2020 Volume 84 Issue 4 Pages 387-412
This article is a succession of my paper published in Annual Report of Social Anthropology Vol.45, and is part of a series of studies that, from the anthropological standpoint, fundamentally criticize the trend of neo-liberalism that prevails in contemporary society. As G. Agamben points out, the present society where bio-politics is practiced is in the process of "normalization of exception state" in the form of proxy democracy based on information technology and statistics. In fact, majority of the people around the world live in the society where they are not only disparate but rather abandoned such as a "homo-sacer" state. Over the past two decades research of my "Street Anthropology" has undoubtedly declared a standpoint from the side of the oppressed victim who suffer from those post-modern predicaments. The research has focused upon the far more profound history of people who are considered as "the defeated" in W. Benjamin's sense which tends to be hidden by the progress-oriented shallow view of "the victorious history" from the neo-liberalist standpoint. Thus, the research aims at building a place for hope and relief by discovering and learning the true "history of the defeated" with the viewpoint from the bottom. Therefore, I, as a person who share the same social space, have provided huge importance to the socially marginalized people who live at "street-edge" and have paid strong attention to how they survive and make their home on street-edge.
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