Radio Fields: Anthropology and Wireless Sound in the 21st Century

Radio is the most widespread electronic medium in the world today. As a form of technology that is both durable and relatively cheap, radio remains central to the everyday lives of billions of people around the globe. It is used as a call for prayer in Argentina and Appalachia, to organize political protest in Mexico and Libya, and for wartime communication in Iraq and Afghanistan. In urban centers it is played constantly in shopping malls, waiting rooms, and classrooms. Yet despite its omnipresence, it remains the media form least studied by anthropologists.

Radio Fields employs ethnographic methods to reveal the diverse domains in which radio is imagined, deployed, and understood. Drawing on research from six continents, the volume demonstrates how the particular capacities and practices of radio provide singular insight into diverse social worlds, ranging from aboriginal Australia to urban Zambia. Together, the contributors address how radio creates distinct possibilities for rethinking such fundamental concepts as culture, communication, community, and collective agency.

Author: Lucas Bessire
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 11/19/2012
Pages: 298
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780814738191

About the Author
Bessire, Lucas: - Lucas Bessire is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Oklahoma.Fisher, Daniel: - Daniel Fisher is a lecturer in Anthropology at Macquarie University.Ginsburg, Faye: - Faye Ginsburg is David B. Kriser Professor of Anthropology at New York University and the founder and director of the NYU Center for Media, Culture and History. She is the author of Contested Lives: The Abortion Debate in an American Community (University of California Press, 1998).