Moral Atmospheres

Timothy P. A. Cooper examines the diverse and coexisting moral atmospheres that surround media in Pakistan, tracing public understandings of ethical life and showing how they influence economic behavior.

Timothy P. A. Cooper is an anthropologist and ethnographic filmmaker in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge.

Rahul Mukherjee, author of Radiant Infrastructures: Media, Environment, and Cultures of Uncertainty:
This brilliantly layered book examines the permissibility and morality of film recording and distribution amid shifting public demand in Pakistan. Deftly linking discussions of informal media with Lahore’s architectural history and atmospheric conditions, Cooper has written a riveting ethnographic account of Hall Road traders that carefully attends to their social lives and interactions.

Brian Larkin, author of Signal and Noise: Media, Infrastructure, and Urban Culture in Nigeria:
Moral Atmospheres describes the world of traders who distribute Pakistani film and music yet see both as Islamically impermissible and morally repugnant. Mining this contradiction in fascinating ways, Cooper shows how media are moral as well as technical infrastructures, providing an innovative contribution to the study of religion and media.

Patrick Eisenlohr, author of Sounding Islam: Voice, Media, and Sonic Atmospheres in an Indian Ocean World:
Convincingly bringing together the anthropology of ethics and morality with the aesthetic experiences engendered by the consumption and circulation of various genres of Pakistani film and video, Moral Atmospheres is a sophisticated and extraordinarily rich study.

Iftikhar Dadi, John H. Burris Professor, Department of History of Art, Cornell University:
Moral Atmospheres is a groundbreaking examination of the entanglement of diverse actors in the creation, circulation, and reception of visual and moving-image media in Pakistan. This outstanding work seamlessly weaves together anthropological fieldwork conducted in Lahore with insightful analyses from contemporary media studies. The author deftly employs the concept of mahaul (atmosphere), demonstrating the multifaceted implications of media infrastructures in fostering relations across different religious and moral communities, navigating state regulations, and engaging with market intermediaries. Cooper tracks the volatile infrastructural and social dynamics of the media landscape, offering original insights into the relays between media, faith, culture, and capitalism in a postsecular framework. This study not only establishes itself as a defining contribution to the field of media studies in Pakistan but also makes a significant methodological intervention in media studies of the global South.