So this is out now: "Intro: Camp Memories in Africa and beyond" my intro to a special issue on #MemoryStudies and the contested memorialization of #camps in #Africa and beyond @histodons #histodons […] [Original post on h-net.social]

moin

Great panel today on 'Revisiting Humanity in Dark Times: Anthropological Dialogues With Hannah Arendt', with contributions by Thomas Schwarz Wentzer, Jonas Lykke Larsen, Paolo Gaibazzi, @judithbeyer.bsky.social, Ahmad Moradi, Aksana Ismailbekova, Aymon Kreil, Samuli Schielke, and me #dgska2025

🌏💼 What does “retirement” mean when return, care, and labour continue across borders? In her new chapter in Anthropology of Retirement, @meghaamrith.bsky.social examines the futures imagined by ageing migrant domestic workers in Singapore & Hong Kong. Read more here: tinyurl.com/bde79pae

New on U/C A – Authoritarian Publics: "Authoritarian Publics. Anthropological Perspectives on the New Right in Germany" by Nitzan Shoshan, Mario Krämer, Konstanze N’Guessan & Simone Pfeifer, boasblogs.org/uncommoning/... #DGSKA2025

I go to conferences to meet friends. This time we even spoke about friendship in an entire panel. So lovely to discuss with everyone - and I was truly surprised by the full room of attendees at 9am! Let’s reclaim the university as a public space of world-making in the sense Hannah Arendt envisioned.

There are good reasons to think the number of small boat crossings may fall in the next couple of years - and it will have little to do with whatever has been announced at party conferences Europe’s astonishing drop in illegal migration economist.com/internationa...

Great panel today on 'Revisiting Humanity in Dark Times: Anthropological Dialogues With Hannah Arendt', with contributions by Thomas Schwarz Wentzer, Jonas Lykke Larsen, Paolo Gaibazzi, @judithbeyer.bsky.social, Ahmad Moradi, Aksana Ismailbekova, Aymon Kreil, Samuli Schielke, and me #dgska2025

We are thrilled to announce that @steffenmau.bsky.social, one of Germany’s leading sociologists, has been appointed Director at our Institute. He will lead a new Department on Inequality, Transformation & Conflict, addressing pressing societal challenges via cutting-edge social science research.

Das hat ja fast schon Kampagnencharakter, was die Berliner Zeitung und andere hier machen. Michael Zeuske ergänzt unser Wissen um Amo. Das ist gut. Aber die Schlagzeilen sind Kulturkampf. Auch der Arikel von Zeuske, den ich sehr schätze, ist ärgerlich. /2 www.berliner-zeitung.de/mensch-metro...

Eine wirklich sehr gute Zusammenschau und Betrachtung meiner Rede zum Abschluss des Soziologiekongresses in Duisburg (Lieblingsschöpfung in dem Text „Hybridsekte“ Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht)

Almost ready for #dgska2025 Follow the arrows to get to the seminar building!

In Kenya, a suspected organizer of sending Kenyans to the front in Ukraine has been arrested⤵️ 📹 57th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade named after Kost Hordiienko

Why I gave the world wide web away for free | Tim Berners-Lee

No criminal record, then volunteer, then learn the language and, ideally, bring an Oscar or an Olympic medal. Then we'll accept you - maybe you'll get citizenship...

Nur noch in wenigen hundert Fällen las das #BAMF in den letzten Monaten Smartphones Geflüchteter aus. Das ist ein markanter Rückgang zu früheren Jahren. Offenbar ist bei der Asylbehörde angekommen, dass der aufwändige & grundrechtsfeindliche Eingriff nichts bringt. netzpolitik.org/2025/bundesa...

So. In einem durch. Kommt auch nicht so oft vor. Sagt man ja sonst eher bei anderen Literaturformen: „ #Migrationspanik “ von @judithkohlenberger.bsky.social ist echter Pageturner, bei dem man sich auch das eine oder andere Mal bissl hinterfragen muss. #bubble Congrats. #schwereempfehlung

The white supremacist conceit that everyone in antiquity was living under some kind of global jim crow segregation is just complete bullshit news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...

Meine Einschätzung zu den Erwartungen gegenüber Einbürgerungswilligen stützt sich auf die Allgemeine Bevölkerungsumfrage der Sozialwissenschaften und eine eigene Erhebung. #Einbürgerung #Staatsbürgerschaft

Our research shows: the less prepared, sudden & violent a return, the harder the reintegration. Since 2023, millions of Afghans are returning amid crackdowns.  In 2025 we surveyed 747 returnees to document return dynamics 80% said they were deported / expelled. 👇1/2 #Afghanistan

Historian Thomas Zimmer has left academia, Substack, and the US; now he’s launching his new career as an indie writer with a newsletter about “the ongoing struggle over how much democracy, and for whom, there should be in America”. Recommended! [steady.page]

"The political logic of treating migrants as permanent second-class citizens is not clear." @robfordmancs.bsky.social shows making it harder for migrants working and paying taxes to settle here is *incredibly* unpopular. Also applies to Labour/Tory proposals! (1/2) ukandeu.ac.uk/reforms-radi...

Resharing this starter pack from the early days of Bluesky in case it is helpful for anyone. Surely, there are many more orgs still to add.

Depolarization is not "a scalable solution for reducing societal-level conflict.... achieving lasting depolarization will likely require....moving beyond individual-level treatments to address the elite behaviors and structural incentives that fuel partisan conflict" www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

This is Mastodon for me tbh

On authoritarianism and comedy, in East Germany the first political Kabarett was allowed to open only in 1953 in the wake of the June 17 Uprising. Alongside a massive expansion of security forces, it was seen by the regime as a useful safety valve for mild social critique.

Self-serving lies from CPS/Telegraph. But kernel of truth here- unsurprisingly, those on work visas (& their dependents) more likely to make +ve fiscal contribution than refugees etc. Which is why proposals to restrict ILR (from govt/Tories/Reform) likely to *cost* money (1/2) archive.ph/JSo7O

Autism is back on the front pages. Why not read the book that my excellent @manchester.ac.uk @manchstm.bsky.social colleague Dr Bonnie Evans has published on the history of autism? It's open access and you can read it online for free. www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781...

The 18th-century legal case that changed the face of music copyright law www.wipo.int/web/wipo-mag...

Floods force 100,000 out of their homes – and the water is still rising in Burundi’s commercial capital Bujumbura. The first signs of catastrophe are found in abandoned hotel and mansions, where lake water has soaked into the lower floors and laps through car parks.

📝Why does #Uganda accept #asylum seekers from the #US? ABI staff member @franziscaz.bsky.social and Ronald Kalyango Sebba analyze the migration agreement between Uganda and the US for @theconversation.com. ▶️ Find their article here: 🔗 theconversation.com/refugee-prot...

I'll have more to say on Reform's proposals to scrap ILR at some point but for now I'll just note this - anyone telling you this is a popular idea doesn't know the polling. Overwhelming majority of public back giving people who work and pay taxes most or all rights after 5 years or less

Got sucked into the side of TikTok commenting on the trend in American evangelicalism right now—where there’s a growing belief that that the rapture will happen this Tuesday—September 23rd This is due to a of set of things happening in Israel interpreted through a tangled "Left Behind" theology+

Is hostility to immigration something that people develop spontaneously based on their own experiences, or is it deliberately cultivated by politicians and the press? The authors of this FT don’t say so, but it’s hard not to see this figure as evidence for the latter. www.ft.com/content/43da...

Illegalization exhibit #475.

Sudan Is What Happens When You Recognize a Junta By Suliman Baldo and Mai Hassan www.nytimes.com/2025/09/21/o...

From yesterday: British by descent: when the child of a British citizen is not themselves British | Colin Yeo

"Democracies risk falling into a doom loop, in which restrictions on immigration mean ever greater demands on the purse of the native-born population and ever worse services, which in turn deepens opposition towards immigration" @stephenkb.bsky.social calls for honesty. www.ft.com/content/43da...

There was a fascinating article in the Financial Times a few weeks ago about just how much time the Tr*mp family spends in the Gulf, particularly Saudi Arabia but increasingly Oman and Bahrain.

„Immer weniger Deutsche glauben an den sozialen Aufstieg - ein Gefühl der Ohnmacht macht sich breit.“ Das Gefühl der Zukunftslosigkeit ist @onachtwey.bsky.social & mir immer wieder in unserer Forschung begegnet, begleitet von der Lust, die Gesellschaft zu zerstören zeitung.faz.net/data/459/rea...

70+ worshippers at the Al-Safiya Mosque in El Fasher were killed in an RSF drone strike today, Friday, when Jumah services means mosques are full. The UAE, which backs the RSF despite it being accused of genocide, continues to face no scrutiny from its western security partners, including the US.

Kenyan and South African startups attract bulk of fresh venture capital (VC) to Africa this year - 78% of the total $2.2 billion raised across Africa, doubling the volume recorded over the same period in 2024. In all East African raised $865 million and Southern Africa $845 million.

Die Geschichte der Propagandatechnologie in unter 30.000 Zeichen, das war eine Herausforderung! #APuZ #Propaganda

“Why Donkeys Have 44 Teeth” by Peter Nena is set in Nairobi, where recurring nightmares bleed into reality with terrifying consequences. The story reveals how children’s warnings are too often dismissed until it’s too late. Full story appears in Issue V: www.lulu.com/shop/somto-i...

Incoming

Today, on the front page of the @nytimes.com website. How Kenyan Villagers Saved Their Sacred Caves From a Mining Company www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/w...

Pleased the Times has now withdrawn and corrected Jenni Russell's reference to the CPS's now debunked nonsense numbers on the long term fiscal impacts of immigration.

I wrote a longer essay on how social status matters for far-right support. Many still wrongly associate the far right with the economically left behind. Taking social status seriously also cautions against the idea that deliverism will win back far-right voters. equitablegrowth.org/threats-to-s...

As AI capabilities improve, users in wealthy regions collaborate more with AI –across education, science, and business - while those in emerging economies (including much of Africa) just delegate complete tasks (like coding) to it.

The 57th OMB took a Kenyan national prisoner on the Vovchansk axis. A man named Evans arrived in Russia as a tourist to see the "nice sights." He signed "work documents" that turned out to be a service contract. youtu.be/LpTgtPD0qu4?...