International relations, as a discipline, is overwhelmingly top-down. It looks at world affairs with notable detachment. By taking a cultural anthropological approach, however, it is possible to engage with those involved in a more comprehensive and cogent way. It is possible to provide a deeper understanding of how people live there.This book directly addresses a significant gap in the international relations literature, namely, the lack of a systematic account of its cultural context. It does so by examining the subject in anthropological terms. It shows, that is, how cultural anthropologists are able to provide both analysts and leaders with an augmented awareness of what their field involves. Presenting a wide range of unique insights about how the world works, it will be of interest to many readers, such as students, policymakers, teachers, researchers, professionals, and the general public alike.

Welcome to the new future of involvement. Forming groups is easier than it�s ever been: unpaid volunteers can build an encyclopaedia together in their spare time, mistreated customers can join forces to get their revenge on airlines and high street banks, and one man with a laptop can raise an army to help recover a stolen phone. The results of this new world of easy collaboration can be both good (young people defying an oppressive government with a guerrilla ice-cream eating protest) and bad (girls sharing advice for staying dangerously skinny) but it�s here and, as Clay Shirky shows, it�s affecting � well, everybody. For the first time, we have the tools to make group action truly a reality. And they�re going to change our whole world.

This study is a critical commentary connecting issues of development with the latest thinking in sociology, critical theory and social science. It addresses questions such as the connections with globalization, and culture and modernity.

Anthropology is the study of all humans in all times in all places. But it is so much more than that. "Anthropology requires strength, valor, and courage," Nancy Scheper-Hughes noted. "Pierre Bourdieu called anthropology a combat sport, an extreme sport as well as a tough and rigorous discipline. ... It teaches students not to be afraid of getting one's hands dirty, to get down in the dirt, and to commit yourself, body and mind. Susan Sontag called anthropology a "heroic" profession." What is the payoff for this heroic journey? You will find ideas that can carry you across rivers of doubt and over mountains of fear to find the the light and life of places forgotten. Real anthropology cannot be contained in a book. You have to go out and feel the world's jagged edges, wipe its dust from your brow, and at times, leave your blood in its soil. In this unique book, Dr. Michael Wesch shares many of his own adventures of being an anthropologist and what the science of human beings can tell us about the art of being human. This special first draft edition is a loose framework for more and more complete future chapters and writings. It serves as a companion to anth101.com, a free and open resource for instructors of cultural anthropology. This 2018 text is a revision of the "first draft edition" from 2017 and includes 7 new chapters.

Contemporary anthropology is done in a world where social and digital media are playing an increasingly significant role, where anthropological and arts practices are often intertwined in museum and public intervention contexts, and where anthropologists are encouraged to engage with mass media. Because anthropologists are often expected and inspired to ensure their work engages with public issues, these opportunities to disseminate work in new ways and to new publics simultaneously create challenges as anthropologists move their practice into unfamiliar collaborative domains and expose their research to new forms of scrutiny. In this volume, contributors question whether a fresh public anthropology is emerging through these new practices.

Media and Society is an established textbook, popular worldwide for its insightful and accessible essays from leading international academics on the most pertinent issues in the media field today. With this updated edition, David Hesmondhalgh joins James Curran and a team of leading international scholars to speak to current issues relating to media and gender, media and democracy, sociology of news, the global internet, the political impact of the media, popular culture, the effects of digitisation on media industries, media and emotion, and other vital topics. The media are in a state of ferment, and are undergoing far-reaching change. The sixth edition tries to make sense of the media's transformation, and its wider implications. Purely descriptive accounts date fast, so the emphasis has been on identifying the central issues and problems arising from media change, and on evaluating its wider consequences. What is judged to be the staple elements of the field has evolved over time, as well as becoming more international in orientation. Yet the overriding aim of the book - to be useful to students - has remained constant. This text is an essential resource for all media, communication and film studies students who want to broaden their knowledge and understanding of how the media operates and affects society across the globe.

Life outside the mobile phone is unbearable.’ Lily, 19, factory worker. Described as the biggest migration in human history, an estimated 250 million Chinese people have left their villages in recent decades to live and work in urban areas. Xinyuan Wang spent 15 months living among a community of these migrants in a small factory town in southeast China to track their use of social media. It was here she witnessed a second migration taking place: a movement from offline to online. As Wang argues, this is not simply a convenient analogy but represents the convergence of two phenomena as profound and consequential as each other, where the online world now provides a home for the migrant workers who feel otherwise ‘homeless’. Wang’s fascinating study explores the full range of preconceptions commonly held about Chinese people – their relationship with education, with family, with politics, with ‘home’ – and argues why, for this vast population, it is time to reassess what we think we know about contemporary China and the evolving role of social media.