Pessimism prevails about the future of carbon capture and storage in both the USA and EU. This is despite the fine promises that it was precisely this technology that would save the oil and gas industry.
Why has Iceland, a country that is famous for its abundant renewable energy, started to engage in oil exploitation? Other countries are moving away from fossil fuels. Why is this volcanic island choosing the opposite path and will it be worth it, master student Pernille Ihme wonders, currently on fieldwork in northeastern Iceland.
Did you think Big Data was just a buzzword? American researchers have developed algorithms for predicting crime before it happens.
News about sinking boats carrying African migrants as they attempt to reach Europe is shaking the public. Similar dramas are unfolding regularly in Melilla, where Gard Ringen Høibjerg is currently on fieldwork.
Economic crises can lead to a rise in xenophobia. But the opposite can also be true. At the next Overheating seminar, anthropologist Theodoros Rakopoulos will talk about the thriving solidarity economy in Greece.
Instead of reviewing laws and policies in their offices, bureaucrats tour the country, hold public meetings and communicate with citizens via social media. An initiative in Tanzania can serve as example for other countries wishing to revive local democracy and expand their political and legal repertoire, believes anthropologist Knut Christian Myhre, who is currently writing a book on the topic.
A newborn infant can see its parents' expressions at a distance of 30 cm. For the first time researchers have managed to reconstruct infants visual perception of the world.
"Who pays for your research? Who benefits from a particular version of reality? These questions should be raised time and again to get a better vantage-point for acting upon an overheated world,” says Thomas Hylland Eriksen after having studied an environmental scandal in Australia.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen and Henrik Sinding-Larsen from Overheating have received funding from the Norwegian Research Council to organise a conference on sustainability.
Zdenka Sokolíčková Ph.D. M.A. from the Czech Republic will be on a research stay at the Department of Social Anthropology, from 23 February – 8 March 2015.
How does global capitalism influence our relations with other people and our perceptions of who we are? How do people cope with rapid changes in their surroundings? Which roles can researchers play in times of change and conflict?
A Superman cartoon was able to bring some movement to the polarized immigration debate. What can social scientists learn from this?
The EU system has changed significantly as a result of the euro crisis. A large international conference in Oslo in November discussed the democratic implications of these changes, both for the EU and Norway.
Christopher Lord and John Erik Fossum contribute to PADEMIA's weblectures on parliamentary democracy, which are now available online.
Tatiana Fumasoli explains how academic career structures are changing in Europe in an interview with Times Higher Education.
When Jacky was deported from the USA to Cape Verde, his life came to a sudden standstill. Within a short time his face grew deep wrinkles; it looked resigned, exhausted, and drained. Merely at his age of 45, Jacky looked like an old man.
When the first Pride Parade in Montenegro’s capital turned into a battlefield, early ethnographic accounts about traditional manliness may have had a part to play in the tensions, according to anthropologist Branko Banovic.
In October 2011, while I was conducting ethnographic research on water and climate change in southern Peru’s Colca Valley, I was invited to join the villagers of Pinchollo on a hike up to the point at the foot of a glacier where meltwater starts flowing down towards the village.
In an interview with Il Manifesto, Agustín José Menéndez discusses the consequences of the German Constitutional Court's February ruling on the European Central Bank's OMT mechanism.
Is the recent rise in xenophobia and right-wing populism in Europe linked to the economic crisis? Anthropologist Cathrine Moe Thorleifsson is about to embark on fieldwork in England, Hungary and Norway in order to find out.
With the rise of new technologies, organic waste has started a journey from costly by-product to valuable resource. But why does only 3% go on to become biogas and fertilizer? How can we increase the percentage?
“Anthropologists tend to exaggerate differences and to downplay commonalities. It is our moral duty to correct this distorted picture,” said Jeremy MacClancy at the first international workshop of the Overheating project.
The recent Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea has spurred a range of responses from all over the world. Some of these responses exemplify the ongoing stereotyping of Africa and Africans. Public discourse, unfortunately, still has the tendency of addressing Africa as a country, a war ridden space full of sadness and its inhabitants as savage and helpless. But stereotypes are not limited to these images of misery.
The European Parliament and its political groups employ officials to help coordinate various aspects of the Parliament’s legislative work. In this blog post, Morten Egeberg, Åse Gornitzka and Jarle Trondal examine who these staff members are, and if their individual backgrounds influence their decisions.
Just after the first pill has been swallowed, the human body starts to react. A new study at the University of Oslo can be the first step towards an individualized treatment of mental illnesses.