I am an economist (BHons, Universidad del CEMA) and social anthropologist (MSc, University of Edinburgh; PhD, University of Manchester) who, after 2 years working as a political consultant in Buenos Aires, Argentina, turned to academia to research ethics and political and economic reasoning.
My doctoral and early postdoctoral work was based on my ethnography of Uber’s conflict in Buenos Aires, where I examined the logics, rhetoric and affects of what I called post-political reasoning – a popular, not governmental, orientation towards the foreclosing of the political. This project involved an anthropological examination of the neoclassical economics canon: the moral imperative of choice, the inherent virtue of competition, the perfectly informed citizen-consumer and popular reflections on categories such as efficiency, market price, demand and the like.
Recognised by the Argentine Council of Foreign Affairs, this work has led to several peer-reviewed and mass media publications and public policy recommendations to the Argentine Congress. It received the RAI’s Sutasoma Award for Research of Potential Outstanding Merit and is now the basis for my book manuscript Taxis vs. Uber: Courts, Markets, and Technology in Buenos Aires (Stanford University Press, 2022).
Based at the Max Planck Cambridge Centre for Ethics, Economy and Social Change and funded by the Philomathia Foundation, my current project examines the ethics of behavioural insights as a technology of government and instrument of public policy.
Current Project
In spite of behavioural insights’ popularity, there is little anthropological research into its ethical impact on the subtle webs of responsibility, accountability, prerogatives and guarantees linking governments, policies and citizens.
My current project will seek to address these issues, asking as well: what kinds of ethical discourses do behavioural economic consultants deploy? What kinds of projects do they get involved in or not? What disciplines, regimes of knowledge and kinds of expertise do they claim or draw on, and what kinds of socio-technical devices do these involve (algorithms, rhetoric, big data, econometric regressions…)? How do they incorporate, reconcile or supersede canonical understandings of transparency, objectivity, impartiality, and other ethical categories peopling contemporary understandings of “good governance”?
This project involves fieldwork with Behavioural insights consultants, behavioural psychologists, and behavioural economists, as well as key policy makers around Europe involved in producing behaviourally-informed public policy.
Publications
Book
del Nido, J. M. 2021. Taxis vs Uber: Courts, Markets, and Technology in Buenos Aires. Stanford University Press
Peer-reviewed journal articles
del Nido, J. M. 2022. Uber Mobilities, Algorithms, and Consumption: Politicizing Ethical Reflections. Mobilities. Vol 17(5), pp. 729-744.
del Nido, J. M. 2021. Production, Consumers’ Convenience, and Cynical Economies: The Case of Uber in Buenos Aires. Economic Anthropology. Vol 8(2), pp. 326-336.
del Nido, J. M. 2020. Inscription: Taxi Work Relations, the Ficha and the Political Economy of a Market Device. Anthropology of Work Review. Vol. XLI(1), pp. 50-58.
del Nido, J. M. 2019. Tecnología, Política Pública y Modernidad Periférica: El Conflicto de Uber en Buenos Aires. Hipertextos. Vol. 11(7), pp. 171-198.
Peer-reviewed journal articles in submission
del Nido, J. M. (revise and resubmit) Uber and What the People Want: Algorithms, Neoliberalism and Populism as a Political Logic. Anthropological Theory.
Peer-reviewed journal articles in preparation
del Nido, J. M. Uncertainty, Terms and Conditions and the Political Economy of Signatures in Buenos Aires’ taxi trade. (Intended journal: The Journal of Cultural Economy).
Peer-reviewed book chapters in preparation
del Nido, J. M. Platforms and the social imaginary of an ordinary life. (Intended publisher: Cambridge University Press)
Book reviews and book review essays (selected)
del Nido, J. M. 2022. Anthropology and the Moral Project of Neoliberalism. The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology. Works reviewed: Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian and Philip Mirowski, Nine Lives of Neoliberalism. London: Verso, pp. 368. 2020; Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights and the Rise of Neoliberalism. London: Verso, pp. 288. 2019; James Carrier (ed.) After the Crisis: Anthropological Thought, Neoliberalism and the Aftermath. London: Routledge, pp. 129-135.
del Nido, J. M. 2021. Birch, Kean and Muniesa, Fabian. 2020. Assetization: Turning Things Into Assets in Technoscientific Capitalism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 338 pp., $40.00 (Pb), ISBN: 9780262539173. Prometheus: Critical Studies in Innovation, 37(1), pp. 74-79.
del Nido, J. M. 2021. Christin, Angèle. 2020. Metrics at Work: Journalism and the Contested Meaning of Algorithms. Princeton University Press, 272 pp. $29.95 (Hb), ISBN: 9780691175232. Journal of Cultural Economy, Vol. 14(1), pp. 123-125.
del Nido, J.M. 2020. Gago, Verónica. 2017. Neoliberalism from Below: Popular Pragmatics and Baroque Economies. Durham: Duke University Press, 277 pp. $26.95 (Pb.), ISBN: 9780822369127. Anthropology Book Forum, available at: https://www.anthropology-news.org/?book-review=neoliberalism-its-critics-and-the-modes-of-a-known-genre
Policy Recommendations
del Nido, J. M. 2020. “From ‘Lives vs. The Economy’ to ‘Lives vs. Lives’: Global South Lessons on Reframing the Lockdown Debate” (policy recommendations with respect to the Covid-19 crisis, policy@manchester, available at: http://blog.policy.manchester.ac.uk/health/2020/05/from-lives-vs-the-economy-to-lives-vs-lives-global-south-lessons-on-reframing-the-lockdown-debate/)
del Nido, J. M. 2019. Tecnología y Modernidad en la Periferia: Uber y el Trabajo Pendiente. El Futuro del Trabajo Que Queremos (Argentine National Congress policy recommendations on the occasion of ILO’s Centennial). Editorial del Congreso, pp: 96-112.
Interviews, podcasts, etc
2022 Interview for technology blog Cenital on the subject of Uber files, by Dr. Jimena Valdez.
2022 Exhibit: “Life as Data”, Cambridge Science Festival, March 31st – April 10th, aimed at audiences 12 years old and older, organised jointly by all Philomathia Fellows at Cambridge.
2022 Interview (blog) about my book Taxis vs. Uber for CAMP Anthropology, by Dr. Diego Valdivieso, University of Manchester.
2022 Interview (podcast) about my book Taxis vs. Uber for the New Books Network, by Professor Sneha Annavarapu, Yale-NUS College.
2021 Interview (podcast) about my book Taxis vs. Uber, for the Observatory of Digital Economy, Universidad de San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina (in Spanish).
Grants
2020/23 Philomathia Research Associate, University of Cambridge (GBP 39,000/year + GBP 36,000 research expenses) (Current Position)
2020/23 Hallsworth Fellowship, University of Manchester (GBP 36,000/year, GBP 6,000/year research expenses) (NOTE: attained final interview stage – position destroyed due to Covid-19)
2019/20 ESRC 12-month Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Manchester (GBP 36,000/year; GBP 10,000/year research expenses)
2019 Visiting Professor Grant, Universidad del CEMA, Buenos Aires (US$600)
2018 Small Academic Expenses Grant, Royal Economic Society (£450)
2018 Visiting Professor Grant, Universidad del CEMA, Buenos Aires (US$600)
2017 Visiting Professor Grant, Universidad del CEMA, Buenos Aires (US$600)
2015 Fieldwork Fund Grant, University of Manchester (£3,000)
2014 Baltic Social Anthropology Scheme Grant, Economic and Social Research Council in association with the North Western Doctoral Training Centre (£1,150)
2014/17 President’s Doctoral Scholarship, University of Manchester (£12,500 p/a)
2011 Santander Masters Scholarship, Santander Bank (£5,000)
Awards
2022 Carol R. Ember Book Prize, Society for Anthropological Sciences (US)
2018 Sutasoma Award for Research of Potentially Outstanding Merit, Royal Anthropological Institute (UK)
2018 Best Graduate Student Essay, Eric R. Wolf Prize – Society for the Anthropology of Work (US)
– Paper: Inscription: Wolf’s Power, a Taxi “Ficha” and the Reproduction of an Argentine Workers’ Union
2018 Best Graduate Student Essay, Arthur Maurice Hocart Prize – Royal Anthropological Institute (UK)
– Paper: The Scarlet P: Uber in Buenos Aires and the Post-Political as a Modality of Reasoning
2018 Best Graduate Student Essay, Elsie Clews Parsons Prize – American Ethnologist (US)
– Paper: Uber and What the People Want: The Populist Persuasion of Algorithmic Management
2018 Best Graduate Student Essay, Harold Blakemore Prize – Society for Latin American Studies (UK)
– Paper: Uber and What the People Want: The Populist Persuasion of Algorithmic Management
2018 Best Graduate Teaching Assistant of the University, school year 2017-2018, University of Manchester.
2017 Best Graduate Teaching Assistant of the University, school year 2016-2017, University of Manchester.
