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…
Tag: Sociology/Anthropology
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…
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 | 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…
Book Review: Citizen Designs: City-making and Democracy in Northeastern Thailand by Eli Elinoff
In Citizen Designs: City-making and Democracy in Northeastern Thailand, Eli Elinoff explores citizenship struggles and the political engagement of residents living in Northeastern Thailand. Unlike tra…
Q and A with Professor Tim Newburn on Orderly Britain
We speak to Professor Tim Newburn about his new co-authored book, Orderly Britain, written with Andrew Ward, which explores facets of daily life – dog mess, smoking, drinking, parking, queuing,…
Beveridge Revisited: Why does poverty still stalk the UK?
On the 80th anniversary of the Beveridge report, the five ‘giants’ he sought to slay are alive and well and stalking this green and pleasant land. A new book…
Book Review: Violent Utopia: Dispossession and Black Restoration in Tulsa by Jovan Scott Lewis
In Violent Utopia: Dispossession and Black Restoration in Tulsa, Jovan Scott Lewis explores the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in the city’s Greenwood neighbourhood (known colloquially as ‘Black…
Book Review: The Everyday Practice of Valuation and Investment: Political Imaginaries of Shareholder Value by Horacio Ortiz
In The Everyday Practice of Valuation and Investment: Political Imaginaries of Shareholder Value, Horacio Ortiz explores the social institutions and practices that produce and regulate stock pricing a…
Book Review: Horizon Work: At the Edge of Knowledge in an Age of Runaway Climate Change by Adriana Petryna
In Horizon Work: At the Edge of Knowledge in an Age of Runaway Climate Change, Adriana Petryna explores ‘horizoning’ as a conceptual device that sets up new ranges and circumstances for…
Book Review: The Sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois: Racialized Modernity and the Global Color Line by José Itzigsohn and Karida L. Brown
In this post celebrating the start of Black History Month in the UK, Mohamad el-Harake reviews The Sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois: Racialized Modernity and the Global Color Line by José…
Book Review: Tigers are our Brothers: Anthropology of Wildlife Conservation in Northeast India by Ambika Aiyadurai
In Tigers are our Brothers: Anthropology of Wildlife Conservation in Northeast India, Ambika Aiyadurai offers an ethnographic study of wildlife conservation in Northeast India, examining the relations…
6 Recommended Reads on Epidemics and Religious Change
Photo by Jeremy Bezanger on Unsplash Epidemics can turn the world upside down. They kill millions, isolate us and wreak havoc on international trade. But what is their impact on religion?…
Book Review: Building on Borrowed Time: Rising Seas and Failing Infrastructure in Semarang by Lukas Ley
In Building on Borrowed Time: Rising Seas and Failing Infrastructure in Semarang, Lukas Ley offers a new ethnography exploring how people in Semarang, Indonesia, deal with the everyday threat of…
Book Review: Serious Money: Walking Plutocratic London by Caroline Knowles
In Serious Money: Walking Plutocratic London, Caroline Knowles takes readers on a journey through London to discover how it has become a haven for plutocrats and the super-rich. Full of…
Book Review: They Eat Our Sweat: Transport Labor, Corruption, and Everyday Survival in Urban Nigeria by Daniel E. Agbiboa
In They Eat Our Sweat: Transport Labor, Corruption, and Everyday Survival in Urban Nigeria, Daniel E. Agbiboa challenges simplistic understandings of corruption by offering a captivating study of Lago…
Book Review: Driving With Strangers: What Hitchhiking Tells Us about Humanity by Jonathan Purkis
In Driving With Strangers: What Hitchhiking Tells Us about Humanity, Jonathan Purkis argues that the nature of hitchhiking and its place in the world has important things to tell…