When Keith Hart died last November at the age of 82, the world lost an essential voice in anthropology and intellectual life. The esteemed academic and Prickly Pear co-founder was remembered with a joint tribute from his daughter Louise Hart, John Bryden (Emeritus Professor, University of Aberdeen), and Theodoros Rakopoulos (Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo), published by the London School of Economics. On July 4, 2026, he will be memorialized at a celebration of his life and legacy at St. John’s College, Cambridge.

Born in Manchester and based in Paris, Hart is best known for his concept of the informal economy, referring to economic activities that exist beyond the oversight of state regulation: think day laborers, street food vendors, motorcycle-taxi drivers. His later work focused on the role of money and exchange, and he wrote presciently on the impact of internet on how we buy, sell, and live. The Memory Bank: Money in an Unequal World (2000), anticipated many of the issues that still define the modern digital economy, and the book itself—available online in its entirety with a supporting blog—was a bold experiment in digital publishing that still informs how many publishers operate today, including Prickly Paradigm Press. As the world reckons with the rising prominence of digital currency and the gig economy, his work feels more relevant than ever.

But Hart means even more to PPP—he’s in our DNA. In 1993, he founded Prickly Pear Pamphlets with Anna Grimshaw, aiming to "to reinvent anthropology as a means of engaging with society." Hart and Grimshaw wrote Prickly Pear’s first pamphlet, Anthropology and the Crisis of the Intellectuals (1993), and set the tone for over three decades of polemical writing that brought academic thinking to a general audience.

Marshall Sahlins took over the press and turned it into Prickly Paradigm in 2001, but Hart continued to work closely with PPP. In 2005 he published The Hit Man’s Dilemma: Or, Business, Personal and Impersonal, a short and fiery work explaining how the modern economy, dominated by oligarchy and faceless corporations, forces individuals to think like killers for hire.

Prickly Paradigm will always be grateful for Hart: his brilliant mind, generous spirit, and foundational contributions to our press. Our thoughts are with Keith and all those attending his memorial service tomorrow. We hope you’ll continue to read and think of him.