Among the social sciences, anthropology relies most fundamentally on "fieldwork"--the long-term immersion in another way of life as the basis for knowledge. In an era when anthropologists are studying topics that resist geographical localization, this book initiates a long-overdue discussion of the political and epistemological implications of the disciplinary commitment to fieldwork.

These innovative, stimulating essays--carefully chosen to form a coherent whole--interrogate the notion of "the field," showing how the concept is historically constructed and exploring the consequences of...

Anthropology has traditionally relied on a spatially localized society or culture as its object of study. The essays in Culture, Power, Place demonstrate how in recent years this anthropological convention and its attendant assumptions about identity and cultural difference have undergone a series of important challenges. In light of increasing mass migration and the transnational cultural flows of a late capitalist, postcolonial world, the contributors to this volume examine shifts in anthropological thought regarding issues of identity, place, power, and resistance.
This...

This definitive study brings together recent critiques of development and work in postcolonial studies to explore what the postcolonial condition has meant to rural people in the Third World. Focusing on local-level agricultural practices in India since the green revolution of the 1960s, Akhil Gupta challenges the dichotomy of developed and underdeveloped, as well as the notion of a monolithic postcolonial condition. In so doing, he advances discussions of modernity in the Third World and offers a new model for future ethnographic scholarship.
Based on fieldwork done in the village of...

This innovative reader brings together classic theoretical texts and cutting-edge ethnographic analyses of specific state institutions, practices, and processes and outlines an anthropological framework for rethinking future study of -the state-.

• Focuses on the institutions, spaces, ideas, practices, and representations that constitute the -state-.


• Promotes cultural and transnational approaches to the subject.


• Helps readers to make anthropological sense of the state as a cultural artifact, in the context of a...

This innovative reader brings together classic theoretical texts and cutting-edge ethnographic analyses of specific state institutions, practices, and processes and outlines an anthropological framework for rethinking future study of -the state-.

• Focuses on the institutions, spaces, ideas, practices, and representations that constitute the -state-.


• Promotes cultural and transnational approaches to the subject.


• Helps readers to make anthropological sense of the state as a cultural artifact, in the context of a...

Red Tape presents a major new theory of the state developed by the renowned anthropologist Akhil Gupta. Seeking to understand the chronic and widespread poverty in India, the world's fourth largest economy, Gupta conceives of the relation between the state in India and the poor as one of structural violence. Every year this violence kills between two and three million people, especially women and girls, and lower-caste and indigenous peoples. Yet India's poor are not disenfranchised; they actively participate in the democratic project. Nor is the state indifferent to the plight of the...

Red Tape presents a major new theory of the state developed by the renowned anthropologist Akhil Gupta. Seeking to understand the chronic and widespread poverty in India, the world's fourth largest economy, Gupta conceives of the relation between the state in India and the poor as one of structural violence. Every year this violence kills between two and three million people, especially women and girls, and lower-caste and indigenous peoples. Yet India's poor are not disenfranchised; they actively participate in the democratic project. Nor is the state indifferent to the plight of the...

This book assesses the impact of liberalization on practices of government and relations between state and society. It is clear that liberalization as state policy has complex forms of regulation and deregulation inbuilt, and these policies have resulted in dramatic increases in productivity and economic wealth but also generated spectacular new forms of inequality between social groups, regions, and sectors.

Through a detailed examination of the Indian state, the contributors - all experts in their respective fields - explore questions such as:

• Have the new...

The solar Photovoltaic (PV) technology is gaining significant levels and is going to contribute a major share of total generated electricity in the coming years. PV technology is becoming a promising alternative source for fossil fuels. However, Power Quality (PQ) is the major concern that occurs between the grid and an end user. Any typical electrical distribution system exhibits a passive characteristic with respect to power flows when power flows from a substation to load. However, with inclusion of solar PV generators, this behaviour tends to be changed. The main characteristics related...