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Anthropology News December: Comparative studies of flood management in neoliberal, social-democratic states needed

Published on December 7, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, ecology nature, journal articles / papers, politics

One month before Katrina resulted in floods in New Orleans, a similar “natural” disaster occurred in Mumbai, India. Judy Whitehead, associate professor at the University of Lethbridge in Canada ~~the United Kingdom~~, has conducted disaster research in partnership with an NGO that brought together organizations working with slum dwellers. In Anthropology News December, she sums up some similarities between the disaster in Mumbai with the Katrina disaster in Florida.

Both disasters reveal “common problems in both neoliberal states’ disaster management”:

States that minimize public safety, leaving “civil society” and the market to meet social needs, may well be ones that are deficient in safety planning and provisioning.

Similarities:

– Like New Orleans, Mumbai has de-industrialized in the past two decades. The city’s textile industry has closed down under competition from the power loom sector.

– Like New Orleans, Mumbai, too, has a vulnerable topography.

– Like New Orleans, the vacuum created by state inaction was filled by the press who excelled in Mumbai in “speaking truth to power.”

Her conclusion:

Since economic reforms were installed in India in 1991, “good governance” has come to mean that state and municipal governments should be pared down, while social services are contracted out to non-governmental organizations. The notion of a state that relies on “civil society” to meet its social programs ignores long-term investment in infrastructure to prevent disasters and long-range planning that focuses on preparedness for the worst-case scenarios.

Comparative studies of flood management in neoliberal, social-democratic states provide important insights in resulting problems in disaster management.

>> read the whole article

When applied anthropology becomes aid – A disaster anthropologist’s thoughts

New website: Understanding Katrina: Perspectives from the Social Sciences

Thesis: Conservation for Whom? Telling Good Lies in the Development of Central Kalahari

Published on November 20, 2005 by lorenz Posted in Africa, anthropology in the news, development empowerment, ecology nature, journal articles / papers, San-bushmen, tourism

Anna Stadler from Linköping University, Department of Anthropology (Sweden) has conducted a study of the relocation of the G//ana and G/wi San from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana. Her essay discusses how conservation policies, development programs and eco-tourism projects have been implemented in the Central Kalahari, and the consequences these policies have had for the people who first inhabited of the area. Excerpts from the conclusion:

The Botswana government has encouraged the local inhabitants of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve to resettle, as the San has been accused of poaching, and it is claimed that the tourists who come to Central Kalahari wish to see unspoiled wilderness. (…) As the San are being removed from the reserve, and more tourists are brought in, the area’s attraction as a reserve seems to have only to do with its value as a resource for tourism.

(…)

Prejudice, discrimination and racism still stand in the way for development in Botswana. In the space of a few years, Botswana has been transformed into one of Africa’s richest countries, with an economic growth that has prompted a massive social change. In wealthy Botswana, hunting and gathering are clear indicators of poverty. The solution to this poverty is believed to be assimilation into the dominant Botswana society.

Having the apartheid regime of neighbouring South Africa in thought, at independence the Botswana regime decided to ignore any cultural differences among its people. Black or white, cattle-owner or huntergatherer, everybody was to be treated as if they were the same. Consequently, poverty, not discrimination, was seen to be the main problem of the San. The relocation-program has thus a lot to do with the governments attempt to assimilate a people they regard as being “backward”.

>> read the whole thesis

New issue of Durham Anthropology Journal online

Published on November 20, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Europe, fieldwork / methods, journal articles / papers

Recently, the summer issue of Durham Anthropology Journal was published online. Here some articles:

Edward Croft (Aberdeen University):
Dutton Higher Status Behaviour and Status Ambiguity: A Discussion of Exaggerated Higher Status Identity at Oxford University

Croft did fieldwork at Oxford University focussing on the university’s largest evangelical group: the Christian Union:

Using Eidheim’s research into the Lapps of Northern Norway as a further example, the article will further argue that when a group is ambiguous about its status it will react by projecting an exaggerated version of the apparently higher status. The article will note, in this regard, that the experience of Oxford University is highly ‘liminal’ and ambiguous with regard to whether a student is a child or adult. Following this, it will be demonstrated that an exaggerated adult identity is found to a great extent amongst students at Oxford University.

>> read the whole article

Sue Cooper (University of Durham):
A Rite of Involvement?: Men’s transition to fatherhood

Men are striving to be involved with the process of pregnancy and childbirth and society – an ethnography amomg young fathers in times of social change:

The aim was to identify core values and beliefs regarding fatherhood that are being transmitted through some of the rituals that men participate in before and during pregnancy, labour and birth. Qualitative data was obtained from interviews with fathers-to-be throughout their partners’ pregnancy and after the birth of their child.

>> read the whole paper

Oranutt Narapruet (University of Durham):
Freedom from the Cage: A Second Chance for Mental Health Care in the Czech Republic?

On field research in the changing mental health care system in the Czech Republic:

Whenever I think of the Czech Republic, I always imagine how beautiful it is, but I guess we don’t see what really goes on behind that whole façade’. The question of `why?’ is a good one. Why had the government banned the use of `cage beds’ in its mental institutions? Why were `cage beds’ even allowed to exist in the first place? What were the real reasons behind the use of `cage beds’? What do mental health professionals and the wider public truly think, and hope for, now that the ban has been established? And, more importantly, what does the future hold for the Czech psychiatric system, its staff, the community, and the patients themselves?

>> read the whole paper

>> Overview over Durham Anthropology Journal
Volume 13(2)

Recently, the summer issue of Durham Anthropology Journal was published online. Here some articles:

Edward Croft (Aberdeen University):
Dutton Higher Status Behaviour and Status Ambiguity: A Discussion of Exaggerated Higher Status Identity at Oxford University

Croft did fieldwork at Oxford University focussing…

Ethnographic research on Friendster’s online communities

Published on October 26, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, cyberanthropology, fieldwork / methods, internet, journal articles / papers, Us and Them

In her most recent post, Danah Boyd gives us a round-up of her publications on Friendster, a popular social networking service where she has conducted ethnographic research. Among others, she studied how people publicly perform their social relations online. Most of her papers are available as pdf-documents >> read Danah Boyd’s round-up

The State of the Art of Qualitative and Ethnographic Research in Europe

Published on October 5, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, fieldwork / methods, journal articles / papers

Just a short note on the new issue of Forum Qualitatice Social Research FQS 6(3) focusing on the “state of the art” of qualitative research in Europe, including ethnography. Tons of interesting (looking) articles, impossible to list here. Strangely enough, many articles on ethnography are written by sociologists, they even talk about sociological ethnography >> continue to FQS 6(3)

Just a short note on the new issue of Forum Qualitatice Social Research FQS 6(3) focusing on the "state of the art" of qualitative research in Europe, including ethnography. Tons of interesting (looking) articles, impossible to list here. Strangely enough,…