Rethinking environmental justice in the Anthropocene: An anthropological perspective

This article encourages a closer dialogue between contemporary anthropological reflections on nature and the environment and environmental justice (EJ). We can revise the environment concept by adopting a more nuanced view of the ontological relations between humans and non-humans. The idea of ‘assemblage’ as reworked in the Anthropocene debate enriches EJ with a multispecies perspective and a new ‘temporal awareness’. Ethnography grounded in the confluence of human/geophysical agency and temporality can help us understand past eco-social dynamics and possible futures and overcome environmental inequalities and discrimination.     

Cruise Passengers in a Homeport: A Market Analysis

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine cruise passengers' characteristics, preferences and their overall experience in a port of call. Based on 1,361 survey data collected from passengers in the port of call of Cartagena, during the third quarter of 2009, a three-step multivariate market segment analysis is employed. First, a correspondence analysis is run to reveal the underlying factors in the data; second, based on the correspondence analysis, a hierarchical cluster investigation is performed to segment the sample into homogeneous groups; third, a decision tree is computed to characterise each group. The cluster analysis identifies six distinct market segments differentiated by nationality, satisfaction, safety perception and expenditure. The findings imply several policy directions. In particular, institutions should enhance the perception of safety in Cartagena to guarantee repeated visits, an ad hoc marketing policy may encourage revisit by young South Americans, and managers should extend the inland visiting time that is likely to produce local multiplier effects.     

Book reviews

Abraham Ben‐Zvi, Decade of Transition: Eisenhower, Kennedy, and the Origins of the American‐Israeli Alliance. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. Pp. 218, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 0 23111 262 9 HB, 0 23111 263 7 PB.

Kenneth W. Stein, Heroic Diplomacy: Sadat, Kissinger, Carter, Begin, and the Quest for Arab‐Israeli Peace. London and New York: Routledge, 1998. Pp. xix + 324, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 041592 154 6 HB.

Antonio Donno (ed.), Ombre di guerra fredda. Gli Stati Uniti nel Medio Oriente durante gli anni di Eisenhower, 1953–1961. Naples: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1998. Pp. 754, bibliography, notes. ISBN 8 88114 584 7 HB.

Raanan Rein, In the Shadow of the Holocaust and the Inquisition: Israel's Relations with Francoist Spain. Trans. Martha Grenzebach. London and Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 1997. Pp. 278, Notes, sources, bibliography, index. ISBN 0 71464 796 9 HB, 0 71464 351 3 PB.

Alan Dowty, The Jewish State: A Century Later. Berkeley and Los Angeles: The University of California Press, 2001. Pp. xiv + 337, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 0 52020 941 9 PB.

Daniel Gavron, The Kibbutz: Awakening from Utopia. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. Pp xvi + 295, glossary, selected bibliography, index. ISBN 0 84769 526 3 HB.

Nahum Karlinsky, Citrus Blossoms: Jewish Entrepreneurship in Palestine, 1890–1939. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University Magnes Press, 2000. Pp. 1 + 315, bibliography, indices. ISBN 9 65493 089 7 HB.

Yaacov N. Goldstein, From Fighters to Soldiers: How the Israeli Defense Forces Began. Brighton, UK, and Portland, OR: Sussex Academic Press, 1998. Pp. ix + 302, forward by Yoav Gelber, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 1 90221 001 8 HB, 1 90221 002 6 PB.     

COVID-19: THE ‘INVISIBLE ENEMY’ AND CONTINGENT RACISM: Reflections of an Italian anthropologist conducting fieldwork in Greece

In this article, the author provides a narrative of her experience as an Italian undertaking fieldwork in Greece while the epidemic was in full swing. She reflects on representations of ‘the invisible enemy’: an empty category, she claims, which has been contingently filled and morally loaded, resting on pre-existing categories, such as stereotypical representations of nations. The invisibility of ‘the enemy’ has in fact been rendered visible through what she refers to as contingent racism; this includes the ubiquitous and hence powerful use of irony and satire at the expense of China and Italy, but also expands to the use of banal and convenient tropes of accusation and derision among European Union member states, bringing back to the fore the North-South divide and its power imbalances. The author suggests that the Covid-19 crisis has ultimately provoked a veritable epidemic of contingent racism on multiple levels by stirring stereotypes and cultural prejudices which are rooted in time and rapidly renewed; its effect is all but contingent, and likely to accompany us far beyond the Covid-19 crisis itself.