Human security is a key element in the measure of well-being, and a hot topic in anthropology and development studies. A World of Insecurity outlines a new approach to the subject. The contributors expose a contradiction at the heart of conventional accounts of what constitutes human security, namely that without taking non-material considerations such as religion, ethnicity and gender into account, discussions of human security, academically and in practical terms, are incomplete, inconclusive and deeply flawed. A variety of compelling case studies indicate that, in fact, material security alone cannot adequately explain or fully account for human activity in a range of different settings, and exposed to a variety of different threats. This forceful book will expand and deepen the entire concept of human security, in the process endowing it with political relevance. It is an essential read for students of development studies and anthropology.

Author Biography

Thomas Hylland Eriksen is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo and former President of the European Association of Social Anthropologists. He is the author of numerous classics of anthropology, including Small Places, Large Issues - 4th Edition (Pluto, 2015) and What is Anthropology? - 2nd Edition (Pluto, 2017). Ellen Bal is a Lecturer in Anthropology at Free University of Amsterdam. She is the co-editor of A World of Insecurity: Anthropological Perspectives on Human Security (Pluto, 2010) and the author of They Ask if we Eat Frogs: Garo Ethnicity in Bangladesh (2007). Oscar Salemink is Professor of Anthropology and Head of Department in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Free University of Amsterdam. He is the co-editor of A World of Insecurity: Anthropological Perspectives on Human Security (Pluto, 2010) and is the author of The Ethnography of Vietnam's Central Highlanders: A Historical Contextualization, 1850-1990 (Routledge, 2003).