This guest editorial explores the parallel ethical responsibilities and institutional challenges faced by anthropologists and journalists, highlighting their shared commitment to reporting faithfully on the complexities of global conflicts, cultural transformations and sensitive social issues. It examines the pressures both professions encounter from institutional review boards and media sponsors, which can impede their ability to conduct in-depth, culturally sensitive research and reporting. The text underscores the importance of honesty, expertise, open-mindedness and courage in navigating the intricate cultural situations and conflicts within contemporary global issues. By examining the institutional pressures that demand conformity to specific ethical models or journalistic practices, the article calls for re-evaluating these constraints to support reporters’ investigative integrity and ethical obligations better in both fields.
This article discusses the methodological and ethical challenges posed by the bureaucratization of research ethics in Eastern Europe, particularly as this impacts the practice of anthropology and fieldwork. It reflects on the authors’ extensive fieldwork among Czech-speaking Protestants in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, highlighting the discrepancy between Western and Eastern European academic norms regarding ethnography. The authors argue that increased formalization and ethical regulation favour more easily bureaucratically managed methodologies, to the detriment of traditional anthropological fieldwork, which is critical for deep cultural understanding.
This article explores the challenges Norwegian anthropologists face owing to the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The authors’ analysis reveals a tension between the need to comply with data protection regulations and preserve research autonomy and methodological integrity. The authors document how GDPR's bureaucratic control mechanisms have influenced researchers’ conceptualization of ethics, leading to a split between legalistic adherence and critical responses within the anthropological community. This situation has necessitated negotiations with various stakeholders and re-evaluating participatory observational methods, particularly in health research, where access has become increasingly difficult. The article highlights the anthropological community's efforts to navigate these regulations through national debates, establishing forums for ethics in ethnographic research and developing strategies to maintain methodological standards while ensuring GDPR compliance. The authors advocate vigilance against the colonization of bureaucratic logic and seek to secure anthropological representation in regulatory bodies to safeguard the discipline's interests.
In Beirut, the role of ‘local strong men’, known as the masoul, has significantly transformed, particularly in Lebanon's financial crisis and since the devastating Beirut port explosion in August 2020. Traditionally, these armed henchmen, affiliated with mainstream political parties, have exerted control over the scrap metal industry, from collection to transportation. However, the increasing profitability of scrap metal, notably copper and iron – long-standing leading exports – has led to new forms of ‘local strong men’, termed ‘asabet (gangs). These groups have escalated violence, breaking from what was previously considered normative behaviour. This article examines these evolving protection practices and their implications for Lebanon's sociopolitical landscape.
In May 2015, my mother was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer and passed away three months later at the age of 78. Two years later, my older brother, only 53 at the time, was also diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He passed away 15 months later. With this news, we engaged in the genetic retelling of family histories and connections, drawing genealogical maps on pieces of paper that reminded me of teaching Anthro 101 and starkly reimagined which relatives ‘mattered’ in our lives. As an anthropologist interested in subject formation and spatiality informed by a Foucauldian analytic, I have been propelled into exploring what it means to become ‘high risk’ (as a biologically related daughter and sister), subject to new regimes of surveillance and self-management espoused by the field of precision medicine. This paper addresses this experience and thus contributes to questions of subject formation within the already-existing truth-making practices of genetic probability and personalized risk management.
This guest editorial examines how diasporic communities influence modern wars amidst globalization and rising ethnonationalism. It discusses historical tensions between states and diasporas during conflicts, referencing world wars and recent issues involving Chinese Americans in the US. The editorial highlights the roles played by diasporas in various conflicts, including the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II, scrutiny of Chinese Americans during Trump's presidency, and Irish expatriates’ involvement with the IRA. It focuses particularly on the Israel-Gaza conflict, noting the active participation of Israeli and Palestinian diasporas in North America, often marked by internal disagreements. The piece argues that these diasporas, though physically distant from the conflicts, significantly influence global perspectives and the nature of warfare through public opinion and social media, thereby reshaping the contemporary understanding of war.
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