You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
"This volume offers a snapshot of anthropological perspectives on global challenges. Revealing that there is nothing 'global' about such challenges at all, these perspectives highlight the implications of reimagining the ways in which 'challenges' and 'crises' are understood and addressed. The collection shows that a combination of deep understanding of the past along with collaboration, cooperation and inclusive dialogue about the future improves the chances of positive action. It not only stresses that perspectives must change, but also shows us exactly how that change might be realised. Whilst the contributions are authored solely by anthropologists, they are not solely for anthropologists. The book is illustrative of the practical and theoretical insights that anthropology can offer those individuals, teams, and policy- and decision-makers engaged in research, mitigation or intervention practices in relation to global challenges. It contributes to broader understandings of the challenges we collectively face at this point in time and how we might collectively and effectively address them"--
This volume offers a snapshot of anthropological perspectives on global challenges. Whilst it could not hope to represent the full scope of anthropological perspectives, those that are presented highlight some of the critical flaws embedded in such an all-encompassing notion. The contributors reveal the possibilities of reimagining the ways in which ‘challenges’ are understood and addressed and demonstrate how a combination of deep understanding of the past and collaboration, cooperation and inclusive dialogue about the future, can improve the chances of positive action. The collection thus not only shows us that perspectives must change, but also how that change might be realised. Whils...
This book provides an extended analysis of how resource extraction projects stimulate social, cultural and economic change in indigenous communities. Through a range of case studies, including open cast mining, artisanal mining, logging, deforestation, oil extraction and industrial fishing, the contributors explore the challenges highlighted in global debates on sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and climate change. The case studies are used to assess whether and how development processes might compete and conflict with the market objectives of multinational corporations and the organizational and moral principles of indigenous communities. Emphasizing the perspectives of directly-affected parties, the authors identify common patterns in the way in which extraction projects are conceptualized, implemented and perceived. The book provides a deeper understanding of the dynamics of the human environments where resource extraction takes place and its consequent impacts on local livelihoods. Its in-depth case studies underscore the need for increased social accountability in the planning and development of natural resource extraction projects.
With growing evidence of unsustainable use of the world’s resources, such as hydrocarbon reserves, and related environmental pollution, as in alarming climate change predictions, sustainable development is arguably the prominent issue of the 21st century. This volume gives a wide ranging introduction focusing on the arid Gulf region, where the challenges of sustainable development are starkly evident. The Gulf relies on non-renewable oil and gas exports to supply the world’s insatiable CO2 emitting energy demands, and has built unsustainable conurbations with water supplies dependent on energy hungry desalination plants and deep aquifers pumped beyond natural replenishment rates. Sustainable Development has an interdisciplinary focus, bringing together university faculty and government personnel from the Gulf, Europe, and North America -- including social and natural scientists, environmentalists and economists, architects and planners -- to discuss topics such as sustainable natural resource use and urbanization, industrial and technological development, economy and politics, history and geography.
The Companion to Development Studies is essential reading in the field of development studies. This indispensable resource offers succinct, up-to-date, and insightful chapters that reflect the diverse voices and perspectives informing the field and the dynamic interplay of theory, policy, and practice that characterises it. This fourth edition brings together contributions from an impressive range of renowned international experts and emerging voices at the forefront of development studies to deliver engaging, interdisciplinary, and provocative insights into this challenging field. The 98 chapters spanning both theory and practice offer readers accessible discussions of the core issues, emer...
As we move further into the twenty-first century, we are witnessing both the global extensification and local intensification of inequality. Unequal Lives deals with the particular dilemmas of inequality in the Western Pacific. The authors focus on four dimensions of inequality: the familiar triad of gender, race and class, and the often-neglected dimension of generation. Grounded in meticulous long-term ethnographic enquiry and deep awareness of the historical contingency of these configurations of inequality, this volume illustrates the multidimensional, multiscale and epistemic nature of contemporary inequality. This collection is a major contribution to academic and political debates abo...
Mining has been entangled with the development of communities in all continents since the beginning of large-scale resource extraction. It has brought great wealth and prosperity, as well as great misery and environmental destruction. Today, there is a greater awareness of the urgent need for engineers to meet the challenge of extracting declining mineral resources more efficiently, with positive and equitable social impact and minimal environmental impact. Many engineering disciplines—from software to civil engineering—play a role in the life of a mine, from its inception and planning to its operation and final closure. The companies that employ these engineers are expected to uphold hu...
Exploring indigenous life projects in encounters with extractivism, the present open access volume discusses how current turbulences actualise questions of indigeneity, difference and ontological dynamics in the Andes and Amazonia. While studies of extractivism in South America often focus on wider national and international politics, this contribution instead provides ethnographic explorations of indigenous politics, perspectives and worlds, revealing loss and suffering as well as creative strategies to mediate the extralocal. Seeking to avoid conceptual imperialism or the imposition of exogenous categories, the chapters are grounded in the respective authors’ long-standing field research. The authors examine the reactions (from resistance to accommodation), consequences (from anticipation to rubble) and materials (from fossil fuel to water) diversely related to extractivism in rural and urban settings. How can Amerindian strategies to preserve localised communities in extractivist contexts contribute to ways of thinking otherwise?
Mongolia’s mining sector, along with its environmental and social costs, have been the subject of prolonged and heated debate. This debate has often cast the country as either a victim of the ‘resource curse’ or guilty of ‘resource nationalism’. In The State, Popular Mobilisation and Gold Mining in Mongolia, Dulam Bumochir aims to avoid the pitfalls of this debate by adopting an alternative theoretical approach. He focuses on the indigenous representations of nature, environment, economy, state and sovereignty that have triggered nationalist and statist responses to the mining boom. In doing so, he explores the ways in which these responses have shaped the apparently ‘neo-liberal’ policies of twenty-first century Mongolia, and the economy that has emerged from them, in the face of competing mining companies, protest movements, international donor organizations, economic downturn, and local and central government policies.
Rethinking Heritage in Precarious Times sets a fresh agenda for Heritage Studies by reflecting upon the unprecedented nature of the contemporary moment. In doing so, the volume also calls into question established ideas, ways of working, and understandings of the future. Presenting contributions by leading figures in the field of Heritage Studies, Indigenous scholars, and scholars from across the global north and global south, the volume engages with the most pressing issues of today: coloniality, the climate emergency, the Covid-19 pandemic, structural racism, growing social and economic inequality, and the ongoing struggle for dignity and restitution.Considering the impact of climate chang...