/library/oar/handle/123456789/140305 Sat, 20 Dec 2025 17:18:15 GMT 2025-12-20T17:18:15Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/140548 Title: Editorial introduction : studies in memory of Thomas Hylland Eriksen (1962-2024) Authors: Neumann, Iver B. Abstract: This is the introduction to a special section in SST journal, celebrating the work of Norwegian anthropologist and small-state researcher Thomas Hylland Eriksen (1962-2024). It first offers a bibliographical sketch of his intellectual life. It then presents the two core ideas of his oeuvre. Eriksen, a specialist on ethnicity in modern urban settings, held that ethnic pluralism could be integrative given a firm political framework. This idea was offered in contradistinction to two more widespread views: a nationalist view and a multiculturalist view. He also held that globalization, which should be celebrated for bringing individuals and groups together, also exerts heavy pressure on people’s time resources. Finally, this introduction presents the other contributions to this special section. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT /library/oar/handle/123456789/140548 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/140547 Title: Staying with the tide : a story of climate (im)mobility in Fiji Authors: Panettiere, Giulio Petix; Eriksen, Thomas Hylland Abstract: Coastal communities in Small Island Developing States are facing relocation due to the damage caused by sea level rise. Salawai (a pseudonym) is a small coastal community in Vanua Levu, Fiji Islands, that experiences issues in relocating due to traditional obligations people have towards sacred sites in their village. Due to the salinisation of the soil, crops do not grow anymore and the reef resources are depleting and will not sustain the community's needs without proper management. With little support from the government and stakeholders, the village is rebuilding its knowledge and proposing a coping strategy. Cultural attachment to the village site remains strong; but many fear the impacts of climate change and are considering moving out, leaving behind ancestral connections and traditional knowledge. Based on current ethnographic fieldwork in Fiji among coastal communities, this paper looks at how relocating communities engage creatively with the ocean as the place in which the problem lies next to the solution. It also reflects on how island peoples can learn from each other in times of climate change and transformation. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT /library/oar/handle/123456789/140547 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/140546 Title: Thomas Hylland Eriksen, stories of Sápmi, anthropology and paradoxes of vision Authors: Ween, Gro Birgit Abstract: This text is based on conversations with Thomas Hylland Eriksen about the areas we today call Sápmi: the land of Sámi peoples and Indigenous lands. It is inspired by a short chapter Thomas Eriksen wrote in 2018, about Sápmi and paradoxes of autonomy. Here, I offer an account of his understanding of the paradox of autonomy. Next, I discuss this position in relation to other understandings of ethnicity and identity politics in Sápmi. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT /library/oar/handle/123456789/140546 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/140533 Title: Small islands and the large temporal questions : Eriksen’s contribution to studies of island temporalities Authors: Gaini, Firouz Abstract: Already in his 2001 book Øyeblikkets tyranni (Tyranny of the moment), Thomas Hylland Eriksen’s lifelong engagement with critical ethnographic and theoretical discussions on time and temporalities was cemented. In this paper, I explore the meaning and perception of ‘wait/waiting’ in the context of small island territories (SITs), with special focus on the Faroe Islands in the Northeastern Atlantic. The navigation between chronometric time and traditional temporalities, which influences the multilayered cultural practices of waiting, is examined as an expression of shifting island temporalities. When is waiting experienced as slow or fast, as a short-term or continuous activity? Drawing on anthropological studies from the Faroe Islands, this paper connects island temporalities to geo-physical characteristics of SITs. Inspired by Eriksen’s work on time and globalization, as well as by international small island culture studies, I am also digging into the art of waiting as a decelerating resistance against (‘new’) clock time in small and remote islands. Waiting is not ‘dead time’ or ‘empty time’. As Eriksen (2018) stressed, waiting can be suffering, as in the case of refugees waiting for their permit to stay in the country of arrival; but it can also be associated with hope and agency. [excerpt] Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT /library/oar/handle/123456789/140533 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z