Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection Kindle Edition

Discovered this book while taking an Anthropology course. It really provides a good overview of how we are globally connected. It is a bit dense in understanding.

I read this book over a year ago in a cultural anthropology class, but still remember it as one of the most interesting and fresh reads of the semester. Although it is fairly difficult to grasp the concepts and models that Tsing uses in the book, once the pieces start to connect it gets really exciting. If you start and want to stop, press on-it will be worth it!

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.

Not a very interesting read, but the book came as described and in good condition. Definitely only would read this if it was a requirement for class; I'm even interested in environmental anthropology and her writing style was hard for me to choke down.

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.