Overheating : Understanding Accelerated Change MOBI, PDF, EPUB
9780745336343 English 0745336345 In this groundbreaking book, Thomas Hylland Eriksen breathes new life into the discussion around global modernity, bringing an anthropologist's approach to bear on the three interrelated crises of environment, economy and identity. He argues that although these crises are global in scope, they are perceived and responded to locally, and that contradictions abound between the standardising forces of information-age global capitalism and the socially embedded nature of people and local practices. Carefully synthesising the ethnographic and comparative methods of anthropology with macrosociological and historical material, Overheating offers an innovative new perspective on issues including energy use, urbanisation, deprivation, human (im)mobility, and the spread of interconnected, wireless information technology. Book jacket., The contemporary world is ... too full? Too intense? Too fast? Too hot? Too unequal? Too neoliberal? Too strongly dominated by humans? All of the above, and more. Ours is a world of high-speed modernity, where acceleration has accelerated. It is an overheated world.This world is also paradoxical: Fossil fuels, the salvation of humanity for two centuries, has become our damnation. Modernity, which should weaken traditional group identities, has strengthened them. The information revolution has made humanity less well informed. Discussing energy, cities, waste, information and mobility, the book shows that most of the conflicts and tensions resulting from globalisation are clashes of scale, pitting the local against the transnational, the tangible against the abstract, the specific against the general. Written by an an anthropologist, the book offers a fresh perspective on the contemporary, interconnected world, and it also suggests what the anthropological perspective can contribute to the large conversation about where humanity is and should be going., The world is overheated. Too full and too fast; uneven and unequal. It is the age of the Anthropocene, of humanity's indelible mark upon the planet. In short, it is globalisation - but not as we know it.In this groundbreaking book, Thomas Hylland Eriksen breathes new life into the discussion around global modernity, bringing an anthropologist's approach to bear on the three interrelated crises of environment, economy and identity. He argues that although these crises are global in scope, they are perceived and responded to locally, and that contradictions abound between the standardising forces of information-age global capitalism and the socially embedded nature of people and local practices.Carefully synthesising the ethnographic and comparative methods of anthropology with macrosocial and historical material, Overheating offers an innovative new perspective on issues including energy use, urbanisation, deprivation, human (im)mobility, and the spread of interconnected, wireless information technology., We live in a time of global crisis or, more appropriately, crises: overlapping, interlocking global problems that are inextricably tied to modernity. "Overheating" offers a groundbreaking new way of looking at the problems of the Anthropocene, exploring crises of the environment, economy, and identity through an anthropological lens. Thomas Hylland Eriksen argues that while each of these crises is global in scope, they are nonetheless perceived and responded to locally and that once we realize that, we begin to see the contradictions that abound between the standardizing forces of global capitalism and the socially embedded nature of people and local practices. Only by acknowledging the primacy of the local, Eriksen shows, can we begin to even properly understand, let alone address, these problems on a global scale. ", We live in a time of global crisis--or, more appropriately, crises: overlapping, interlocking global problems that are inextricably tied to modernity. Overheating offers a groundbreaking new way of looking at the problems of the Anthropocene, exploring crises of the environment, economy, and identity through an anthropological lens. Thomas Hylland Eriksen argues that while each of these crises is global in scope, they are nonetheless perceived and responded to locally--and that once we realize that, we begin to see the contradictions that abound between the standardizing forces of global capitalism and the socially embedded nature of people and local practices. Only by acknowledging the primacy of the local, Eriksen shows, can we begin to even properly understand, let alone address, these problems on a global scale.
9780745336343 English 0745336345 In this groundbreaking book, Thomas Hylland Eriksen breathes new life into the discussion around global modernity, bringing an anthropologist's approach to bear on the three interrelated crises of environment, economy and identity. He argues that although these crises are global in scope, they are perceived and responded to locally, and that contradictions abound between the standardising forces of information-age global capitalism and the socially embedded nature of people and local practices. Carefully synthesising the ethnographic and comparative methods of anthropology with macrosociological and historical material, Overheating offers an innovative new perspective on issues including energy use, urbanisation, deprivation, human (im)mobility, and the spread of interconnected, wireless information technology. Book jacket., The contemporary world is ... too full? Too intense? Too fast? Too hot? Too unequal? Too neoliberal? Too strongly dominated by humans? All of the above, and more. Ours is a world of high-speed modernity, where acceleration has accelerated. It is an overheated world.This world is also paradoxical: Fossil fuels, the salvation of humanity for two centuries, has become our damnation. Modernity, which should weaken traditional group identities, has strengthened them. The information revolution has made humanity less well informed. Discussing energy, cities, waste, information and mobility, the book shows that most of the conflicts and tensions resulting from globalisation are clashes of scale, pitting the local against the transnational, the tangible against the abstract, the specific against the general. Written by an an anthropologist, the book offers a fresh perspective on the contemporary, interconnected world, and it also suggests what the anthropological perspective can contribute to the large conversation about where humanity is and should be going., The world is overheated. Too full and too fast; uneven and unequal. It is the age of the Anthropocene, of humanity's indelible mark upon the planet. In short, it is globalisation - but not as we know it.In this groundbreaking book, Thomas Hylland Eriksen breathes new life into the discussion around global modernity, bringing an anthropologist's approach to bear on the three interrelated crises of environment, economy and identity. He argues that although these crises are global in scope, they are perceived and responded to locally, and that contradictions abound between the standardising forces of information-age global capitalism and the socially embedded nature of people and local practices.Carefully synthesising the ethnographic and comparative methods of anthropology with macrosocial and historical material, Overheating offers an innovative new perspective on issues including energy use, urbanisation, deprivation, human (im)mobility, and the spread of interconnected, wireless information technology., We live in a time of global crisis or, more appropriately, crises: overlapping, interlocking global problems that are inextricably tied to modernity. "Overheating" offers a groundbreaking new way of looking at the problems of the Anthropocene, exploring crises of the environment, economy, and identity through an anthropological lens. Thomas Hylland Eriksen argues that while each of these crises is global in scope, they are nonetheless perceived and responded to locally and that once we realize that, we begin to see the contradictions that abound between the standardizing forces of global capitalism and the socially embedded nature of people and local practices. Only by acknowledging the primacy of the local, Eriksen shows, can we begin to even properly understand, let alone address, these problems on a global scale. ", We live in a time of global crisis--or, more appropriately, crises: overlapping, interlocking global problems that are inextricably tied to modernity. Overheating offers a groundbreaking new way of looking at the problems of the Anthropocene, exploring crises of the environment, economy, and identity through an anthropological lens. Thomas Hylland Eriksen argues that while each of these crises is global in scope, they are nonetheless perceived and responded to locally--and that once we realize that, we begin to see the contradictions that abound between the standardizing forces of global capitalism and the socially embedded nature of people and local practices. Only by acknowledging the primacy of the local, Eriksen shows, can we begin to even properly understand, let alone address, these problems on a global scale.