When a Space becomes a Place…
According to Oxford online dictionary… Space: A continuous area or expanse which is free, available, or unoccupied Place: An area used for a specified purpose or activity Sasha…
Author: guestanthropologist
On capitalist utopia and the rightful share
by Deniz Seebacher & Julia Büchele The title of James Ferguson’s latest book (2015) draws from (arguably) “the world’s most widely circulated development cliché”: Give a man a fish,…
Remembering Genocide in the Cambodian Diaspora
by Elisa Sandri ‘As the body moves where then does memory live?’ – Katharya Um For many Cambodians, the wounds of the genocide are still open and hurting.…
The Conspiracy Theorist’s Conspiracy Theorist?
by Jon Mitchell HyperNormalisation is the new film by Adam Curtis, released on BBC iPlayer on 16th October. As with all his films, it is built around visual…
Invisible Government, Conjured Markets
by Bennett Heine Among political and social scientists in recent decades, the phrase ‘give a man a fish…’ has become more a prompt than a platitude, its pregnant ellipses…
From the Field: Istanbul
July 2016: Sussex anthropologist Magnus Marsden’s field research for his ERC-funded project, ‘Trust, Global Traders and Commodities in a Chinese International Trade City’ brought him to Istanbul, Turk…
Is Lapis Lazuli Fuelling Conflict in Afghanistan?
by Magnus Marsden **Republished from Hurst.** A recent Global Witness report has brought much-needed attention to the plight of Afghanistan’s lapis lazuli and tourmaline mines, located in the…
Honouring Baroness Young
Today the University of Sussex awards an honorary doctorate to actor and activist Baroness Lola Young. The following are the words of Professor Andrea Cornwall, Head of Sussex’s School…
On the UK Referendum
by Jane K. Cowan For me, the UK referendum story began a year ago with another referendum: that of Greece. Elected in January 2015 on a promise to end…
Waking up to Brexit
by Paul Boyce On the morning of 24th June I had what I have since learnt to be a common experience. I lay in bed in conscious abeyance;…
All Hail the Entrepreneur!
by Thomas Chambers In an article in last week’s Guardian, Stuart Heritage argues that “without The Apprentice, Donald Trump would still be a failed boardgame salesman”. Heritage accuses the show…
The Violence of Capital
by Andrew Sanchez Since 2006 I have conducted research in Jamshedpur, the industrial company town of the Tata Corporation in eastern India. My work interrogates the systemic relationship…
Corruption: Formal and Informal
by Paul Gilbert **Originally posted at Sociology Lens.** In a 2014 review article for Sociology Compass, David Jancsics outlined a ‘minimal consensus’ on what constitutes corruption, drawn from his su…
Deportation, Punishment and Everyday Life
by Ines Hasselberg **Originally posted at University of Oxford website** The UK Borders Act 2007 allows for foreign-nationals sentenced to 12 months or more of imprisonment to be…
Actually Existing Silk Roads
by Magnus Marsden **Originally posted at Hurstpublishers.com.** ‘Our country is at the heart of Asia’, Zia, an Afghan trader in his mid-50s who works in St Petersburg’s Apraksin…