Category: English

This article examines urban inequalities and minority politics in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and Jos (Nigeria). Though advanced democracies are considered to be generally more egalitarian than their emergent counterparts, there is very little, if any,…

Based on an extensive ethnography of the economic and social life in Berlin-Neukölln, the paper asks how a changing demographic and social structure affects the social life but also the urban renewal on two iconic but contested streets – “the Arab stre…

In major cities across the world policy-makers are searching for new ways to represent and govern their increasingly diverse populations.  In this paper we analyse the ways in which authorities in two global cities, London and Toronto, have drawn …

For a newcomer in a city, the process of getting familiar with urban places does not only refer to memorize the roads but to learn how to live as a local. In this article, I argue that the changing urban structure and discourse of locals may form subtl…

Migrants are omnipresent in cosmopolitan societies.  Propelled from their homelands by poverty, violence, and environmental disasters—and the promise of better opportunities and security—migrants have found their way into metropolitan regions. At …

Anthropology Matters Journal and its mailing list are twenty years old. Established in 1999 out of the student-led seminar Ethnography at the Third Millennium held at SOAS, by 2002 the journal was available open access online. For our final issue as co…

Firmly grounded in Christian theological spirituality (Evagrius Ponticus) and doctrine (Gregory the Great, Thomas Aquinas), the concept of the seven deadly sins, although the exact sequence and names may differ slightly, can be traced from Dante’s Divi…

Firmly grounded in Christian theological spirituality (Evagrius Ponticus) and doctrine (Gregory the Great, Thomas Aquinas), the concept of the seven deadly sins, although the exact sequence and names may differ slightly, can be traced from Dante’s Divi…

Book Review

Book Review

Never quite beyond illness — Laura L. HeinemannOrgan transplantation is often held to epitomize the power and promise of biomedicine. Yet life after transplant does not so clearly mark an ‘after’ to illness, and instead requires close monitoring and tr…

— Narelle Warren, Courtney AddisonThe curative imaginary is a powerful driver of hope and investment in medicine, often displacing attention and resources given to other illness-related fields of practice. Whereas cure implies an end to the sick role …

An opportunity to address inequities in genetic medicine? — Emily Hammad MrigRecent advances in genetic research provide anthropologists with an opportunity to reconsider the meaning and importance of interdisciplinary research. This piece suggests tha…

Social withdrawal in contemporary Japan — Ellen B. Rubinstein, Rae V. SakakibaraHikikomori (‘social withdrawal’) appeared in Japan at the end of the twentieth century, inciting public panic about a generation of Japanese youth who shun social contact a…

Negotiating uncertainty and enacting care — Lenore MandersonA vast portion of the world’s population live with ill health following acute infection or disease and its emergency management. This reflects the increased capacity of technological innovatio…

Motherhood, disability, and prenatal diagnostics in Jordan — Christine SargentThis article draws on the concept of subjunctivity to explore how conditions of uncertainty, experimentation, and refusal shape the lives of women raising children with Down …

Hybridity, difference, and decolonizing health — Carolyn Smith-MorrisBefore professional diagnosis, the determination of whether one is ‘ill’ or ‘well’ rests within the patient. These moments, when sufferers (re)cognize their own bodily and phenomenolo…