Customer Reviews

Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection

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I picked this up from the city library after a professor showed it to me, admitting she hadn't read it; what a good decision that was! I bought a copy a few weeks later. At this point, I've probably read 'Friction' three times, and once or twice a year I'll pull it off the shelf to graze through Tsing's accomplished prose and absolutely jam-packed observations.

'Friction' deals with conflict in the rainforest of Indonesia, but that is a superficial description of a book that reads like a hero-less political thriller set in a multitudinous, global carnival of atrocity, adaptation, and survival. Tsing includes a large cast here: indigenous, rainforest communities, black market loggers, hikers, special forces units, environmentalists, multinationals, NGOs, political parties, and so on. Remarkably, none of these groups are left out as the book comes together. Rather, the reader is treated to a smooth description of the connections that are threaded between all of them, however insignificant they may have first appeared.

I am not sure that Tsing's concept of friction (the cultural co-formation occurring in global economy) is really original or functional enough to merit its role as title. It's an old concept that has worn different clothes (eg, 'creative destruction'). However, this is just a quibble, as Tsing also forwards a range of theoretical propositions that succeed in elaborating both her research subjects and a tentative sense of hope. Trees are social networks, 'universals' are promiscuous jet-setters, and utopias are valid rallying cries in apocalyptic landscapes of environmental devastation.

Tsing should be, and has been, praised for her restrained prose, which allows events to convey their moral impact without subjecting the reader to a sermon. Her writing is fluid, rhythmic, athletic and most of all, economical. I'm often surprised how small the book seems for the amount of writing it holds.

Finally, the presentation is refreshingly light. A few intriguing images are scattered through the book, traditional ecological knowledge is given some space, and poetry, extensive citations, excerpts from advertisements all work to expand the range of 'Fricton' while freeing up the weight of the text.

This is not your standard 'shock' and 'outrage' expose of corporate immorality. Instead, it is a detailed and novel look at the spectrum of actors involved in the formation of socioeconomic reality. 'Friction' would be a great choice for anyone looking for a complex analysis of the ongoing, global reticulation of capital, culture, environment, and technology. The book is accessible enough for popular consumption and detailed enough for academic and professional specialists. For those interested in the anthropology, ecology, economics, geography, or sociology of frontiers and margins, start here.

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

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.

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.

Excellent author. College students in traditional age bracket found it difficult reading because it has some heady thought lines and she writes from a different perspective than many anthropologists. Suggest reading this interesting case study on Indonesia's native people on the former island of Borneo, now Kalimantan Indonesia, and their cultural, economic, and social struggles as the outside world invaded their forrest homeland to mine it for natural resources. Government corruption, abusive soldiers, student activists, and international environmental organizations all are included in the storyline.

This is a fascinating and useful book. It certainly changed how I think about globalization, about environmentalism, and about the usefulness of anthropology for the study of large-scale processes. The long introduction is more than worth the price of the book. I say the book is useful because I found applications all around me for Tsing's conceptual framework. The concepts she applied to her work in the forests of Indonesia applied easily to my work in the media beehive of Manhattan.