What would it mean to consider that non-human beings also do work? Is it possible to have other forms of food production, not through human domination, but collaboration through “multispecies teamwork”?
2016
Mgr. Jana Karlová, Ph.D. from the Czech Republic will be on a research stay at the Department of Social Anthropology and to our project from April 17th to April 30th 2016.
Climate change is not only about extreme weather and rising seas but also about new forms of citizenship, solidarity, and resistance. “We still know too little about the human dimensions of climate change”, says social anthropologist Edvard Hviding of the University of Bergen.
The country that host some of the largest numbers of refugees. A natural wonder under threat. A government building in Norway’s capital. And a retreat in the rainforest that “heals the world”. These are the four fieldsites of Overheating’s four new master’s students.
How to solve some of the smaller and bigger problems of our time? Anthropologist Michael Thompson believes in the power of creativity from below.
Globalisation provides the Sami people with political power as well as valuable networks with indigenous people worldwide. "Globalisation has been really positive for the Sami political struggle," says Maria Hernes, who recently returned from fieldwork in Karasjok, Oslo, and New York.
International media are celebrating the corporate-led relocation of Kiruna. Anthropologist Elisa Maria Lopez thinks it is important to talk about “forced displacement” and “chronic uncertainty” in the northernmost Swedish town instead.
Does health constitute another major crisis of globalisation? How does food relate to health, well-being, and social change? Wim Van Daele has talked with healers and doctors in Sri Lanka about the “unhealthy” mix of new and processed foods, stress, the corporate monopolization of food chains, and burning stomachs.
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.
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.
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.
Learn from Caribbeans and see the world as many small interconnected islands that can only exist as a whole, says Kristian Van Haesendonck, who will speak at the next Overheating-seminar.
It has taken us several hundred million years to produce this compressed sunlight, and it has been the driving force of modern civilization for two hundred years. It cannot be eliminated without further ado, writes Thomas Hylland Eriksen.
China’s economic growth does not always benefit its national minorities. Instead, it strains ethnic relations.
Our models for learning are inadequate. To solve humanity’s biggest crises we have to learn how to learn together in new ways, says Fred Steier who will be holding the next Overheating seminar.
Why has water increasingly become a source of trouble and conflict? Why is the driest continent on earth one of the world’s biggest water exporters? – I am interested in the drivers of overheating, says anthropologist Veronica Strang.