Abstract In March 2023, Vanuatu was struck by two category 4 tropical cyclones, dubbed Judy and Kevin, in rapid succession. As the planet heats up and extreme weather events become fiercer and more frequent, disaster response teams will face ever greater challenges to restore vital infrastructure and help the people living on Pacific islands to repair their homes and feed themselves. Based on the information gathered for this article using well-established anthropological techniques of in-depth open-ended interviews and long-term immersive fieldwork, we argue that effective responses to natural disasters may be strengthened by engaging more fully with local and traditional institutions, utilising the best available data and coordinating the efforts of more diverse stakeholders.

Making a Mindful Nation: Mental Health and Governance in the Twenty-First Century Joanna Cook, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2023, ISBN 9780691244471, 216pp., Pb: £22.00 / $26.95 The Cinematic Reckoning of Dahomey and the Politics of Restitution Mati Diop, Dahomey, Paris: Les Films du Losange, 2024

Abstract Violence and vulnerability shape and reconfigure the everyday realities and livelihoods of the socially and politically marginalised urban poor. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork undertaken with women experiencing homelessness in Dhaka, Bangladesh, this article argues that reductive livelihood approaches fail to adequately take account of the workings of power or gender dynamics within socio-cultural contexts. In doing so, it engages in a deeply qualitative and ethnographic exploration of how precarious livelihoods are built, lost and rebuilt by homeless women who face chronic vulnerability and uncertainty. Women's livelihood priorities in this context included concerns over protection, survival and honour.

Abstract Interdisciplinary collaborations between public universities and commercially driven institutions are on the agenda worldwide. While such collaborations are expected to provide innovative solutions, this article shows that actors from diverse disciplines have difficulties in establishing meaningful shared activities and obtaining the expected results. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Copenhagen, I present a case in which the aim of reaching ‘usable’ knowledge in cross-sectorial interactions conflicts with the strategic work of academic institutions seeking to establish so-called entrepreneurial universities. I suggest that researchers encounter conflicting policies that disrupt interdisciplinary collaboration and strategic objectives. Furthermore, while the collaboration did not converge into innovative solutions, I conclude that it incited a reflexive gaze that opened possibilities for disciplinary self-awareness and consolidation.

Abstract This article explores nationhood and migration through a policy-adjacent ethnographic lens, observing the centre from the margins. It focuses on two Pakistani-born young men, Abbas and Nadeem, who work as social workers in an Italian refugee shelter. As children of migrants, they straddle roles of care and control within the asylum reception system. Their narratives reveal the paradox of being ‘domesticated’ into Italian society while instrumentalised in disciplining newly arrived migrants. They negotiate complex migrant temporalities and clashing perceptions of Italian-ness—both their own and that of native hiring managers. Can 1.5-generation migrants act as ‘reverse anthropologists’? And how can the ethnographer acknowledge their contributions as co-analysts of the field? The article examines these tensions and the fragile reciprocity of perspectives they enact.

Abstract Various adults seeking migratory testimonies actively pressure young people ‘on the move’ to Europe, categorised as ‘unaccompanied minors’ (UAMs), to ‘open up’ and share their stories. The suspicion that hangs over their minority and over the credibility of their stories can cause the adolescents to modify their biographies, to conceal, alter or invent elements. How can the researcher bond with them and produce reliable qualitative data without reproducing forms of ‘biographical violence’? Based on a multisited ethnography ‘on the move’ in Morocco, Spain and France, this article invites exploration of young people's shifting biographies throughout their journey to Europe. It supports the idea that the scientific and ethical challenges of collecting the voices of young people can also constitute levers of scientific knowledge.

Abstract How are family and broader social ties of young people on the move to Europe impacted by their refugee experience? This article reflects on this question through a detailed case study of a Syrian adolescent growing up in Germany. Syrian youth carry the weight of separation from their families, enduring the challenges of a dangerous migratory journey. After reaching Europe, some are obliged to take a leading role in preparing the path for their families to follow. With an ethnographic perspective, this article sheds light on the circumstances they face, and identifies the new forms of relationships they construct with their families and the surrounding society. I stress the variable factors influencing their development and integration in Europe and highlight the challenges stemming from the experience of family separation, engaging in a reflective exploration of the deformed image of family in the aftermath of separation among young refugees in Germany.

Abstract Bilal's story traces the journey of migrant youths who abandon European reception projects while remaining undocumented. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork and inquiry into Bilal's lived experience, evidence is presented on how the Italian reception system fails to address the migrants’ needs and vulnerabilities. Labour is a central element in the life stories of migrant youths, although access to the labour market is constrained by laws on protection of minors and asylum bureaucracies. This fact collides with the youths’ aspirations, in which mobility and economic independence are seen as fundamental elements of ‘adulthood’. Against this backdrop, steps should be made in both legal and humanitarian approaches to youth migration to promote a regular and dignifying access to labour as a possible form of emancipation and citizenship.

Abstract This article expounds on the relationship between children's rights and asylum discourse as pertaining to the figure of the non-citizen child. Key for the understanding of the political identity of the asylum-seeking child, who is depicted as trapped between paternalistic concepts of childhood and restrictive asylum law on the one hand, and empowering children's rights discourse on the other, is an antagonism in the logic underlying human rights and citizenship discourse. Ethnographic findings with accompanied asylum-seeking children in Germany substantiate the argument, from the perspective of ‘new’ childhood sociology. The concept of citizenship is elucidated as practice lived in the everyday in children's action against exclusionary effects in refugee centres.

Abstract This article reflects on the significance of Melilla, a Spanish enclave and southern border of the European Union (EU), in the migratory experience of the Moroccan youth on the move to Europe who call themselves harraga. The methodology combines a multisited ethnographic approach (Marcus 2001), from Casablanca to Paris, with a multimodal one (Westmoreland 2022), collecting information through in-depth interviews, life stories, participant observations and a drawing workshop. Although the institutional violence in the governance of the mobility of this youth makes Melilla resemble a city-prison (Khosravi 2021), in my reflections I argue that this border has an ambivalent impact on the whole migratory experience of the harraga youth. On the one hand, frustration, everyday violence, and racism appear; on the other, friendship, autonomy and networking.