Chris Banks

Christopher Banks, Anthropologist of Luxury

Hello everyone. I'm Christopher Banks, an Anthropologist of Luxury and Critical Theorist. My work operates at the intersection of academic critique, business innovation, and cultural practice.

What brings me to the DEAL Community is that my Post-Luxury research is, in effect, a direct, on-the-ground case study of the Doughnut model in practice. My Hybrid Authority framework is a three-pincer attack built to solve the exact problems this community is tackling.

1. The Academic Pincer (The Diagnosis): My research deconstructs the hollow, extractive, Simulacrum (Baudrillard) of the old, growth-obsessed luxury system—a system that has spectacularly failed both the social foundation and the ecological ceiling.

2. The Business Pincer (The New Model): My Business Pincer identifies the market void left by this collapse. It focuses on Systemic Stewardship (as seen in my PàA study). It defines the new, structurally anchored economic models required to fund the Artisan as Activist and to create a truly regenerative phygital economy. This is the Business Pincer that aligns perfectly with the DEAL framework.

3. The "Cultural Pincer" (The "Antidote"): My Cultural Pincer is the tangible Antidote—Post-Luxury Conceptual Functional Art (PLCFA). This is my structurally-anchored framework for Post-Growth objects whose value is based on Intangible Provenance and Critical Craftsmanship, not "sign-value.

I am here to connect with fellow thinkers who are also building this new, structurally-anchored economy.

My research is an on-the-ground proof that Post-Growth models are not just theoretical but are the only viable future for cultural and commercial practice. I look forward to sharing my findings and collaborating on the tangible, regenerative "Antidotes" this community is designing.