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Weblogs are sweeping the political and social landscape of Iran

Published on June 3, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, development empowerment, internet, media, Middle East, politics, technology

Hadi Ansari, OhmyNews International

Only four years have passed since Hossein Derakhshan, Iran’s leading blogger and Internet activist, published a guide to making a weblog in Persian. Now the influence of weblogs has spread to every aspect of Iranian people’s daily lives. Farsi has become the third most prominent language of bloggers on the Net, despite the fact that Farsi speakers around the world number just 100 million (including Afghans and Tajiks who speak Farsi). >> continue

Skypecast – Interview about Blogging in India with Dina Mehta

Ethnographic study on bloggers in California & New York

Hadi Ansari, OhmyNews International

Only four years have passed since Hossein Derakhshan, Iran's leading blogger and Internet activist, published a guide to making a weblog in Persian. Now the influence of weblogs has spread to every aspect of Iranian people's daily…

Anthropology Matters – New issue out on anthropology of science and technology

Published on May 30, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, development empowerment, fieldwork / methods, journal articles / papers, technology

New methods in the anthropology of science and technology is the topic of the new issue of the anthropology online journal “Anthropology Matters” that was published these days. The papers developed out of a panel at the Association of Social Anthropologists (ASA) Decennial Conference at the University of Manchester in July 2003. I the introduction we read:

“On the basis of the papers published here, we suggest that not only does ethnographic research prove extremely adaptable to new environments, contexts and conditions, but it also serves to make important contributions to current debates and discussion, particular in the field of science and technology.”

We find articles on dynamics how to study and theorize environmental protest movements in West Bengal (by Amites Mukhopadhyay), the role of computers in Hungarian civil society (Tom Wormald), on the relationship of information technologies to anthropological fieldwork through a consideration of internet-based clinical trials (by Jenny Advocat), on fieldwork in a web design company (Hannah Knox) and on how anthropological fieldwork might rise to the challenge of the bureaucratized, ‘objective’ forms of evaluation that anthropological researchers are increasingly facing (Susanne Langer) >> continue to Anthropology Matters 1/2005

New methods in the anthropology of science and technology is the topic of the new issue of the anthropology online journal "Anthropology Matters" that was published these days. The papers developed out of a panel at the Association of Social…

Indigenous Russians Unite Against Oil and Gas Development

Published on April 13, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, culture traditions, development empowerment, ecology nature, indigenous people / minorities

ZNet

Despite their small numbers, the Sakhalin aborigines are standing up to multinational energy companies that are developing oil and gas deposits on the island. On March 25-26, representatives of the Nivkh, Orok, Evenk, and Nanai peoples of Sakhalin held a congress in the town of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Roughly 3,000 indigenous people make up about 0.5 percent of the island’s total population.

The indigenous congress created a council which will represent the island’s indigenous population in negotiations with the oil companies and Russian government authorities. The council will advocate for an ethnographic study to assess the cultural impact of the oil and gas projects on indigenous peoples.

The new Shell pipeline is being constructed over a sacred Nivkh burial ground. The noise from the construction has impacted the caribou population and driven herders away from their traditional grazing grounds. The new Shell drilling platform and the pipeline connecting it to the shore is due to be constructed near the key feeding area of the endangered western pacific gray whale. >> continue

SEE ALSO:
Peoples of the Russian North and Far East (Arctic Circle)

ZNet

Laos: Massive Dam Project Could Backfire

Published on April 11, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, development empowerment, ecology nature, indigenous people / minorities

IPS News

A new dam funded by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB ) and hailed as a windfall for Laos may end up doing more harm than good to one of the world’s poorest nations and its vulnerable farmers, several independent development groups say. It shows that international financial institutions, spearheaded by the Washington-based World Bank, are paying little regard to indigenous people, the environment or the long-term welfare of the poor nation. This will drastically alter the character of two important rivers, displace thousands of desperately poor residents, and disrupt the livelihoods of tens of thousands more. >> continue

IPS News

A new dam funded by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB ) and hailed as a windfall for Laos may end up doing more harm than good to one of the world's poorest nations and its…

Research: How migration fights poverty

Published on March 5, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, development empowerment, migration

A new special by ID 21 , hosted by Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, UK, deals with how migration fights poverty and asks: Migration and asylum policies in crisis: time for a rethink?

They provide short summaries and links to the original sources, mostly working papers that are avaiable online in full length.

Exploiting remittances: good for Mexico’s development?
More and more money is being sent back home by economic migrants and so the interest in how remittances can help fight poverty is growing. The total value of remittances world wide is estimated at over 100 billion US dollars per year. In 2001 Mexico became the nation with the largest share of remittances as its workers sent home 9,920 million US dollars.
Research from York University in Canada proposes a broader understanding of migrant remittances. Using data from Mexico the author argues the importance of non-economic dimensions of remittances particularly its social and political implications, the differences between family and community-based (or collective remittances) and the difficulties in channelling them towards savings and investment. >> continue

Migration and asylum policies in crisis: time for a rethink?
A policy briefing from the World Institute for Development Economic Research argues that more needs to be done to understand the relationship between globalisation, migration pressures and the potential role of development assistance in reducing migration. >> continue

antropologi.info links on migration (in English and Norwegian)

They provide short summaries…