In the Event - by Lotte Meinert & Bruce Kapferer (Paperback)

About the Book

• Explains how to analyze generative moments through events that hold the key to understanding larger social situations.
• Based on ethnographic studies from around the world.

Book Synopsis

Events are "generative moments" in at least three senses: events are created by and condense larger-scale social structures; as moments, they spark and give rise to new social processes; in themselves, events may also serve to analyze social situations and relationships. Based on ethnographic studies from around the world--varying from rituals and meetings over protests and conflicts to natural disasters and management--this volume analyzes generative moments through events that hold the key to understanding larger social situations. These events--including the Ashura ritual in Bahrain, social cleavages in South Africa, a Buddhist cave in Nepal, drought in Burkina Faso, an earthquake in Pakistan, the cartoon crisis in Denmark, corporate management at Bang & Olufsen, protest meetings in Europe, and flooding and urban citizenship in Mozambique--are not simply destructive disasters, crises, and conflicts, but also generative and constitutive of the social.

Review Quotes

"In general terms, In the Event: Toward an Anthropology of Generic Moments accomplishes several goals that make it a book extremely worth reading. For a start, it is an excellent introduction to the contemporary validity of the Manchester School, particularly in terms of the exploration concerning the question of what an event is and does. Furthermore, and following from this, the various contributions to this volume show a very thought provoking argument, inspired by Deleuze (2002): the event is the seed to change, to multiplicity, to the unexpected, rather than merely the illustration of something that already exists. Finally, every chapter of this book manifests something that is becoming increasingly evident for all of us: the translocal connections made visible by the occurrence of events." - Anthropological Forum