Anthropology MA thesis makes tabloid headline in Holland

I blogged earlier about the visibility of anthropologists in the Dutch public. Well, get this: a just-graduated masters student in my department at the VU made the front-page of the free (!) tabloid Spits (described by my colleagues as “right-wing”) today. The article, entitled “Chinese feels [sic] discriminated” describes “research by anthropologist Lilly Witte (23)” about Dutch-raised [...]

Call for films/photo documentaries on the multicultural city

The Student Equity, Excellence and Diversity Initiative (SEED) at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa has just put out a call for video and photo presentations on the theme of the ‘multicultural city’.  Sounds like an exciting venture.  Here are the details:
Diversity in Place: Making Documentaries on the Multicultural City April 24th, 2009
http://diversityinplace.wordpress.com/
More than half [...]

CFP: Global Food Crisis

The US National Association of Practicing Anthropologists has just released a call for papers on the subject of the global food crisis.  Here are the details:
Global Food Crisis: Perspectives from Practicing and Applied Anthropologists
Sponsor: NAPA Bulletin, National Association for the Practice of Anthropology (NAPA)
Contact Information:
David A. Himmelgreen
Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida
4202 E. Fowler [...]

‘Architecture of Density’

Urban anthropologist might find Michael Wolf’s photos interesting. He has amazing photographs of massive apartment buildings in Hong Kong, a very densely populated place. The photographs called ‘Architecture of Density’, give an idea about a-very- dense urban- lifestyle in Hong Kong. Wolf was born in Germany, grew up in the USA, and has lived in [...]

Urban adaptation in Bangkok

I’ve often caught trains through Bangkok and wondered at the level of activity going on on both sides of the railway.  I had never seen the scene from quite this angle though.  The clip below shows the level of adaptation to the urban environment and pragmatism of some of Bangkok’s poorest inhabitants.  One of the [...]

The Jammed

The Jammed, an “independent thriller” about the trafficking of women into sex work in Australia, is having unexpected box-office success. It opened this week in Sydney’s Palace Cinemas. The film’s success highlights a curious phenomenon: combatting “human trafficking,” dubbed the world’s largest business, is an issue that everyone from left-wing feminists to the Christian Right [...]

Photo essay on Chinese factories

BoingBoing reports on a Wired photo essay on factories in China.  It provides some interesting, if none-too-surprising, images of factory life and the urban landscape produced by China’s capitalist boom.

“Theme Park” Architecture in China

One of my favourite blogs is BoingBoing, not the least because a lot of the posts tickle my anthropological funnybone. A good example is a recent post on new architectural trends in China, where the emergent middle-class is being tempted to live in simulacra of historical Western cityscapes.

In Nanjing, there are Balinese retreats and [...]

How Walt Disney Changed Everything

The story ‘How Walt Disney Changed Everything: The Theme-Parking, Megachurching, Franchising, Exurbing, McMansioning of America’ on the March issue of National Geographic  http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0703/feature4/ might be of interest to urban anthropologists. It is the story of Orlando city in Florida, which has transformed ‘from swamp and sinkhole to 21st century metropolis’ with the decision of Walt Disney [...]

Mack Avenue: The game

Saw this on an urban anthropology mailing list recently. An “Urban Village” is a planning game that is focused on a “real” Detroit neighbourhood.  In essence, people get to put into action their thoughts and feelings on how to improve the city.  They then find themselves confronted with the new reality they’ve created [...]