Fieldwork as Performative Engagement

In this episode, Xiang Biao talks to Olaf Zenker, a leading anthropologist whose work spans Southern Africa, Germany, and Northern Ireland. Together, they explore one of the most urgent questions of our time: What happens when people lose faith in liberalism — not because they reject its ideals, but because they feel it has failed them?

This post-liberal fatigue is a deep, relational exhaustion with systems that promised justice, equality, and democracy, but delivered only delay, disillusionment, and fragmentation.