Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection
by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
List Price:
Our Price: $20.86
You Save: $4.09 (16%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $15.35 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Anna Lowenhaupt TsingEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2004-11-08
ISBN: 069112065X
Number of pages: 376
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Book Reviews of Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection
Book Review: Astonishing, Original, Important, Useful, Timely
Summary: 5 Stars
This is quite an astonishing book, absorbing, original. Although isolated from the literatures of predatory capitalism, moral natural green economics, and collective intelligence and social network wealth creation, I fix that with some links at the end of this review.
This is a very original and valuable work that merits a full reading and massive replication across millions of localities.
Here are my most important fly-leaf notes.
+ An original view at the conflicts and collaborations between predatory business practices (often combining bribery to obtain local armed force) and indigenous rights and natural resource claims.
+ Proposes a new form of global respect for cultural diversity and ethnic indigenous rights and innovative possibilities. Clearly appreciates E. O. Wilson's 1996 declaration of the importance of diversity as an engine and catalyst for human progress and prosperity.
+ Charming and stimulating discussion of how the forest is a social network above a natural network.
+ Author describes the ethnographic method as one that seeks out the odd couplings, the odd connections instead of seeking to create global generalizations.
+ Culturally-rooted odd connections are a source of cultural production.
+ Cultural and political delimitation is more successful and more sustainable than global camapaigns that demand generalizations applied to all localities, and fail to reflect nuances and differentiation (e.g. good coal emissions versus bad coal emissions).
+ Trenchant discussion and definitions of prosperity (disparities between fortunes for the few and scarcity for the many); knowledge (unequally distributed); and freedom (more for the few and less for the many).
+ Excellent discussion of the blurring of the lines between public, private, and criminal.
+ Fascinating discussion, centered on the fake gold mine in Indonesia, about how countries "stage" performances and fabricate opportunities in order to attract foreign investment.
+ Tart illustration and discussion of how frontier cultures (including soldiers who will kill indigeneous peoples whose wealth is being stolen and rights trampled); franchise cronyism; and finance capital that plays Russian roulette with other people's money.
+ Great discussion of the gaps between:
- Cultivated and wild
- Subsistence and market economies
- Farm and forest
- Settlements and hinterlands
+ Strong section on the value of differences in mobilizing indigenous interest and capabilities, and innovation.
+ In passing, this book makes me realize that our labor unions are dormant but can be mobilized.
My highest complement for any book: I learned important things I did not know, and see the world in a different light as a result. I also see my own life's work, and the Earth Intelligence Network of which I am one of 24 co-founders, in a different light.
This is a righteous book, a very valuable book, and in the context of all the other books I have read, this book is quite extraordinary, unique, and a MAJOR contribution to human knowledge.
Here are some other books that I recommend that bear out and complement the author's insightful and intelligent blending of
+ Green/diversity
+ Moral/natural capitalism
+ Collective intelligence/wealth of networks
+ Populism & deliberative democracy
+ Ethics, ecology, & evolution
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism: How the Financial System Underminded Social Ideals, Damaged Trust in the Markets, Robbed Investors of Trillions - and What to Do About It [audio book TITLE is better, buy the book instead]
One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization
Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace
Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
High Noon 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them
Business & Investing Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Engaging Ethnographies
The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic SOcieties (Routledge Classics)by Marcel Mauss
Routledge; Published: 2006-02-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.99
Price in other shops:
Lines in the Water: Nature and Culture at Lake Titicacaby Ben Orlove
University of California Press; Published: 2002-06-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $44.98
Price in other shops:
Advocacy after Bhopal: Environmentalism, Disaster, New Global Ordersby Kim Fortun
University Of Chicago Press; Published: 2001-07-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.97
Price in other shops:
Dance of the Dolphin: Transformation and Disenchantment in the Amazonian Imaginationby Candace Slater
University Of Chicago Press; Published: 1994-09-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $23.00
Unsettling Memories: Narratives of the Emergency in Delhiby Emma Tarlo
University of California Press; Published: 2003-07-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.84
Price in other shops:
The Anti-Politics Machine: "Development," Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesothoby James Ferguson
University of Minnesota Press; Published: 1994-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.24
Price in other shops:
Encountering Developmentby Arturo Escobar
Princeton University Press; Published: 1994-11-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.60
Price in other shops:
Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connectionby Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
Princeton University Press; Published: 2004-11-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.86
Price in other shops:
Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl (In-formation)by Adriana Petryna
Princeton University Press; Published: 2002-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.99
Price in other shops:
Breakfast Of Biodiversity: The Political Ecology of Rain Forest Destructionby John Vandermeer, Ivette Perfecto
Food First; Published: 2005-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.13
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century (In-formation)by Nikolas Rose
Princeton University Press; Published: 2006-10-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.41
Price in other shops:
Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationalityby Aihwa Ong
Duke University Press; Published: 1998; Paperback; Book
Best price: $21.55
Price in other shops:
The Will to Improve: Governmentality, Development, and the Practice of Politicsby Tania Li
Duke University Press; Published: 2007; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.45
Price in other shops:
Environmentality: Technologies of Government and the Making of Subjects (New Ecologies for the Twenty-First Century)by Arun Agrawal
Duke University Press; Published: 2005; Paperback; Book
Best price: $21.55
Price in other shops:
Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, New Editionby Benedict Anderson
Verso; Published: 2006-11-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.12
Price in other shops:
Fear of Small Numbers: An Essay on the Geography of Anger (Public Planet)by Arjun Appadurai
Duke University Press; Published: 2006; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.87
Price in other shops:
Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Public Worlds, V. 1)by Arjun Appadurai
University of Minnesota Press; Published: 1996-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.87
Price in other shops:
A Brief History of Neoliberalismby David Harvey
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2007-01-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.47
Price in other shops:
Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Orderby James Ferguson
Duke University Press; Published: 2006; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.60
Price in other shops:
Neoliberalism as Exception: Mutations in Citizenship and Sovereigntyby Aihwa Ong
Duke University Press; Published: 2006; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.97
Price in other shops: