India’s Uber Dilemma: Entrepreneurship or Exploitation?
Uber is part of a “gig economy” trend in India and elsewhere—an economy partially powered by self-employed workers on short-term jobs. While it offers flexible schedules for its…
Tag: urban
A Bibliography for Teaching Flint
This bibliography is designed for professors who want to “teach Flint” in their classrooms. The Flint, Michigan water crisis is an extreme but quintessential case study that shows…
Hurricane Katrina’s Forgotten Survivors
Following Katrina, progress rebuilding New Orleans has been uneven. In the Lower 9th Ward, house foundations are still a common sight. Max Becherer/Associated Press When Hurricane Katrina…
The Nachtwinkels of Antwerp
Cities have always been places where different customs, cultures, and individuals come in contact. In Antwerp, Belgium, a large network of nachtwinkels, or “night shops,” sells a basic…
Out! “Curb” or “Truck”?
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond. Crown Publishers, March 2016. On the cool September day that Arleen Beale and her two boys moved…
Piping as poison: the Flint water crisis and America’s toxic infrastructure
Over the past few decades, we have met with much success in curbing some of Americans’ exposure to lead. Yet they have struggled to contain this continuing danger…
The mediated modernities of Tuareg smith women
Occasionally I will be posting on this blog some notes under the broad theme of media and change in preparation for the volume Postill, J., E. Ardevol and…
Teenage views on Culture (Nordplus closing interviews, 2013)
“Learning Skills for Sustainable Development” Date: 26th – 29th November, 2013 Venue: Riga State Gymnasium Nr. 2 Time for opening: on 26th November at 16.00 Closing: on 29th…
After knocking: Picturing youth itineraries
Look at me and explain „who do you want to be in ten years?”. „I want to be a famous professor, living abroad. I want to publish a…
“There is no world.” The troubled imagination of a hipster band
In 2013 I moved to Riga, Latvia for an entire year to teach and proceed in a self-constructed ethnographic project. At times dreams came true, yes, they did,…
‘Mellencamp’s classroom tape’
John Mellencamp is one of my favorite rock singers. I find it fascinating how he depicts urban life. It is well-known that in his songs he delivers sharp…
Jilted…
In Zasulauks neighborhood In Lady Baiba’s living room a flimsy photo hangs on the wall of a large companion on Candera street. She never misses the chance to…
From a. to A.
Introduction I would love telling tales from the city where the city served as a powerful stage for the different characters like in James Joyce’s ”Dubliners”. The city…
“The teacher next door”
I was giving history lessons to 10th graders, and once I had managed having a Socratic circle about the qualifications of a good leader. Our key example was…
Making Heidelberg a Home while Longing for a Global City – by Magdalena von Drachenfels
“For now our home is Heidelberg” says Laila Khan (all the names have been changed) and, pointing towards her one year old son, Shahid, she adds: “He was…
Homing Heidelberg – a Student Project Exploring Refugee’s Ways of Navigating the City
By Marie Sander, lecturer of the seminar Transcultural Place-Making How can we understand the idea of ‘home’ in times of migration? Is ‘home’ a place, social ties, family,…
[Book Review] Tuff City: Urban Change and Contested Space in Central Naples
My review of Nick Dines’ Tuff City: Urban Change and Contested Space in Central Naples is available via the Open Anthropology Cooperative Press. You can read/download the full…