We all wait in traffic jams, passport offices, school meal queues, for a response, for better weather, the holidays, an end to fighting, peace. Time spent waiting produces hope, boredom, anxiety, doubt, or uncertainty.

Ethnographies of Waiting explores the social phenomenon of waiting and its centrality in human society. Using waiting as a central analytical category, the book investigates how waiting is negotiated in myriad ways and provides a new perspective on waiting as the uncertain interplay between doubting and hoping. Featuring eight detailed ethnographies covering...