Ethnography Of Global Connection Summary

The article “Ethnography of Global Connection” by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing shows the economic methods and their study to the global interconnections. Moreover, the book represents the image of the world connection in a global economy. It describes perfectly how countries clash with different characteristics of other economies into their own; by starting gradually to become more dependent on one another for the only reason- the economic growth. This article includes interesting facts and observations that Tsing did by visiting the eastern part of the Kalimantan Mountain during year 1990s. By knowing that capitalism is presented and connects the whole world into a global economy; it was an issue which Kosovo challenged too. Thus, in our fieldwork, we conducted interviews plus by doing research on the internet in order to get more information about the process of capitalism in Kosovo. We decided to interview persons that know about this area, of course by basing on their professions too. The interviewees were: Mr. Vesel Jusaj- he finished the MSc degree of economic. Mr. Besnik Bislimi, a professor in the
A.U.K., he finished the PhD degree of Macroeconomic. Edison Jakurti the president of the student government in A.U.K and Lirim Zenuni- graduated on concentrations Economics and Public Policy. By basing on the information that we gathered, we understood that capitalism is the base of economy when most of the trades and industries are privately owned and operate for profit. We concluded that Kosovo is placed as one of the poorest countries in the whole world. Furthermore, we realized that competition is one of the main factors in capitalism after it is considered as branch of free economy. Competition push firms in offering and creating better values to clienteles than other rival firms. The interviewees agreed that when a firm makes more money, that firm has the chance to invest more in its production and by investing more in its production that firm will earn more money. Moreover we learned that in general, capitalism is a factor that destroys the environment because it creates ecological degradation that reshapes and also reconstructs the nature (by destroying the environment). Example of this is that firms defile water, air, etc. These were information which we collected from our interviews.
By comparing our fieldwork with the methods used in the article, we easily can see that the author of the book, Tsing, she during the study of this term, faced with many interesting situations. The two more important methods that she was focused in the process of observation were: the research and location methods. To begin with, Tsing, she returned to the Kalimantan Mountain in order to continue and finish observations in her studies. In order to realize her mission, she traveled all around the province of south Kalimantan. She focused more on the rainforests of Indonesia because in the period time between 1980s and 1990s the capitalist interests reshaped the landscape through corporate design by creating resources for distant markets. There were rise environmental movements in order to defend the rainforests and even the communities of all people who live in those. The Indonesian rainforest in that time included villages, provinces, nations, and moreover investors from North America. Thus, she met there with different groups of people who live there, because of discussing and understanding the “local” and “global” intersection through the actions of those groups. She did interviews with those groups in order to gather information she was interested about. In the beginning of her observations, Tsing started interviewing from individuals and then she moved to the groups, and then, in turn, to knowledge, to the larger systems of politics and ideology that those groups of people contend with- the method of location. In the method of research, she included scientific, ecological connection and commercial connections too. That was really perfectly related to the information that us as a group gathered from the fieldwork with those of the Tsing.
By looking the articles and topics that we discussed during the class time, it can be easily seen that the fieldwork that author chose to conduct was based on interviews and observation, of course depending on situations.
The article that can best be related with the “Ethnography of Global Connection” is the article “Sweetness and Power” by Sidney W. Mintz. The article specifies the transformation of sugar- from a luxury point to a basic modern of life. While, the article “Ethnography of Global Connection” tells that in Indonesia's rainforests the species diversities which had taken many years to be collected; were burned and also were sacrificed to erosion. So, landscape transformation started to take place. The growth of corporations seemed effective, and also violent in destroying resources. So, pretty much, these two articles have a strong connection between
them.
This book is very important for readers because it appeals to development studies that look an “ethnographic” inference and also the theoretical perspective. Anna Tsing waves a tale of despair and hope. With her book, she tried to provide the reader with a visible framework in order to understand the structural parameters of her studies around this area. The reader can certainly feel the friction of global connection, but in the other hand he or she can’t “connect” at the level of sensitivity with particular people or with their culture, and even places in the manner that one experiences with more close ethnographic writing. This is an original ethnographic project which still pushes the anthropology of development and the environment in exciting directions. Based on methods that Tsing used as anthropologist in her studies, I learned to do research, to conduct interviews, and to think as a real anthropologist!