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Friction

An Ethnography of Global Connection
  • and
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2024

About this book

Co-Winner of the Senior Book Prize, American Ethnological Society
What the struggle over the Indonesian rainforests can teach us about the social frictions that shape the world around us

Rubbing two sticks together produces heat and light while one stick alone is just a stick. It is the friction that produces movement, action, and effect. Anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing challenges the widespread view that globalization invariably signifies a clash of cultures, developing friction as a metaphor for the diverse and conflicting social interactions that make up our contemporary world. Focusing on the social drama of the Indonesian rainforests in the 1980s and 1990s, she shows how a host of competing interests—from environmentalists and North American investors to advocates for Brazilian rubber tappers, international funding agencies, and village elders—are drawn into unpredictable, messy misunderstandings, but misunderstandings that sometimes work out. Now with a new preface by the author, Friction provides an invaluable portfolio of methods for the study of global interconnections.

Author / Editor information

Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing is professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her books include The Mushroom at the End of the World and In the Realm of the Diamond Queen (both Princeton).

Reviews

"By providing generous anecdotes and personal reflections amidst more complex, insightful political commentary and social theory, [Tsing] achieves a writing style that is both pleasurable and informative."---Laura L. B. Graham, Environment and Planning --- "Friction is an original, nuanced, and elegant work of ethnography and a significant contribution to the areas of globalization; environment and natural resource wars; the politics of indigenous peoples, NGOs, and development; and the sociology of expert versus local knowledge."---Michael Goldman, American Journal of Sociology

Topics

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    Frontmatter

    i
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    Contents

    vii
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    Preface to the 2024 Edition

    ix
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    Preface

    xix
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    Introduction

    1
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  • I Prosperity
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    “Better you had brought me a bomb, so I could blow this place up”

    19
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    1 Frontiers of Capitalism

    27
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    “They communicate only in sign language”

    51
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    2 The Economy of Appearances

    55
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  • II Knowledge
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    “Let a new Asia and a new Africa be born”

    79
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    3 Natural Universals and the Global Scale

    88
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    “Dark rays”

    113
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    4 Nature Loving

    121
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    “This earth, this island Borneo”

    155
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    5 A History of Weediness

    171
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  • III Freedom
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    “A hair in the flour”

    203
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    6 Movements

    213
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    “Facilities and incentives”

    239
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    7 The Forest of Collaborations

    245
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    Coda

    269
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    Notes

    273
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    References

    297
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    Index

    313
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
August 2, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9780691263526
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
View content
https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691263526
eBook ISBN: 9780691263526
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
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