Keri Vacanti Brondo - Böcker

Voluntourism and Multispecies Collaboration is a lively ethnographic exploration of the world of conservation voluntourism and its engagement with marine and terrestrial biodiversity on the Honduran Bay Island of Utila, located in the ecologically critical Mesoamerican Barrier Reef.In this highly readable text, anthropologist Keri Vacanti Brondo provides a pioneering theoretical framework that conceptualizes conservation voluntourism as a green industry. Brondo argues that the volunteer tourism industry is the product of coloniality and capitalism that works to produce and sustain an economy of affect while generating inequalities and dispossession. Employing a decolonizing methodology based on landscape assemblage theory, Brondo offers “thinking-like-a-mangrove” to attend to alternative worldings in Utila beyond the hegemonic tourist spectacle–dominated world attached to the volunteer tourism industry. Readers journey through the mangroves and waters alongside voluntourists, iguanas, whale sharks, turtles, lionfish, and islanders to build valuable research experience in environmental management while engaging in affective labor and multispecies relations of care.Conservation organizations benefit from the financial capital and labor associated with conservation tourism, an industry boosted by social media. This critical work asks us to consider the impacts of this new alternative tourism market, one that relies on the exchange of “affect” with other species. How are human socialities made through interactions with other species? What lives and dies in Utila’s affect economy? Why are some species killable? Who gets to decide?

Bridges culture, nature, and sustainability through an anthropological lens on global environmental challenges Environmental anthropology offers powerful tools for making sense of today’s pressing sustainability challenges, from climate change and biodiversity loss to environmental injustice and resource conflicts. Culture, Nature, and Environmental Sustainability: An Anthropological Introduction is a comprehensive, inclusive, and problem-centered guide to understanding the cultural, political, and ecological dimensions of these issues. Grounded in over a century of ethnographic inquiry, this volume examines how human communities engage with their environments—revealing that concepts such as “sustainability,” “Anthropocene,” and “environmental justice” are not only complex but also shaped by histories, power relations, and cultural perspectives. Luis A. Vivanco and Keri Vacanti Brondo integrate diverse voices into a field often dominated by Euro-American perspectives, including Indigenous, Global South, and feminist scholarship. Each chapter begins with a pressing environmental problem and develops the analytical questions, theoretical insights, and case studies necessary to explore it. The authors address a wide range of contemporary themes, such climate, water, food systems, conservation, and multispecies relations, to equip readers to think critically, work across disciplines, and engage constructively with the complex realities of sustaining human and ecological wellbeing Exploring both the challenges and the possibilities of sustainable futures, Culture, Nature, and Environmental Sustainability: An Anthropological Introduction: Offers a future-oriented perspective on developing new ways of thinking and acting in response to environmental challengesLinks theory, ethnography, and practice in environmental anthropologyEngages with urgent global sustainability issues through real-world case studiesIncludes active learning features such as “Environmental Anthropology in Action” profiles and “Doing Anthropology of Sustainability” exercisesProvides summaries, glossaries, and curated resources to support continued studyWritten by award-winning educators with decades of teaching experience, Culture, Nature, and Environmental Sustainability: An Anthropological Introduction is ideal for intermediate and advanced undergraduates in Environmental Anthropology, Political Ecology, and Culture and Sustainability courses, particularly within anthropology, geography, sociology, and environmental studies programs.

Anthropological Theory for the Twenty-First Century presents a critical approach to the study of anthropological theory for the next generation of aspiring anthropologists. Through a carefully curated selection of readings, this collection reflects the diversity of scholars who have long contributed to the development of anthropological theory, incorporating writings by scholars of color, non-Western scholars, and others whose contributions have historically been under-acknowledged. The volume puts writings from established canonical thinkers, such as Marx, Boas, and Foucault, into productive conversations with Du Bois, Ortiz, Medicine, Trouillot, Said, and many others. The editors also engage in critical conversations surrounding the "canon" itself, including its colonial history and decolonial potential.Updating the canon with late twentieth-century and early twenty-first-century scholarship, this reader includes discussions of contemporary theories such as queer theory, decolonial theory, ontology, and anti-racism. Each section is framed by clear and concise editorial introductions that place the readings in context and conversation with each other, as well as questions and glossaries to guide reader comprehension. A dynamic companion website features additional resources, including links to videos, podcasts, articles, and more.