The Energy Fictions of Cure and Dependency

Sep 22 2025

Can energy enliven political ecology’s relationship to disability? Dr. Emerson Cram has been lingering with this question as they feel through remnants of poor farms, state asylums, and other carceral institutions negating “abnormal” dependencies.

Exploring Lay Knowledge in a Chinese Village During the COVID-19 Period

Aug 18 2025

In this post, Siyi Chen discusses the emergence of a distinct form of lay epidemiology, in China's Hanan Province, prompted by a local HIV/Aids crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Disposable Plastics, Enduring Bonds

Aug 7 2025

In this post, Tridibesh Dey reflects on an ethnographic case from summer 2023 in Canning, the last town and railway terminus in India at the fringes of the Sundarban. This post proffers situated insights into why a single-use plastic product continues to be popular.

India Going Global: Ayurveda, Standardisation and the Cultural Politics of Globalisation

Jul 6 2025

Purbita Das advocates for a policy framework to safeguard Ayurveda’s regionality, plurality and its epistemological richness in light of increasing efforts to standardise its practices for the global health market.

The field talks back: listening to Southeast Asia after the book

Jun 16 2025

An STS scholar researching social media and society in Southeast Asia reflects on a whirlwind book tour that became an unexpected journey of “post-publication listening”—where dialogue with regional publics reanimated the book’s arguments and affirmed Southeast Asia as a microcosm of global digital politics.

The stuff of taxonomic nightmares: the frustrating volatility of color

May 22 2025

Roos Hopman reflects on the slippery place of color within natural history

Locating STS in Southeast Asia: a Belgian migrant looking for a place of belonging

May 5 2025

A Belgian, trained in STS at the University of Vienna, shares her experience of locating STS hubs in Southeast Asia after moving to Bangkok.

The Heartware approach: how cultural values drive sustainable socio-technical change

Apr 7 2025

Zeeda F. Mohamad explores the “Heartware approach” in sustainability science: a visualisation tool to enable community-based participation that emphasizes the integration of cultural values into environmental sustainability governance frameworks.

Cancer in multiple realities, medical technologies and their political implications

Jun 2 2025

Tainã Queiroz discusses the incorporation of medical technologies for oncological treatments in the Brazilian health system, focusing on the challenge of combining multiple realities.

Encountering the data lives of the dead

May 23 2025

Catriona Brickel considers the various ethical dilemmas encountered when studying digital memorials