The David Graeber Institute was founded as a platform for projects that build on David Graeber’s legacy. Our goal is to establish an educational institution aimed at strengthening communities most vulnerable to climate change, beginning with island nations in the Caribbean. The institute will conduct research based on David Graeber’s archive and collaborate with global initiatives focused on building resilience in times of crisis.

Our sustainably run physical space in Saint Vincent will offer students and faculty access to a library and archive of published and unpublished works by David Graeber and like-minded thinkers in the fields of anthropology, economics, political philosophy, art, and technology. 

We plan to explore Carnival as an economic, political, and artistic structure that is fundamental to all human societies, with a special focus on its significance in Caribbean culture. Annual participation in the St. Vincent Carnival is the basis of a meaningful collaboration between the Institute and the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines

The Institute plans to join a network of initiatives around the world dedicated to building local systems in which basic resources-food, education, energy, and medicine-are produced in abundance and distributed freely. Building on David’s idea of technology as an expression of social relations, DGI aims to foster a system of equal participation of all three disciplines: technology, arts, and humanities.  We hope to support the development of intellectually intensive, but not labor intensive, non-proprietary open-source technologies that can be produced and maintained locally.

We believe that just and equitable resource redistribution is critical in the development of crisis-resistant social structures. Starting with St. Vincent, we hope to support and expand a decentralized network of projects addressing community resilience in the face of climate change around the world.