Nudging – review
In Nudging, Riccardo Viale explores the evolution of nudging (behavioural mechanisms to encourage people to make certain choices) and proposes new approaches that would empower rather than paternalise…
Tag: book reviews
The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires – review
In The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires, Kristin Surak investigates how selling citizenship to the uber-rich has transformed from an anomalous activity offered by a handful of microst…
Orderly Britain: How Britain Has Resolved Everyday Problems, from Dog Fouling to Double Parking – review
In Orderly Britain: How Britain Has Resolved Everyday Problems, from Dog Fouling to Double Parking, Tim Newburn and Andrew Ward explore how ordinary social behaviours – including queuing, drinking and…
Arc of Interference: Medical Anthropology for Worlds on Edge – review
In Arc of Interference: Medical Anthropology for Worlds on Edge, João Biehl and Vincanne Adams assemble reflections on the role of anthropology in understanding healthcare in today’s world of…
Rebuilding Community: Displaced Women and the Making of a Shia Ismaili Muslim Sociality – review
In Rebuilding Community: Displaced Women and the Making of a Shia Ismaili Muslim Sociality, Shenila Khoja-Moolji recounts how Ismaili women, displaced from East Pakistan and East Africa in the 1970s,…
The Museum of Other People: From Colonial Acquisitions to Cosmopolitan Exhibitions – review
In The Museum of Other People: From Colonial Acquisitions to Cosmopolitan Exhibitions, Adam Kuper interrogates the history of anthropological museums and considers questions of colonialism, race, and …
Nationalism in the Vernacular: Tribes, State and the Politics of Peace in Northeast India – review
In Nationalism in the Vernacular: Tribes, State and the Politics of Peace in Northeast India, Roluahpuia considers how oral culture has shaped the nationalist imagination of the Mizo, an indigenous po…
Review: Communicating Food in Korea
Jaehyeon Jeong and Joong-Hwan Oh, (eds). Communicating Food in Korea. Lexington Books. Rowman and Littlefield. Lanham, Maryland. 2021. 267 pp. ISBN: 9781793642271. Richard Zimmer (Sonom…
My Life in Fragments by Zygmunt Bauman – review
My Life in Fragments presents the life and thought of the late sociologist Zygmunt Bauman through an assemblage of letters he wrote to his daughters. Combining biography and broader reflections…
Connect the Dots: The Art and Science of Creating Good Luck
In Connect the Dots: The Art and Science of Creating Good Luck, Christian Busch contests the notion of blind luck, arguing that adopting a “serendipity mindset” towards all social and prof…
Kin Majorities: Identity and Citizenship in Crimea and Moldova
In Kin Majorities: Identity and Citizenship in Crimea and Moldova, Eleanor Knott presents a comparative study of how people living in Crimea and Moldova identified with Russia and Romania, respectivel…
Review: Edible Economics
Ha-Joon Chang. Edible Economics: A Hungry Economist Explains the World. New York: Hachette Book Group, 2022. Xxvi + 192 pp. ISBN #9781541700543 David Sutton (Southern Illinois University) T…
Blind in Early Modern Japan: Disability, Medicine, and Identity
In Blind in Early Modern Japan: Disability, Medicine, and Identity, Wei Yu Wayne Tan considers what it meant to be blind in Tokugawa Japan (from 1600 to 1868), including how a strong guild structure p…
Book Review: Gender, Race, Identity & Batman in Gotham City Living
By Alissa Whitmore McCrystal, Erica. 2021. Gotham City Living: The social dynamics in the Batman comics and media. New York: Bloomsbury. Erica McCrystal’s ambitious Gotham City Living:…
Book Review | Native Bias: Overcoming Discrimination Against Immigrants by Donghyun Danny Choi et al.
In Native Bias: Overcoming Discrimination Against Immigrants, Donghyun Danny Choi, Mathias Poertner and Nicholas Sambanis present the results of field work experiments conducted in Germany to understa…
Review: Glyphosate and the Swirl
Vincanne Adams. Glyphosate and the Swirl: An Agroindustrial Chemical on the Move. Duke University Press. 2023. Pp. 174. ISBN 9781478016755. Pablo Lapegna (University of Georgia) Welcome to …
Book Review: Beyond colonial futures – Ethnofuturism and World Beyond: An Anthology of Papua New Guinean Speculative Fiction
By Christopher Marcatili McGavin, Kirsten (ed.). 2022. World Beyond: An anthology of Papua New Guinean Speculative Fiction. Sydney, Aus: Hibiscus Three. In the remote mountains of Papua New…
Review: Have You Eaten Yet?
Cheuk Kwan. Have You Eaten Yet?: Stories from Chinese Restaurants Around the World. Pegasus Books. New York and London. 2023. ISBN: 978-1-63936-334-6. pp. 260. …
Review: Black Food Matters
Hanna Garth and Ashanté M. Reese, eds. Black Food Matters: Racial Justice in the Wake of Food Justice. University of Minnesota Press. Minneapolis. 2020. ISBN: 978-1-5179-0814-0. pp. 302.…
Teaching from the Textbooks: An Archaeology of the Current Historical Moment
On the last day of class, my advanced theory students would break up into small groups and each have the option of choosing one such old anthropology textbook…
Review: Extreme Weight Loss
Sarah Trainer, Alexandra Brewis, and Amber Wutich. Extreme Weight Loss: Life Before and After Bariatric Surgery. New York University Press. New York. 2021. ISBN: 9781479803958. pp.213 …
Review: Making Better Coffee
Edward F. Fischer. Making Better Coffee: How Maya Farmers and Third Wave Tastemakers Create Value. University of California Press. Berkeley: 2022. ISBN: 978-0-520-38696-9 David Sutton (Souther…
Review: Nourishing the Nation
Venetia Johannes. Nourishing the Nation: Food as National Identity in Catalonia. Berghahn Books. New York: 2022. ISBN: 978-1-80073-203-2. Mary Black (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) …
Review: Anxious Eaters
Janet Chrzan and Kima Cargill Anxious Eaters: Why We Fall for Fad Diets. Columbia University Press. New York: 2022. ISBN # 9780231192446 Emily Contois (The University of Tulsa)…