Idols that ring hollow
For the occasion of this year’s Durga Puja festival in Kolkata, the likeness of a migrant woman was chosen for […]
Today’s Totalitarian Menace
Wherever one looks across the globe today democracy is in decline and trends towards what was once called “totalitarianism” are
Connected by extension – How paying connects old regimes and new isolations
The situation in Myanmar during and shortly after my fieldwork in March 2020 reminded me of the uncertainty of
Distributing Anthropological Films During the Pandemic
During the COVID-19 lockdowns in the spring of 2020, when cinema theatres and university buildings closed, many film festivals decided
#Failures: When things don’t hold: Anthropologies of failure, breakdown, and dysfunction
The fragility of our infrastructures and modes of living seldom become as ubiquitously palpable as they have with the current
#Failures: Failure is a Feeling
We were sat upstairs in a favourite hot-pot restaurant in old Taipei, nestled in between a deep red temple and
Clouds of Failure
Anticipating the failure of digital devices has become part of the fabric of everyday life in the digital world. With
Narratives of dysfunction and success stories in e-waste recycling in India
There is a growing consensus that India is going through a waste crisis, and this awareness unfolds parallel to an
Atmospheric Failure
Fog catchers (atrapanieblas) are fairly simple constructions. They consist of large plastic or nylon nets stretched between two vertically positioned
Water #Failures and Social Housing
Public and media discourses about housing estates are replete with highly problematic narratives of failure, riddled with classed and racialised