Bøker i Urban Anthropology-serien

With attention to variations according to national setting, this volume explores the process of reformulating religious identities and practices amongst South Asian 'communities' in European contexts. Presenting a wide range of ethnographies, including studies of Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism and Islam amongst migrant communities in contexts as diverse as Norway, Italy, the UK, France and Portugal, Migration and Religion in Europe sheds light on the meaning of religious practices to diasporic communities. It examines the manner in which such practices can be used by migrants and local societies to produce distance or proximity, as well as their political significance in various 'host' nations.

Critical literature has questioned British multiculturalism's capacity to confront racism and facilitate cross-community alliances; instead, multiculturalism is perceived to constitute groups in ethnically defined communities and essentialist cultures. This book demonstrates that multiculturalism can encourage cross-community political engagement.

While the anthropological field initially shied away from the debate on multiculturalism, it has been widely discussed within the fields of political theory, social policy, cultural studies and law. Beyond Multiculturalism is the first volume of its kind to offer a comparative, worldwide view of multiculturalism, considering both traditional multicultural/multiethnic societies and those where cultural pluralism is relatively new. Its varied case studies focus on the intersections and relationships between cultural groups in everyday life using employment, identity, consumption, language, legislation and policy making to show the unique contribution anthropologists can bring to multiculturalism studies. Their work will be of great interest to scholars of race, ethnicity, migration, urban studies and social and cultural geography.

The book brings together a strong field of anthropologists offering in-depth ethnographic studies of urban settings in the Mediterranean region, ranging from Portugal, to Albania and to Israel. Their aim is to initiate a comparative discussion of the relationship between established moralities, politics, law and civil society from a region with a strong tradition of cultural integration.

Demonstrating that a comparative anthropological analysis has much to offer to our understanding, this volume reveals that the city is a crucial arena for the renegotiation of citizenship, democracy and belonging.

The Liminal Worker examines the experience of work, employment, employment insecurity and precariousness in a context of high unemployment and welfare state crisis in modern Greece. A theoretically-informed, anthropological exploration of the notion of work in contemporary western society and its relation to processes of political decision making.

Using qualitative data, including extensive interview material and ethnographic research, to explore the experiences and ideas of African Americans as they confront and construct gentrification.

Based on fieldwork in Calcutta, this book provides the ethnography of how middle-class women in India understand and experience economic change through transformations of family life. It explores their ideas, practices and experiences of marriage, childbirth, reproductive change and their children's education.

Cities have always been dynamic social environments for visual and otherwise symbolic competition between the groups who live and work within them. This book presents studies of various cities on both sides of The Atlantic to show how global forces and the competition between urban residents in "contested terrains" is changing the faces of cities.

Drawing on rich ethnographic work in both Eastern and Western Europe, this book presents a range of case studies to explore the impact of corruption in EU-funded structural development projects. It is of interest to anthropologists, sociologists and political scientists concerned with questions of legitimacy, corruption and activism.

Brings together a leading team of anthropologists to address the complex methodological and theoretical challenges posed by field-research in urban settings, clearly identifying the significance of the anthropological paradigm in urban research and its centrality both to mainstream academic debates and to society more broadly.

With attention to variations according to national setting, this volume explores the process of reformulating religious identities and practices amongst South Asian 'communities' in European contexts. Presenting a wide range of ethnographies, including studies of Hinduism, Sikhism.

With half of humanity already living in towns and cities and that proportion expected to increase in the coming decades, society - both Western and non-Western - is fast becoming urban and even mega-urban. As such, research in urban settings is evidently timely and of great importance. Anthropology in the City brings together a leading team of anthropologists to address the complex methodological and theoretical challenges posed by field-research in urban settings, clearly identifying the significance of the anthropological paradigm in urban research and its centrality both to mainstream academic debates and to society more broadly. With essays from experts on wide-ranging ethnographic research from fields as diverse as China, Europe, India, Latin and North America and South East Asia, this book demonstrates the contribution that empirically-based anthropological analysis can make to our understanding of our increasingly urban world.

This book uses qualitative data to explore the experiences and ideas of African Americans confronting and constructing gentrification in Washington, D.C. It contextualizes Black WashingtoniansΓÇÖ perspectives on belonging and attachment during a marked period of urban restructuring and demographic change in the NationΓÇÖs Capital and sheds light on the process of social hierarchies and standpoints unfolding over time. African Americans and Gentrification in Washington, D.C. emerges as a portrait of a heterogeneous African American population wherein members define their identity and culture as a people informed by the impact of injustice on the urban landscape. It presents oral history and ethnographic data on current and former African American residents of D.C. and combines these findings with analyses from institutional, statistical, and scholarly reports on wealth inequality, shortages in affordable housing, and rates of unemployment. Prince contends that gentrification seizes upon and fosters uneven development, vulnerability and alienation and contributes to classed and racialized tensions in affected communities in a book that will interest social scientists working in the fields of critical urban studies and urban ethnography. African Americans and Gentrification in Washington, D.C. will also invigorate discussions of neoliberalism, critical whiteness studies and race relations in the 21st Century.

The Liminal Worker examines the experience of work, employment, employment insecurity and precariousness in a context of high unemployment and welfare state crisis in modern Greece. A theoretically-informed, anthropological exploration of the notion of work in contemporary western society and its relation to processes of political decision making, this book challenges the mainstream conception of work as an economic or purely productive activity, presenting a comparative analysis of work as a social phenomenon. Drawing on original empirical research, it explores the key themes of the transformation, experience, meaning and narrative of work and its relation to attendant social policies. A unique examination of the complicated experience of work and labour relations within power systems, institutions and organisations, as well as the reactions and survival strategies of ordinary actors facing precariousness in their daily existence, The Liminal Worker elaborates upon the notion of the anthropology of work and investigates the connection between ethnographic data (and its critical analysis) and the formation of policy. As such, it will be of interest to anthropologists, sociologists, policy makers and geographers concerned with questions of work, labour relations and policy formation.