A World of Insecurity Anthropological Perspectives of Human Security

by Eriksen, Thomas Hylland; Bal, Ellen; Salemink, Oscar

• ISBN13: 9780745329840
• ISBN10: 0745329845
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-15
• Publisher: UCP

Summary

Human security is a key element in the measure of well-being and is a hot topic in anthropology and development studies.A World of Insecurityoutlines a new approach to the subject. The contributors expose a contradiction at the heart of conventional accounts of what constitutes human security namely that without taking non-material considerations such as religion, ethnicity and gender into account, discussions of human security, academically and in practical terms, are incomplete, inconclusive and deeply flawed. A variety of compelling case studies indicate that, in fact, material security alone cannot adequately explain or fully account for human activity in a range of different settings, and exposd to a variety of different threats. This forceful intervention will expand and deepen the entire concept of human security, in the process endowing it with political relevance. It is an essential book for students of development studies and anthropology.

Author Biography

Thomas Hylland Eriksen is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Oslo and author of Ethnicity and Nationalism (1994; 2002) and Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology (1995; 2001). Ellen Bal is Lecturer in Anthropology at the Free University of Amsterdam and the author of They ask if we eat frogs: Garo ethnicity in Bangladesh (2007). Oscar Salemink is Professor of Anthropology and Head of Department in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Free University of Amsterdam, and is the author of The Ethnography of Vietnam's Central Highlanders: A Historical Contextualization, 1850-1990 (2003).

Table of Contents

1. Thomas Hylland Eriksen: Human security and social anthropology * Part 1: The political economy of human security * 2.Ton Salman: Taking Risks for Security's Sake: Bolivians Resisting their State and its Economic Policies * 3. Bernard Venema (with Ali Mguild): State formation, Imposition of a Land Market and Resilient Pathways among the Berbers of the Middle Atlas * 4. Marjo de Theije and Ellen Bal: Flexible migrants: Brazilian gold miners and their quest for human security in Surinam
Part 2: Security, identity and belonging * 5. Ellen Bal and Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff: 'Bharat-wasie or Surinamie': Hindustani notions of belonging in Surinam and the Netherlands * 6. Edien Bartels, Kim Knibbe, Martijn de Koning and Oscar Salemink: Cultural identity as a key dimension of human security: The Dutch case * 7.Lenie Brouwer: “Without Cybersouk, I would be Dead”: Local Experiences in a Dutch Digital Community Centre * 8. André Droogers: Religion, identity and security among Pomeranian Lutheran migrants in Espírito Santo, Brazil (1880 - 2005): A schema repertoire approach * Part 3: States of (in)security * 9. Marion den Uyl: Changing Notions of Belonging: Migrants and natives in an Amsterdam multicultural neighbourhood  * 10. Sandra Evers: Tales from a Captive Audience: Dissident Narratives and the Official History of the Seychelles * 11. Dick Kooiman: Harnessing Ceremonial for Political Security: An Indian princely state on the verge of extinction * 12. Oscar Salemink: Ritual efficacy, spiritual security and human security: Spirit mediumship in contemporary Vietnam