search expand

globalisation

“No Pizza without Migrants”: Between the Politics of Identity and Transnationalism

Published on by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, cosmopolitanism, Europe, globalisation, journal articles / papers, migration, Us and Them

Why are there such different patterns of identity and community formation among second-generation migrants? A transnational perspective with focus on the migrants’ relationship to their (or their parents’) homeland is neccessary, argues anthropologist Susanne Wessendorf in her paper “No Pizza without Migrants: Between the Politics of Identity and Transnationalism: Second-Generation Italians in Switzerland”:

“Politics of identity, transnationalism and integration should not be regarded as mutually exclusive, but as complementary strategies or reactions of migrants to the challenges of and tensions between mobility and settlement”

Wessendorf has among others studied Italian migrants in Switzerland and their political Secondo movement that fights against the negative image ascribed to them (They designed and sold T-Shirts as a way to communicate their pride in being members of the second generation, and to show that even if you do not look like a foreigner, you might well be of immigrant origin).

Wessendorf critizes concepts which describe fragmented second-generation integration as simply ‘bicultural’, moving ‘between two cultures’:

“But these new spaces can neither simply be called ‘transnational social spaces’, she writes: They are clearly embedded in the political, economic and socio-cultural realities of the nation-state in which they emerge. Rather, they are counter-hegemonic attempts to deal with both a national legal system and, sometimes, the nostalgia for the homeland.”

>> read the whole paper

PS: This one of the Working Papers of the Center of Migration, Policy and Society at the University of Oxford

Why are there such different patterns of identity and community formation among second-generation migrants? A transnational perspective with focus on the migrants' relationship to their (or their parents') homeland is neccessary, argues anthropologist Susanne Wessendorf in her paper "No…

Read more

Thailand: Local wisdom protects hometown from the onslaught of globalisation

Published on by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, culture traditions, ecology nature, globalisation

Bangkok Post

“We fishermen have knowledge about the Mekong based on our time-tested experiences,” said Oon Thammawong, 57, of Ban Had Bai in Chiang Rai’s Chiang Khong district. “But policy-makers dismiss us as simple folk so that they can dismiss our voices and impose their policies, which only benefit businessmen but destroy our way of life.”

Over the past five years, in the wake of the building of dams and the blasting of rapids in China, the condition of the Mekong as it flows through Chiang Khong has drastically deteriorated. Like other communities, the Bangkok-oriented education and political systems have robbed the locals of their historical roots and pride in their culture.

Local pride swelled, however, when a group of residents took on the role of researchers to profile Chiang Khong’s ethnographic history and document changes in their hometown. “Reconnecting with one’s past and understanding what has shaped one’s present is always an empowering process,” explained veteran anthropologist Srisakara Vallibhotama, director of the project, which is supported by the Thailand Research Fund. >> continue

SEE ALSO:
Local taboos could save the seas

Bangkok Post

"We fishermen have knowledge about the Mekong based on our time-tested experiences," said Oon Thammawong, 57, of Ban Had Bai in Chiang Rai's Chiang Khong district. "But policy-makers dismiss us as simple folk so that they can dismiss our…

Read more

New Eurozine issue on Politics of border making and (cross-)border identities

Published on by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, cosmopolitanism, Europe, globalisation, Us and Them

Eurozine is a netmagazine that publishes both own texts and articles previously published in European magazines. Their new “focal point” looks very interesting. From their introduction: “Have borders become irrelevant with the project of a united Europe, which is supposed to overcome the historical divisions of the continent and the political isolation of its East? No, just the opposite. Essayists and researchers look at the dilemmas of border building and cross-border cooperation in the EU and its neighborhood. >> continue (link updated)

Eurozine is a netmagazine that publishes both own texts and articles previously published in European magazines. Their new "focal point" looks very interesting. From their introduction: "Have borders become irrelevant with the project of a united Europe, which is supposed…

Read more

Pop goes Japanese culture

Published on by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, culture traditions, globalisation, Us and Them, youth

San Francisco Chronicle

Five years into the millennium, Japan’s most visible export isn’t economic, but cultural. The jury’s still out on whether anime (Japanese animation), manga, toys, gadgets and fashion will sweep across middle America. “This stuff is getting globalized like never before,” says Anne Allison, chair of cultural anthropology at Duke University, whose examination of the subject, “Millennium Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination” (University of California Press) will be out in 2006.

“In the last decade, especially in the last five years, Japanese pop culture, particularly youth culture — anime, manga, Pokemon, kids cards — has circulated not just in the United States, but in Western Europe, East Asia and South America.” >> continue

SEE ALSO:
Interview with anthropologist Anne Allison about her research in Japan (Japan Review)
Book review: Japan Pop!: Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture (Japan Review) , see same book reviewed by H-Net Review

San Francisco Chronicle

Five years into the millennium, Japan's most visible export isn't economic, but cultural. The jury's still out on whether anime (Japanese animation), manga, toys, gadgets and fashion will sweep across middle America. "This stuff is getting globalized like…

Read more

Book review: Mahmood Mamdani: "Good Muslim, Bad Muslim"

Published on by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, books, culture traditions, globalisation, politics, religion cosmology, Us and Them

Media Monitors Network

A valuable new contribution to unearth and interpret America’s bizarre conduct is Mahmood Mamdani’s study “GOOD MUSLIM, BAD MUSLIM”. The author, a distinguished political scientist and anthropologist, explains that the book grew out of a talk at a church in New York after 9/11 when to bear an identifiably Muslim name was to be made aware that Islam had become a political identity in America.

Perhaps the heart of this book can be found in the first chapter titled “Culture Talk; Or How Not To Talk About Islam And Politics”. The author is able to penetrate the limits of conventional discourse on democracy and dictatorship, poverty and wealth and also succeeds in locating “culture” within the chasm of globalisation. >> continue Link updated 29.5.18

SEE ALSO:

Interview with Mahmood Mamdani (Asia Source) Link updated 29.5.18

Media Monitors Network

A valuable new contribution to unearth and interpret America's bizarre conduct is Mahmood Mamdani's study "GOOD MUSLIM, BAD MUSLIM". The author, a distinguished political scientist and anthropologist, explains that the book grew out of a talk at a…

Read more