A wheel turns because of its encounter with the surface of the road; spinning in the air it goes nowhere. Rubbing two sticks together produces heat and light; one stick alone is just a stick. In both cases, it is friction that produces movement, action, effect. Challenging the widespread view that globalization invariably signifies a "clash" of cultures, anthropologist Anna Tsing here develops friction in its place as a metaphor for the diverse and conflicting social interactions that make up our contemporary world. She focuses on one particular "zone of awkward engagement"--the rainforests of Indonesia--where in the 1980s and the 1990s capitalist interests increasingly reshaped the landscape not so much through corporate design as through awkward chains of legal and illegal entrepreneurs that wrested the land from previous claimants, creating resources for distant markets. In response, environmental movements arose to defend the rainforests and the communities of people who live in them. Not confined to a village, a province, or a nation, the social drama of the Indonesian rainforest includes local and national environmentalists, international science, North American investors, advocates for Brazilian rubber tappers, UN funding agencies, mountaineers, village elders, and urban students, among others--all combining in unpredictable, messy misunderstandings, but misunderstandings that sometimes work out. Providing a portfolio of methods to study global interconnections, Tsing shows how curious and creative cultural differences are in the grip of worldly encounter, and how much is overlooked in contemporary theories of the global.
Author: Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Customer Reviews
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Astonishing, Original, Important, Useful, Timely
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.
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<br />This is a very original and valuable work that merits a full reading and massive replication across millions of localities.
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<br />Here are my most important fly-leaf notes.
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<br />+ 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.
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<br />+ 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.
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<br />+ Charming and stimulating discussion of how the forest is a social network above a natural network.
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<br />+ Author describes the ethnographic method as one that seeks out the odd couplings, the odd connections instead of seeking to create global generalizations.
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<br />+ Culturally-rooted odd connections are a source of cultural production.
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<br />+ 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).
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<br />+ 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).
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<br />+ Excellent discussion of the blurring of the lines between public, private, and criminal.
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<br />+ Fascinating discussion, centered on the fake gold mine in Indonesia, about how countries "stage" performances and fabricate opportunities in order to attract foreign investment.
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<br />+ 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.
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<br />+ Great discussion of the gaps between:
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<br />- Cultivated and wild
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<br />- Subsistence and market economies
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<br />- Farm and forest
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<br />- Settlements and hinterlands
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<br />+ Strong section on the value of differences in mobilizing indigenous interest and capabilities, and innovation.
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<br />+ In passing, this book makes me realize that our labor unions are dormant but can be mobilized.
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<br />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.
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<br />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.
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<br />Here are some other books that I recommend that bear out and complement the author's insightful and intelligent blending of
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<br />+ Green/diversity
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<br />+ Moral/natural capitalism
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<br />+ Collective intelligence/wealth of networks
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<br />+ Populism & deliberative democracy
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<br />+ Ethics, ecology, & evolution
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<br />Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
<br />Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
<br />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]
<br />One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization
<br />Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace
<br />Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration
<br />The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
<br />The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
<br />High Noon 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them
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Beautiful, eye-opening, public-minded anthropology
I was surprised to see no review of this book, so I had to write one. It has many interesting facets, but at its core is a vivid and sometimes heart-breaking portrayal of the true face of "globalization" - not the shining abstraction of Thomas Friedman's dreams but a capricious force that scrapes over landscapes, natural environments, and the societies that live in them and often leaves them devastated in the name of progress.
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<br />I rarely use the word beautiful to describe an ethnography, but this is one such case.I really think this book deserves a wider public outside anthropology; Tsing's insightful observations on the sad fate of Kalimantan should be a lesson to all those who think unfettered free markets and the global economy are the route to salvation.
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