A social economy approach therefore asks why people are engaged in specific enterprises. Are they simply out to make the most money they can? Many people do. Or do they see themselves as providing an essential service their community is missing? Are they providing employment for otherwise disadvantaged groups? Do they simply take pride in producing artistic or high-quality goods and the only money they need is enough to cover their living expenses?
Ep # 88: Creating Queer Space & The Lenses of War: This month on TFS
The Familiar Strange · Ep # 88: Creating Queer Space & The Lenses of War: This month on TFS Welcome back for another Panel! This week we’re joined by familiar strangers Carolyn West, Matt Phung, Ruonan Chen and Alex D’Aloia. Carolyn starts us off this week by sharing her recent experiences at a Hen’s night … Continue reading Ep # 88: Creating Queer Space & The Lenses of War: This month on TFS
Listening to Metal in the World: Music, Identity, and the Other
“Hey Jarrod, you like world music right? Check out this Mongolian band called 13th Bell”. I received this text a few weeks ago and was quite piqued by their choice of words. “World music”, what exactly is that? More often than not, this genre of music has been constantly utilised to categorise songs that sample and/or include musical elements that are derived from a particular minority ethnic group. More specifically, language and vocal technique are the primary factors that allude to this strange term. As an anthropologist of sound and music, I am often loosely classified as an ethnomusicologist, which I always found to possess a curious prefix. I want to take this opportunity to take a step back and revisit the elusive meaning of what the prefix ethno means, and whether it is analogous to the study of ‘world’ music’. Many times, I am asked about and ask myself: what is so appealing about experiencing music that is so distant from your own culture, what is music’s connection with social identities and why is it so pertinent to both the performer(s) and listener(s)?
Ep # 87: Squatters in The Stag: Adrian Watts on Activism & Squats
The Familiar Strange · Ep # 87: Squatters in The Stag: Adrian Watts on Activism & Squats Before we dive into today’s episode we’d just like to add a content warning for this episode for sexual assault and drug use. This week, Familiar Stranger Carolyn sits down with Adrian Watts, a PhD Candidate from the … Continue reading Ep # 87: Squatters in The Stag: Adrian Watts on Activism & Squats
The Weight of History: Doing Fieldwork as an Ethnic Chinese Researcher
I have been asked about my research in China as a researcher from Taiwan by my colleagues in the US. One of them commented: “It’s not common for someone from Taiwan to do research in China.” I have attributed this sudden recognition of my ethnocultural and legal identity as a Taiwanese and the subsequent framing of my actions as uncommon to the pandemic and its impact on the tensions in current international politics. identity with global geopolitics and how these geopolitical forces have real-life impact on my research and social life.
Ep# 86: The Funging the Non-Fungible & The Changing Face of Protests: This Month on TFS
The Familiar Strange · Ep# 86- The Funging The Non - Fungible & The Changing Face Of Protests- This Month On TFS Welcome back to The Familiar Strange! We’re joined this week by our newest Familiar Stranger, Kathryn! You might have heard her on Episode 84 last season but we’ve convinced her to stick around! … Continue reading Ep# 86: The Funging the Non-Fungible & The Changing Face of Protests: This Month on TFS
Thank you 2021.
The Familiar Strange · Thank you 2021. The team at TFS would like to say thank you to all our listeners this year and to everyone who has listened in to our podcasts and read the blog this year! We are taking a short season break and we will return in February 2021 Let’s keep … Continue reading Thank you 2021.
Waiting to Be Seen – How I Spent My Time in a Pain Treatment Center as a Patient
I am hospitalized while I am typing this, waiting to be seen for cervical vertebral disease, which is causing a daily numbing sensation in both hands. The wait time in the hospital provides me with a perfect chance to do autoethnography—to observe how I, as a patient, experience the medical system. I find that waiting is one of the main themes in my hospitalizing experience. The medical system dehumanizes me by means of turning me into a bed number and I have to take actions to be human again while waiting in the system.
Ep #85 Photography Through An Ethnographer’s Lens: Image Making with Jason De León
The Familiar Strange · Ep #85 Photography Through An Ethnographer’s Lens: Image Making with Jason De León This week Carolyn sits down with Jason De León, anthropologist, photographer and author. He is currently the director of the Undocumented Migration Project (UMP) and his research interests revolve around violence, materiality, Latin American migration, photoethnography, forensic science, … Continue reading Ep #85 Photography Through An Ethnographer’s Lens: Image Making with Jason De León
Slutever, Pegging the Patriarchy, and Normalising BDSM
Cara Delevingne’s ‘Peg the Patriarchy’ moment from the 2021 Met Gala undoubtedly missed the mark. Delevingne and Dior both failed to credit the original creator of the slogan, a black, queer sex educator Luna Matatas. Beyond this transgression, Delevingne’s message and its delivery were blatant examples of the contradictory messages often encoded in mainstream depictions of non-normative sexualities. Delevingne clearly thought her stunt was groundbreaking, or at the very least, intelligent and thought-provoking. This begs the question of why, exactly, mainstream representations of non-normative sexualities so often miss the mark, and often do more harm than good.
The Familiar Strange 