a technique over oneself' (Foucault 2001b), i.e. a way of improving oneself according to a self-made ideal. The ultimate goal was thus that each member could replace all the others in their tasks, which required an equivalent level of knowledge and know-how. The learning methods were reminiscent of those of the anti-authoritarian experimental schools where children learn by making mistakes and finding solutions themselves. New members had to incorporate a different working practice and acquire it through conscious, self-critical experimentation. However, an informal division of labour between skilled and unskilled members developed. This was difficult to overcome because each member's qualification depended on his or her own initiative, on the often considerable efforts he or she was prepared to make to acquire knowledge outside his or her everyday tasks. In fact, as soon as a member acquired the full range of know-how needed in the company and could replace all colleagues, he/she became singularly important to the collective and could not be replaced by a newcomer. This member quickly and often unwillingly became a natural leader, pushed into the uncomfortable position of taking on responsibilities before which his or her colleagues would shrink, and of being exposed at all times to the potential criticism of trying to dominate others.
Although relatively protected by an alternative network that shared their values, offered services and finance and bought their products, the production and service collectives were necessarily embedded in wider production and market relations. The first contradictions arose when enterprises became economically viable and members began to cultivate outside hobbies and friendships. Tensions increased when some members began to express higher consumption needs than others and felt ready to accelerate their work pace to earn more. Conflicts became almost inevitable when these members asked their colleagues to work faster, as their solitary effort for greater productivity was lost in the general slowness and did not significantly influence the level of the company's income and therefore their own pay. Better performing members who wanted to be paid according to their performance left the company to become independent contractors. Also, most members tired of the degree of responsibility and self-discipline required of each individual to make a collective work over the long term.
Today, all the members of the Berlin collectives I have kept in touch with have moved away from manual labour and are now exclusively engaged in design work, often opening consultancies and setting up - sometimes very successfully - businesses in which they have the objects they have designed produced by others. Ideas from these movements, such as the search for personal fulfilment, the critique of the division of labour, hierarchy and surveillance were taken up and subsequently integrated into the organisation of capitalist production, as Boltanski and Chiapello show in The New Spirit of Capitalism (1999). In the 1990s, in many capitalist enterprises, there was a shift from the organisation of production controlled by a hierarchy to the self-control of workers which 'ensures the commitment of workers without recourse to force by giving meaning to each person's work' (Boltanski/Chiapello 1999: 119). Putting workers in competition replaces the control of the work done by managers who can in turn rely on the demands of customers to exercise a control that 'no longer seems to come from them but from the market' (Boltanski/Chiapello 1999:128). By making workers individually responsible for their performance and the quality of their products, and by encouraging them to evaluate themselves, it is more difficult for them to form a common front against central management, thus weakening the collective bargaining power between employees and management. Have the ideas of the alternative movement then melted into the new spirit of capitalism?
The niches of politically motivated consumers had been insufficient to establish and propagate production collectives as a sustainable response to the capitalist system. Yet the particular legacy of these enterprises that still inspires its former members today is the quest for a different quality of work and product, one that would not be determined primarily by their market value, but by their use value. In the exploratory interviews I conducted with former members they affirmed their concern for the quality of products and their social and ecological usefulness. I would like to explore the different ways in which former members of the collectives are now thinking not only about the usefulness of their products for individual users, but also about the impact they have on society and the environment. Since the theme has been a recurring one in the protest movements of the last twenty years, has there been a transmission between the protesting generations and can they learn from each other?
Another strong point of the Berlin collectives was the development of a culture of dispute that allowed the groups to evolve and find original solutions. The key question that emerges from this field - and in particular from the endless discussions of the members - is that of structures of self-government, and linked to this is that of accountability and self-discipline. How can we develop an art of self-government that allows the power of deliberation to flourish and prevents the formation of hierarchies and exploitative relationships?
Finally, the most crucial question I would like to discuss with these former members is what political and economic infrastructures and structures they think are necessary and feasible to transform the capitalist economy and consumer society and to move towards an egalitarian and ecological society of the future.
Bibliography :
Boltanski, Luc and Chiapello, Ève, 1999 Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme. Paris, Gallimard.
Certeau, Michel de. 1990 L'Invention du quotidien, tome I, Arts de faire. Paris: Gallimard.
Foucault, Michel, 2001 Herméneutique du sujet. Cours au Collège de France, 1981-1982 Hautes Études Gallimard - Seuil.
Hielscher, Volker (2000): Entgrenzung von Arbeit und Leben? Die Flexibilisierung von Arbeitszeiten und ihre Folgewirkungen für die Beschäftigten. Eine Literaturstudie, WZB Discussion Paper, No. FS II 00-201, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB), Berlin.
Müller, Birgit, 1991 Toward an Alternative Culture of Work. Political Idealism and Economic Practices in West Berlin Collective Enterprises. Boulder: Westview Press.
Sontheimer, Michael 2008 "Auf zum Strand von Tunix" In: Der Spiegel, eines tages, Zeitgeschichte auf spiegel online http://einertages.spiegel.de/static/authoralbumbackground/1287/1/auf_zum_strand_von_tunix.html (accessed on 25/10/2010).
Publications
Ouvrages
2008 La bataille des OGM. Combat vital ou d’arrière garde? Collection transversale débats, Paris: Éditions ellipses, 173 pages
2007 Disenchantment with Market Economics. East Germans and Western Capitalism, Oxford: Berghahn Books, 224 pages
2002 Die Entzauberung der Marktwirtschaft. Ethnologische Erkundungen in ostdeutschen Betrieben,Frankfurt: Campus. 230 pages
1991 Toward an Alternative Culture of Work. Political Idealism and Economic Practices in West Berlin Collective Enterprises. Boulder: Westview Press. 212 pages
Ouvrages dirigés :
2022 Political Ecology and Environmental Governance LASA Forum 53.1
2021 avec Michel Naeples Mondes toxiques numéro thématique de Mondes Communs Nr. 5
2014 Seeds and the Ontic in Political Anthropology. Thematic issue of Focaal. Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology 69
2013 The Gloss of Harmony. The Politics of Policy-Making in Multilateral Organisations. London: Pluto Press
2012 Anthropologie des organisations internationales. Thematic section Critique internationale 2012/1 Nr. 54
2010 My own boss? Strategies of Resistance and Accomodation of Rural Producers to Neoliberal Governance. Numéro thématique de Anthropologica. The Journal of the Canadian Anthropology Society 52.2
2006 GMOs – global objects of contention, thematic issue of Focaal. European Journal of Anthropology, 48 automne
avec Catherine Neveu (eds.) 2002 Mobilising Institutions — Institutionalizing Movements, numéro spécial de Focaal. European Journal of Anthropology 40
1998 Power and Institutional Change in Postcommunist Eastern Europe, Canterbury: CSA
1997 Anthropologie der Wende. Kontroversen im Alltag der deutschen Vereinigung, avec Emmanuel
Terray et Vincent von Wroblewsky, Berlin: Cahiers du Centre Marc Bloch Nr. 5
1996 Alltag in Jablonec 1994. Vom "Neusiedlergrenzland" zur Euroregion: dirigée avec Zdenek Uherek, Wien: IFK Materialien
1996 A la recherche des certitudes perdues... Anthropologie du travail et des affaires dans une Europe en mutation, Berlin: Cahiers du Centre Marc Bloch, Cahier Nr. 4, août
avec Christian Giordano et Ina Greverus (eds.) 1993 World View, Political Behaviour and Economy in the Post Communist Transition. numéro spécial du Anthropological Journal on European Cultures vol.2, Nr. 1 et Nr. 2
Chapitres dans des ouvrages collectifs:
Forthcoming Interlude I. Frictions of Distance and Proximity. Observing IOs in Action in : International Organization and Research Methods. An Introduction. Michigan University Press
2022 “Don’t Look Up”: Political Ecology and the Denials of Environmental Governance LASA Forum 53.1
2021 « Glyphosate, une histoire d’amour » In : Birgit Müller et Michel Naepels (sous la direction) Mondes toxiques. Monde Commun Nr. 5 Paris: PUF
2021 « Affect and Power in Seeds — Sensorial and Political Engagements » in Bengt Karlsson et Annika Rabo Seedways. Stockholm : Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities.
2022 avec Elise Boutié « ¿Agua fósil para Baby Carrots? El desafío de la (auto)limitación en un desierto californiano verde » in : Chloé Nicolas-Artero et.al. (eds.), L’Eau dans les Amériques. Paris : éditions de l’IHEAL
2021 « ““If They Don’t Farm It, They Should Not Own It”:. Land Investments and the Divisions of Farming » IN: Cora Sellers, JoAnn Jaffe and Trish Elliott (eds.) Divided: Populism, Polarization and Politics in the New Saskatchewan. Regina: Fernwood Publishing
2018 "Peasants" in: Hilary Callan (editor) The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology, Chichester : John Wiley & Sons Limited
DOI :[https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea2150]
2018 "Anthropology of International Organisations" in: Hilary Callan (editor) The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology, Chichester : John Wiley & Sons Limited DOI : [https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea2241]
2017 avec Sarah Benabou, Nils Moussu « The business voice at COP21: The Quandaries of a Global Political Ambition » in: Stefan C. Aykut, Jean Foyer, Edouard Morena (eds.) Globalising the climate: COP21 and the climatisation of global debates. Routledge pp. 57-74
2016 “Volverse esclavo de su semilla. Anthropos y el poder de los no-humanos”, In: Angel Aedo, Piergiorgio Di Giminiani y Juan Loera (eds.) Ecopolitica: medioambiente, bienestar y poder pp. 231-260
2015, avec Gilles Cloiseau, “La fabrique d'un paragraphe. Les investissements agricoles entre multilatéralisme et gouvernance privée”, in : Jean Foyer (sous la direction) Retour sur Rio + 20, Paris : éditions CNRS pp. 90-114
2015 avec Sarah Benabou “De l'autojustification du capitalisme. Les ambiguïtés de l’agenda du secteur privé à Rio + 20”, in : Jean Foyer (sous la direction) Retour sur Rio + 20, Paris : éditions CNRS pp. 164- 185
2014 "Semences : auto-contrôle, traçabilité, confidentialité et privatisation du droit" In: Droits de propriété intellectuelle et communs. Entre droits exclusifs de propriétaires et droits positifs des contributeurs, producteurs et usagers, Bagnolet: Réseau Semences Paysannes, http://www.semencespaysannes.org
2013, “Lifting the Veil of Harmony: Anthropologists approach International Organisations” In: Birgit Müller (ed.) The Gloss of Harmony. The Politics of Policy- Making in Multilateral Organisations. London: Pluto Press p. 1-20
2013 “The Loss of Harmony. FAO Guidance for Food Security in Nicaragua” In: Birgit Müller (ed.) The Gloss of Harmony. The Politics of Policy-Making in Multilateral Organisations. London: Pluto Press p. 202-226
2013 “The Struggle about the Canadian Wheat Board: Taking Freedom and Democracy to Market” in: Carole Counihan and Valeria Siniscalchi (eds.), 2013, Food Activism: Agency, Democracy and Economy, London : Berg Publishers p. 129-142
2013 “The Skeleton versus the Little Grey Men. Conflicting Cultures of Anti- Nuclear Activism at the Czech - Austrian Border” in: Jutta Lauth Bacas / William Kavanagh (eds.) Asymmetry and Proximity in Border Encounters. Oxford, Berghahn Books pp. 68-89
2011 “Détenir les codes de la nature : droits de propriété intellectuelle ou bien commun.” In: Ouvrage collectif La propriété intellectuelle contre la biodiversité ? Géopolitique de la diversité biologique. PubliCetim No 35, Genève: CETIM, mars 2011. pp. 177-193
2011, « The Elephant in the Room. Multi-stakeholder Dialogue on Agricultural Biotechnology in the FAO » In: Davide Però, Cris Shore, Sue Wright (eds.) Policy Worlds: Anthropology and the Anatomy of Contemporary Power, Oxford: Berghahn Books pp. 282-99
2007, « La loi du marché comme idéologie. Les agriculteurs de la Saskatchewan face au système économique néo-libéral », Cahiers du GEMDEV. Mesure de la mondialisation (sous la direction d’Irène Bellier) Nr. 31, mars, p. 52-65
REPRINT : 2007, “La loi du marché comme idéologie. Les agriculteurs de la Saskatchewan face au système économique néo-libéral”, in : Eveline Baumann, Laurent Bazin, Pepita Ould-ahmed, Pascale Phelinas, Monique Sélim et Riochard Sobel, La mondialisation au risque des travailleurs. Paris : l’Harmattan pp. 267-290
2006 “On the Ownership of Nature” in: Laxer, Gordon and Soron, Dennis (eds.), Not for Sale: De- commodifying Public Life, Calgary: Broadview Press, pp. 55-68
2006 “The Misgivings of Democracy: Personal Resentment and Alternating Power in a Czech Village” in: Maruska Svasek (ed.) Postsocialism. Politics and Emotions in Central and Eastern Europe, New York: Berghahn Books. pp. 178-195.
2004 “ Productivity and the Person. From Socialist Competition to Capitalist Mission“ in. Procoli, Angela (ed.) Workers and narratives of survival in Europe. The management of precariousness at the end of XXth century. New York: SUNY Press
2003 “Produktivität und Identität. Eine Anthropologie der Fabrikarbeit während und nach dem Sozialismus “ In: Moser, Johannes Kultur der Arbeit, Kultur der Neuen Ökonomie, Kuckuck. Notizen zu Alltagskultur. pp. 103-118
2000 "From Planned to Market Economy in the Former East Berlin" in: Kenneth McRobbie and Kari Polanyi Levitt (eds.) Karl Polanyi in Vienna. The Contemporary Significance of the Great Transformation. New York: Black Rose Books. Pp. 116- 131.
1999 “ Adaptation and Distinction : the Management Politics of two East German Production Managers in a Multinational Combine ” IN : Müller Birgit (ed.) Power and Institutional Change in Post-communist Eastern Europe, Canterbury : CSA. pp. 157- 168
1998 “ Sozialismus als Performance : Die Repräsentation des Politischen im volkseigenen Betrieb ” IN : Pribersky Andreas, Unfried Bertholdt Symbole und Rituale des Politischen, Vienne : Peter Lang Verlag. pp. 103-118
1997 “ Culture, pouvoir et l’unification allemande dans l’entreprise ” IN : Abeles M., Jeudy H.P. Anthropologie du politique Paris : Armand Colin, Collection U. pp. 163-178
1995 « The Wall in the Heads : East-West German Stereotypes and the Problems of Transition in Three Enterprises in East Berlin », In Marguerite Mendell et Klaus Nielsen (eds.) Europe. Central and East. Montréal : Black Rose Books. pp. 248-269.
1993 "Vom Kollektivmitglied zum "neuen Menschen" in der Marktwirtschaft: Weltsichten und wirtschaftliches Handeln in drei ehemals volkseigenen Betrieben in Ostberlin" IN: Helmers, Sabine (ed.) Ethnologie der Arbeitswelt, Mundus Reihe Ethnologie, Band 67, Bonn: Holos Verlag. pp. 279-308.
1989 "Campesinos und Sandinisten: Fallstudie in einem Dorf in Nicaragua" IN: Dirmoser. D. (ed.), Verlierer der Weltwirtschaft. Hamburg: Junius Verlag p.100-109
Articles dans des revues avec comité de lecture:
2022 avec Elise Boutié « Whose Limit. Water and Democracy in a Green Californian Desert » Political
Ecology Vol. 29 : 561-587
2021 « Compromisos con los no-humanos. Una antropología política de la conservación de semillas en
Nicaragua » In : Cuadernos de anthropologia (en cours de revision)
2021 « Glyphosate—A love story. Ordinary thoughtlessness and response-ability in industrial farming. »
Journal of Agrarian Change. 21(1): 160-179. https://doi.org/10.1111/joac.12374
2020 « Flux, unrelenting – the struggle for local seed sovereignty in Nicaragua », The Journal of Peasant Studies, 47(2):1-21. DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2020.1738395
2019 "To Act upon one's Time. From Impulse to Political Action." Politics In The Time Of ‘Post Politics’: Rethinking Anthropology’s Conception of The Political For The 21st Century. Edited by Nancy Peluso, Eli Elinoff, and Nicole Fabricant, special issue of Anthropological Theory 19 (1): 54-74
2015 'Fools Gold on the Prairies. Ontology, Farmers and their Seeds' in: Tsantsa 20 thematic issue L’anthropologie et le tournant ontologique p. 61-73
2015, with Gilles Cloiseau 'The Real Dirt on Responsible Agricultural Investments at Rio+20. Multilateralism versus Corporate Self-Regulation' in: Law & Society Review, Volume 49, No.1 p. 39-67
2014 “Seeds. Grown, Governed and Contested or the Ontic in Political Anthropology” In: Seeds and the Ontic in Political Anthropology. Thematic issue of Focaal. Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology Nr. 69: 3:11
2014, “The Seed and the Citizen. Biosocial Networks of Confiscation and Destruction in Canada” In : Seeds and the Ontic in Political Anthropology. Thematic issue of Focaal. Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology 69: 28-44
2012 “Farmers, Development, and the Temptation of Nitrogen: Controversies about Sustainable Farming in Nicaragua » In : RCC Perspectives Nr. 5 p. 23-30
2012 « Comment rendre le monde gouvernable sans le gouverner : Les organisations internationales analysées par les anthropologues » in: Critique internationale 2012/1 Nr. 54 p.9-18
2010 “Les droits de propriété intellectuelle sur la nature” In : Multitudes. Revue politique, artistique, philosophique 41 (printemps) pp. 73-81
2010 « Introduction — My Own Boss? Strategies of Resistance and Accommodation of Rural Producers to Neoliberal Governance » In : Anthropologica 52.2 , p. 233-6
2010 « Favores, ayuda y robo: Peasants’ Views of Continuity in Systemic Change in Nicaragua » In : Anthropologica 52.2 , p. 259-272
2009 "Comment rendre technique un débat politique. Controverses autour des biotechnologies agricoles au sein de la FAO" In: Tsantsa Nr. 14 p. 27-36
2008, “Still Feeding the World? The Political Ecology of Canadian Prairie Farmers” Anthropologica. The Journal of the Canadian Anthropology Society vol. 50,2 pp. 389-408
2006 “Infringing and Trespassing Plants. Control over and Responsibility for Patented Seeds at Dispute in Canada’s Courts” in : Focaal. European Journal of Anthropology, Nr. 48 automne p. 83-98
2006 “Introduction: GMOs - Global Objects of Contention” in: Focaal. European Journal of Anthropology, nr. 48, automne p. 4-16
2004 “Images of Nature as Designs for Czech Post-Socialist society” in: Political Ecology Nr. 11, November p. 31-42
2002 “Say it in Rimes. Hits below the belt in Czech village politics” In Focaal European Journal of Anthropology 39. Special Issue on 'Politics and Emotions in Post-Socialist Communities' (ed M. Svasek) p. 29-39
2002 avec Kohutek Petr “ Engaging the New Democracy: EIA Procedures and Institution Building in the Czech Republic ” In: Focaal. European Journal of Anthropology 40, special issue on ‘Mobilising Institutions — Institutionalizing Movements’ Birgit Müller and Catherine Neveu (eds.) p. 67-81
2002 avec Catherine Neveu, “ Mobilising Institutions — Institutionalizing Movements : an Introduction ” In Focaal. European Journal of Anthropology 40, special issue Birgit Müller and Catherine Neveu (eds.) ‘Mobilising Institutions — Institutionalizing Movements’ p.7-19
2000 « C’est ça la démocratie... ! La mise en scène d’un contre-pouvoir lors du sommet de Seattle » In : Socio-anthropologie nr.7 1 sem. [URL : http://journals.openedition.org/socio-anthropologie/102 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/socio-anthropologie.102]
1999 « Calcul et croyance: La mission civilisatrice d'une multinationale en Europe de l'est » In: Ethnologie française 1999:4 p. 543-548
1998 « Kultura a moc: Prumyslovy podnik po sjednoceni Nemecka » IN: Cesky Lid 85,3 pp. 209-222 1997 « Du travailleur “ socialiste à ‘l’homme nouveau’ dans l’économie du marché » IN : Ethnologie
Française 27 pp. 543-551
1994 "Macht und Disziplin, auf dem Weg vom Plan zum Markt: Belegschaftsinteressen und Managementstrategien in ostberliner Industriebetrieben 1990-1993" IN: Historische Anthropologie, 2 :1, pp. 63–86
1994 avec Elena Mechtcherkina, Kirill Levinson, Isabelle Cribier, Andrej Onikienko « 'Nous qui avons su ferrer une puce...': productivité et profit dans une joint venture moscovite » In: Les Temps Modernes 49 année, nr. 579, déc. Pp. 124-156.
1993 « Le mur dans la tete. Les stéréotypes interallemands et les problèmes de transition dans trois anciennes entreprises du peuple à Berlin Est » IN: Les temps modernes, année 49, Nr. 560, janvier. Pp 63- 95
1993 « Pouvoir et discipline, du monde du plan à celui du marché » in: Cahiers internationaux de Sociologie, Vol. XCV pp. 333-353
1993 "Der Mythos vom faulen Ó ssi`: Deutsch-deutsche Vorurteile und die Erfahrungen mit der Marktwirtschaft in drei Betrieben in Ostberlin" IN: PROKLA Zeitschrift für kritische Sozialwissenschaften, Heft 91, 23. Jg. Nr. 2. Pp. 251-268.
1993 "The Wall in the Heads: East West German Stereotypes and the Problems of Transition in three Enterprises in East Berlin" IN: Birgit Müller, Christian Giordano and Ina Greverus (eds.) World View, Political Behaviour and Economy in the Post Communist Transition. (thematic issue) Anthropological Journal on European Cultures vol.2, Nr. 1. Pp. 9-42.
1992 « De la folie du marché à la fin des illusions » IN: Liber. Supplément aux actes de la recherche en sciences sociales Nr. 91-92 p.14-15
1992 « De la compétition socialiste à la libre concurrence: la privatisation de trois entreprises (VEB) de Berlin-Est » IN: Allemagne aujourd'hui Nr. 121 juil-sept, pp. 183-196
1985 "Commodities as Currencies. The Integration of Overseas Trade into the Internal Trading Structure of the Igbo" IN: Cahiers des Etudes Africaines 97, XXV- 1 pp. 55-77
Comptes rendus:
2018 « Compte-rendu : Tania Li Land's End », In: L'Homme Nr. 225, mars
2009 « Compte-rendu : Food for the Few. Neoliberal Globalism and Biotechnology in Latin America, edited by Gerardo Otero » in : The Journal of Peasant Studies Volume 36 Issue 2.
2008 « Compte-rendu : ‘Capitalism and modernity: the great debate - Jack Goody’ » in: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Volume 14, Number 1, March, pp. 233-234(2)
1999 « Compte-rendu : Martha Lampland ‘the Object of Labour’ » In: Social Anthropology Nr 7 pp. 351- 52
1994 « Compte-rendu : "The Culture of Flowers by Jack Goody" » IN: Social Anthropology 2,3 October 1994, 314
Articles dans des revues sans comité de lecture :
2014 "B2Gold has to Go! Struggle against Canadian Open Pit Gold Mining in the North of Nicaragua" Blog du Centre Humboldt, Managua http://de.slideshare.net/centroalexandervonhumboldt/reportaje- rancho-grande-versin- ingles2
2014 avec McMichael, Phil The Land-Grab Trap: Is There a Will to Govern Global Land Grabbing? Focaalblog http://www.focaalblog.com/2014/09/19/philip- mcmichael-birgit-muller-the-land-grab-trap-is- there-a-will-to-govern-global-land- grabbing/
2012 « Changeons nos consommations... » in : Sarkophage, hors série spécial Elections : « On change tout ! » avril
2011 “Wem gehört das Saatgut?” in Der Standard 9.September
2006 “UPOV 1991 – contrôle des semences et politique sous influence” in Nature et Progrès nr. 59 : 28-
30 septembre-octobre. 1992"JamesScottetlediscourscachédesdominés"IN:BulletindelÁ PAD,Nr.3,
1991 "Einbruch der Marktwirtschaft in die Alltäglichkeit von zwei Betrieben in der ehemaligen DDR" IN: Sozialanthropologische Arbeitspapiere. Nr. 37, Sept
Blog
Silent Spring Continued — Insect Love and Loss. DOI : [https://seeingthewoods.org/2018/05/23/call-for-
submissions-silent-spring- continued/], Conception et Animation (contributeur)
Rapports de recherche :
2019, avec Bina Agarwal, Group Farming and Collective Action. Does the French model hold lessons for
Indian and French farming futures? Rapport final pour le CEFIPRA
2008 avec Christina Garsten et Irène Bellier “Global swirl: some reflections on European organizing in the context of globalization." In: Anthropological Perspectives in a Changing Europe: Bringing People. Working document. European Commission, European Research Area. http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ssh/library_en.html
1999 The Council of Europe after Enlargement:an Anthropological Enquiry Results of the Fieldwork in the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, 15th of June to 18th of July 1998, financed by the European Science Foundation, presented to the members of the Council of Europe for discussion
1987 Cooperativismo y autoabastecimiento: el caso de los Potrerillos Informe para el departamiento de economia agricola UNAN, Managua