Making Sense of the Global

Anthropological Perspectives on Interconnections and Processes

Edited By: Raúl Acosta, Sadaf Rizvi, Ana Santos

£39.99

Anthropology is more relevant than ever to making sense of intercultural encounters in our shrinking world. This volume’s analyses show how ethnographic research creates bridges of understanding and can contribute to a better understanding of social phenomena.

Anthropology is more relevant than ever before to making sense of the constant intercultural encounters taking place around the world. Even though the discipline was…

Anthropology is more relevant than ever before to making sense of the constant intercultural encounters taking place around the world. Even though the discipline was born out of the need to understand the way humans interact, it had for decades been trapped in a counter-cultural stance that effectively disarmed it of any direct influence on public affairs. Recent global trends, however, have brought this academic discipline to the attention of governments, agencies, and social entrepreneurs, because of its capacity to create bridges of understanding between people of contrasting cultures. This ability is today more necessary than ever before in facing the challenges posed by the shrinking of our world. This volume provides reflections on what anthropological research can offer through its “thick” analyses. We are convinced that ethnographic research can contribute to a better understanding of social phenomena in our global times.

Raúl Acosta is Lecturer-Researcher at ITESO in Mexico. His research interests are political anthropology, civil society, activism, advocacy networks, and socioenvironmentalism.

Sadaf Rizvi is Research Officer at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK. Her specific areas of interest are the anthropology of education, childhood ethnography, Islam in the West, multiculturalism and social cohesion.

Ana Santos is a doctoral student at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology (ISCA) at the University of Oxford and a teaching fellow in the Ethnography of East Africa at SOAS. Her research focuses on issues of memory, displacement, and social constructions of place and space at an international border.