Steering Committee

headshot of Douglas R. Holmes

Douglas R. Holmes

Distinguished Professor

Anthropology

Background

For many years Douglas Holmes has investigated the emergence of contemporary fascism across Europe, a fascism that unfolds in our midst, at 鈥渆ye-level.鈥 Broadly, his work addresses how and why the most discredited ideas and sensibilities of the modern era鈥攊deas that yielded the indelible horrors of the twentieth century鈥攈ave become persuasive, compelling even, in the new century. More recently, he has turned his attention to the operations of central banks and the design of a distinctive monetary policy regime. In Stockholm, London, Wellington, and two venues in Frankfurt, he has spoken to bank personnel and to policy makers examining how they model the economy and the financial system with language, establishing a radically communicative and relational dynamic at the center of monetary affairs. Holmes is the author of an ethnographic trilogy: Cultural Disenchantments: Worker Peasantries in Northeast Italy (Princeton 1989); Integral Europe: Fast-Capitalism, Multiculturalism, Neofascism(Princeton 2000); and Economy of Words: Communicative Imperatives in Central Banks (Chicago 2014). He has also authored with George E. Marcus a series of texts exploring experiments in ethnographic collaboration particularly as they are achieved within cultures of expertise.

Podcast

Episode 1: Centre for Finance and Development, Graduate Institute, Geneva. (2023)

Recent Publications

2023. Holmes, Douglas R. 鈥楺uelling Inflation: The Role of the Public,鈥 Anthropology Today (Royal Anthropological Institute) Vol. 39(2): 6-11.

2022. Myhre, Knut Christian and Douglas R. Holmes. 鈥淩eframing Welfare: Expectations, Collaboration and Ownership at the World鈥檚 Largest Sovereign Wealth-Fund,鈥 Anthropological Forum: A Journal of Social Anthropology and Comparative Sociology, Volume 32, 2: 158-180.

2021a. Holmes, Douglas R. 鈥楳oney Troubles: Designing a Bridge to the Ephemera of Expectations,鈥 Designs and Anthropologies, Keith M. Murphy & Eitan Wilf (eds.) Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

2021b. Holmes, Douglas R. and George E. Marcus. How Do We Collaborate: An updated Manifesto, Collaborative Anthropology Today: A Collection of Exceptions, Dominic Boyer and George Marcus (eds.) Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

2020. Tuckett, David; Holmes, Douglas, Pearson, Alice. and Chaplin, Graeme. 鈥楳onetary policy and the management of uncertainty: a narrative approach,鈥 Bank of England, Staff Working Papers. No. 870: 1-28.

Current Research Activities

2025. 鈥楢gentive Publics and Responsive Knowledge: Intermediation between Markets and Society.鈥 AxPo Observatory of Market and Society Polarization. Sciences Po, Paris.

2023.鈥楧efending Democracy in the European Union: A Socio-Legal Approach to the European Institutions,鈥 Swiss National Science Foundation, Scientific Project 鈥 Division of Social Sciences. Gr茅goire Mallard (PI), Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva (IHEID).

2023. 鈥楩-Word: The world behind a word. An anthropological exploration of fascist practices and meanings among European youth.鈥 ERC. Maddalena Gretel Cammelli (PI), University of Turin.

2018-2021. 鈥榃hat do Economic Actors Know: Can Tracking Their Changing Economic Narratives Help to Fine Tune Monetary and Financial Policy?鈥 David Tuckett (PI), University College London, funded by 鈥淩ebuilding Macroeconomics,鈥 National Institute Economic and Social Research (NIESR).

2017-2022 鈥楩orms of Ethics, Shapes of Finance: Ethnographic Explorations of the Limits of Contemporary Capital,鈥 The Norwegian Research Council (Forskningsr氓det), Knut Christian Myhre (PI), Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo.

Recent Academic Appointments

2025 Visiting Scholar, AxPo Observatory of Market and Society Polarization. Sciences Po, Paris.

2023 Visiting Professor, Institut de hautes 茅tudes internationales et du d茅veloppement) (IHEID), Geneva.

2019-2020 Research Associate. Monetary Policy Division. Bank of England.

2018-2023 Visiting Professor, Psychology and Language Science, University College London (UCL).

2017 Simon and Hallsworth Visiting Professor, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester.

Research Interests

  • Contemporary fascism
  • Central banks and monetary policy
  • Technologies of money
  • Sovereign wealth funds
  • Experimental ethnography