Our new special issue is now published, you can read the whole issue here:
Extreme Masculinities 2 is the second special issue that emerged out of the international conference Extreme Masculinities, which I have organized on behalf of the Extreme Anthropology Research Network (www.extreme-anthropology.com) at the University of Vienna between 28th September and 1st October 2017.
In this issue, you will find a range of articles on exciting and thought-provoking topics. First, Japhy Wilson draws us into the world of Jeffrey Sachs’ problematic developmental projects in Uganda, offering us a chapter from his book Jeffrey Sachs: The Strange Case of Dr. Shock and Mr. Aid that has been censored by Verso for fear of legal troubles; we reproduce here the previously unpublished chapter in full, including a new preface and postscript that reflects on the nature of extreme fieldwork, for which Japhy Wilson also received the Extreme Anthropology Award in 2017. Marco Palillo draws us into the disturbing lifeworlds of male asylum seekers in Sicily, interrogating the ways in which they narrate both their refugeeness and their masculinity. Charlie Athill provides a fresh view on the much demonised urban figure of the hipster, analyzing the accusations of pretentiousness and lack of authenticity levied against hipsters, while offering a potential line of defense. Daniel Briggs offers a personal account and a reflection on doing extreme ethnography and covert fieldwork in a luxury brother in Madrid, showing us the precariousness of life under socio-economic and commercial bondage. Duncan Williams analyzes the figure of Stagger Lee and considers how and why this paean to violence, with its fetishistic vision of extreme masculinity, became a standard in the American folk canon. Arne Røkkum responds in his commentary piece to an article by Henrik H. Mikkelsen on headhunting, or ‘facehunting’, in the Phillipines, published in the previous special issue of this journal, thus offering us a further in-depth look into the ways in which cultural techniques embellish violence. Additionally, the reader will find two book reviews of Masculinities under Neoliberalism (eds. Cornwall, Andrea, Karioris, Frank G. and Lindisfarne, Nancy; London: ZED Books, 2016) and of Man or Monster? The Trial of Khmer Rouge Torturer (Alexander Laban Hinton, Durham N.C.: Duke University Press, 2016), in this volume. Thank you for reading and for your support of this journal.