The Newsletter 64 Summer 2013

Exploring inclusive Chineseness: neighbourhoods

Wim Haagdorens

In Deleuze and the Anthropology of Becoming, Biehl and Locke describe life in post-war Sarajevo. According to the authors, the diagnosis of collective trauma overlooks the discontentment about political and economic processes that cause (neo-liberal) deterritorialization of social life. Their approach is inspiring if one considers the consequences of rapid urbanisation in China: the deterritorialization of social and cultural life in entire neighbourhoods is often considered a necessary price for progress, whilst opposite views are judged conservative and unrealistic. Inspired by Deleuze for an ‘anthropology of becoming’, Biehl and Locke see agency in nostalgia, and give a voice to the memory of a less individualistic society.

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