I found it helpful when Eriksen drew the line in the sand about the fundamental questions that anthropology concerns itself with. Here's his Big Three: 1) What is that makes people do whatever they do? 2) How are societies or cultures integrated? 3)To what extent does thought vary from society to society, and how much is similar across cultures?
Author: Jodie-Lee Trembath
In University Restructures, is Trauma too Strong a Word?
I would argue that the unhappy academics were creating and adding to what I described in my thesis as affective swirls of discontent, and that they were doing this as a means of bonding, or collective self-comforting. Anthropologist Nigel Thrift (2004), in discussing spatial affect, might argue that these swirls gather momentum, affecting the moods and feelings of others as they circulate. As they get translated into different, perhaps more durable contexts — such as via technologies like online chat and email — the affect begins to bed down into the objects (such as emails, or policies), as well as into the humans, strengthening the network and the feelings of discontent further. This is where collective trauma may become an apt description.
Ep. #44: Digitising Migrants: Annalisa Pelizza on the European immigration crisis in an age of Big Data
“Migration issues in Europe are a hot topic right now - it's not news that they have been used in the last 50 years as a way to steer public opinion into right wing positions...they are mobilised as elements in a narration of invasion, losing cultural specificities - not only individuals are mobilised in discursive terms, but there are also infrastructures that create people as migrants - not having access to proper work, or being put into certain infrastructures from which it’s virtually impossible to get out, creates people as migrants, as outsiders to society.” In Episode 7 of our STS Interview Series, Jodie is interviewing Annalisa Pelizza, Professor in Technology Studies of Communication at the University of Bologna in Italy about how migrants shape Europe and are shaped by European infrastructures.
Ep. #40 Robot Reflections: Inger Mewburn on researching researchers & welcoming our robot overlords
“Machine learning is a broad area of study, and that’s one thing you don’t see from a distance, is how broad it is. We like to do what we call human-in-the-loop type of machine learning, which is a co-creation of something. So, what we’re using is the machine to, sort of, both capture our knowledge … Continue reading Ep. #40 Robot Reflections: Inger Mewburn on researching researchers & welcoming our robot overlords
Ep. #36 If machines talked: Lucy Suchman on drone warfare, stubborn photocopiers & human-robot relations
“The claim was 'isn’t this wonderful that remote controls keep humans safe'. Now, all you have to do is recognise that this is referring only to certain humans. The assumption is the humans that matter are those who are involved in US military operations. And it completely dehumanises the humans who are of course the … Continue reading Ep. #36 If machines talked: Lucy Suchman on drone warfare, stubborn photocopiers & human-robot relations
How I kicked chronic migraine (And what that has to do with anthropology)
This post is about the biopsychosocial medical model and how it relates to the treatment of chronic pain. As an anthropologist, I’m particularly interested in the social part of that model - what societal factors contribute to the causes of chronic pain? What societal and contextual factors could be used to help individuals recover from their conditions, and help society recover from the current chronic pain epidemic? To get to that though, I’m going to need to talk about the biological and psychological aspects too, because the three are inextricably connected, despite Descartes assertions about the distinction between the mind and the body. To illustrate this, I’m going to share with you my own experiences. They’re highly subjective of course, and my journey will not be identical to anyone else’s - what has worked for me may not work for you, and I’m certainly no medical professional. But I gift my experiences to you here for you to evaluate for yourself.
Ep. #32 ‘Hula Hoops not Bicycles’: Genevieve Bell talks Anthropology, Technology & Building the Future
"We were bringing the voices of people that didn't get inside the building, inside the building and making them count. And I took that as an incredible responsibility, that you should give those voices weight and dignity and power." We are excited to announce that this is the FIRST EPISODE OF OUR STS SERIES! The goal … Continue reading Ep. #32 ‘Hula Hoops not Bicycles’: Genevieve Bell talks Anthropology, Technology & Building the Future
Ep. #28 Relational Wine: Deborah Heath talks wine anthropology & living with the trouble
“If wine hasn’t been turned into a standardized beverage, there’s room for variation. There’s an appreciation for variation that has something to do with the taste of place. And there’s different vintages, if not manipulated to achieve a standard outcome, will be distinctive. You’re tasting 2009 compared to 2016. And that tells you something about … Continue reading Ep. #28 Relational Wine: Deborah Heath talks wine anthropology & living with the trouble
Post-Bureaucratic Stress: Reflections on getting a police check in Vietnam
Bureaucracy is so deadly dull because it’s so mundane. But, as Steve Woolgar points out in his book Mundane Governance, the Latin etymology of ‘mundane’ is ‘of the world’ - just the way things are. And that’s only true of your experience with bureaucracy if you belong in the world in which you are living.
If, as a grown-up, you’ve had to do any adulting in a country where you’re unfamiliar with the rules, then you'll know that bureaucracy becomes anything but mundane because you are not ‘of the world’ in which you’re trying to operate. So in this post, I want to draw on an experience from my fieldwork to explore how mundane bureaucracy, when you’re away from home, can be a stark reminder that you are ‘matter out of place’.
Help make TFS better and WIN!
It's our 1st birthday in 2 weeks time (nooo, say what?? Where did that year go?) and a birthday is always a good time to take stock. Are we where we want to be in life? Are we using our time in the best possible ways? Are we spending the desired amount of time with the people we love and who care about us? So, we thought we would just... ask. Would you, pretty please, take our 5-minute survey and give us feedback about what's working for you, and what we could do better?
Find the 5-minute survey here.
We are hoping to get 100 people to respond to this survey, and are giving away 2 x $100AUD Amazon gift vouchers as thank yous for your participation. That basically means you have, at worst, a 1 in 50 chance of winning a gift voucher. Not bad odds!
On the anniversary of our website launch, Monday, October 1st, we'll choose the 2 winners at random from the pool of survey participants who provide their email addresses at the end of the survey. If you're a winner, we'll contact you to find out what country you are in, and send you the Amazon voucher through your preferred Amazon country site.
We really look forward to getting your feedback, positive and negative, and any suggestions you have for the future of The Familiar Strange.
The Familiar Strange 