Regina F. Bendix - Böcker

When heritage becomes a commodity, when culture is instrumental in driving tourism, and when individuals assert ownership over either, social, ideological, political, and economic motivations intertwine. Bestowing value on "culture" is itself a culturally rooted act, and the essays gathered in Culture and Value focus on the motivations and value regimes people in particular times and contexts have generated to enhance the visibility and prestige of cultural practices, narratives, and artifacts.This collection of essays by noted folklorist Regina F. Bendix, offers a personal record of the unfolding scholarly debate regarding value in the studies of tourism, heritage, and cultural property. Written over the course of several decades, Bendix's case studies and theoretical contributions chronicle the growing and transforming ways in which ethnographic scholarship has observed social actors generating value when carrying culture to market, enhancing value in inventing protective and restorative regimes for culture, and securing the potential for both in devising property rights. Bendix's work makes a case for a reflexive awareness of the changing scholarly paradigms that inform scholars' research contributions.

When heritage becomes a commodity, when culture is instrumental in driving tourism, and when individuals assert ownership over either, social, ideological, political, and economic motivations intertwine. Bestowing value on "culture" is itself a culturally rooted act, and the essays gathered in Culture and Value focus on the motivations and value regimes people in particular times and contexts have generated to enhance the visibility and prestige of cultural practices, narratives, and artifacts.This collection of essays by noted folklorist Regina F. Bendix, offers a personal record of the unfolding scholarly debate regarding value in the studies of tourism, heritage, and cultural property. Written over the course of several decades, Bendix's case studies and theoretical contributions chronicle the growing and transforming ways in which ethnographic scholarship has observed social actors generating value when carrying culture to market, enhancing value in inventing protective and restorative regimes for culture, and securing the potential for both in devising property rights. Bendix's work makes a case for a reflexive awareness of the changing scholarly paradigms that inform scholars' research contributions.

A Companion to Folklore contains an original and comprehensive set of essays from international experts in the field of folklore studies. This state-of-the-art collection uniquely displays the vitality of folklore research across the globe. The Companion covers four main areas: the first section engages with the practices and theoretical approaches developed to understand the phenomena of folklore; the second discusses the distinctive shapes that folklore studies have taken in different locations in time and space; the third examines the interaction of folklore with various media, as well as folklore’s commoditization. In the final section on practice, essays offer insights into how folklorists work, what they do, and ways in which they have institutionalized their field. Throughout, contributors investigate the interplay of folklore and folkloristics in both academic and political arenas; they evaluate key issues in the folk life of communities from around the world, including China, post-communist Russia, post-colonial India, South America, Israel and Japan. The result is a unique reflection and understanding of the profoundly different research histories and current perspectives on international research in the field.

A Companion to Folklore contains an original and comprehensive set of essays from international experts in the field of folklore studies. This state-of-the-art collection uniquely displays the vitality of folklore research across the globe. The Companion covers four main areas: the first section engages with the practices and theoretical approaches developed to understand the phenomena of folklore; the second discusses the distinctive shapes that folklore studies have taken in different locations in time and space; the third examines the interaction of folklore with various media, as well as folklore’s commoditization. In the final section on practice, essays offer insights into how folklorists work, what they do, and ways in which they have institutionalized their field. Throughout, contributors investigate the interplay of folklore and folkloristics in both academic and political arenas; they evaluate key issues in the folk life of communities from around the world, including China, post-communist Russia, post-colonial India, South America, Israel and Japan. The result is a unique reflection and understanding of the profoundly different research histories and current perspectives on international research in the field.

Ethnicized border economies and tourist emotions, urban witchcraft and working lives, predictive genetic testing and vaccination programmes - the present issue of Ethnologia Europaea assembles a range of topics that demonstrate the vitality of the field in highly diverse arenas. David Picard probes the personal transformations of Germans touring the Indian Ocean island of La Réunion. Shifts and continuities in the border economies of the sub-Carpathian Hungarian social world are explored in Anne Marie Losonczy's contribution. Manuela Cunha and Jean-Yves Durand examine vaccine acceptability and the production of dissent as it emerges in routine vaccination in French and Portuguese settings, whereas Niclas Hagen traces the impact of potential genetic knowledge, taking a case of Huntington's disease as his point of departure. Scrutinizing the diversity of work lives, Irene Götz questions the viability of the term post-Fordism in the new ethnography of work. Victoria Hegner analyses the ways in which neo-pagan witches interact with urban terrain. Finally, Carina Ren and Morten Krogh Petersen take a look at the sprouting cross-fertilizations between ethnology and Actor-Network Theory and how these intersections impact the study of culture.

Disorder and order are among the principles through which the articles in this issue are connected. Peter Jan Margry grasps the exuberant excesses surrounding the Dutch monarch's birthday with the term "mobocracy" and sees in the suspension of rules a means to reconcile Dutch republicanism with the anachronism of a monarchical system. Ongoing disorder of a rather different nature is experienced by migrant workers from Poland in Denmark. Niels Jul Nielsen and Marie Sandberg accompany them at work and in their different home settings and analyse the divergent interplay of the Polish labour niche and family dynamics on different constructions of "orderly work conditions". Stefan Groth uncovers the structuring power of new tools and events to measure performance in recreational cycling; competitive norms are shown to permeate a leisure activity. Old age, too, is not free from the structuring arm of social and health regimes. Through his analysis of billiards a game favoured by the older men he studies Aske Juul Lassen critiques aging policies striving to "activate" the elderly and overlooking the rhythms inherent to a traditional game and activity. The issue concludes with Tuuli Lähdesmäki's comparison of how local heritage actors choose to narrate the transnationally launched European Heritage Label. Within an initiative to foster Europeanization, she finds actors formulating European identities in different moulds.