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Fire in the Dark

Telling Gypsiness in North East England

Sarah Buckler author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Berghahn Books

Published:1st Jun '11

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Fire in the Dark cover

Anthropologists who are employed to change the worlds they are researching find themselves in a potentially contradictory position. Combining the various roles and expectations involved in working with Gypsies and local government at the same time as conducting anthropological research, provides the overall perspective of this study. It is an unusual and effective balance of insightful ethnography and anthropological theory with the perspective of someone employed to carry out applied work. An effective and creative use of metaphor structures the entire work and allows complex ideas to be conveyed in an accessible way. Drawing upon traditional anthropological approaches such as kinship and story telling and engaging with the works of major social theorists such as Weber, Bourdieu and Foucault as well as the work of contemporary anthropologists, this work demonstrates the use of anthropology in understanding changing situations and in deciding how best to manage such situations.

CHOICE OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC BOOK OF THE YEAR 2011

Buckler's excellent command of the relevant ethnographic and theoretical literature is enlivened by a personal perspective and numerous excerpts from her field notes. An important, exemplary work of applied anthropology for social scientists interested in ethnicity and interethnic relations, and a must read for administrators dealing with multiethnic situations. It is among the very best of the many monographs now being produced on Romany communities in Britain. Essential.”• Choice

“…anthropologists will come, increasingly, to locate themselves...outside the universities. And if this absorbing book is anything to go by, then we should look forward to the future with confidence.”• JRAI

“…an important and original contribution to the social anthropology of Gypsies/Romanies as a growing field of ethnographic research.”• Anthropological Notebooks

ISBN: 9780857451477

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 340g

248 pages