Ruptures

Ruptures brings together leading and emerging internationalanthropologists to explore the concept of 'rupture'. Understoodas radical and often forceful forms of discontinuity, rupture is the activeingredient of the current sense of a world in turmoil, lying at the heart insome of the most defining experiences of our time: the rise of populistpolitics, the corollary impulse towards protest and even revolutionary change,as well as moves towards violence and terror, and the responses thesemoves elicit. Ruptureis addressed in selected ethnographic and historical contexts: images of the guillotine in the French revolution;reactions to Trump's election in the USA; the motivations of young Danes whojoin ISIS in Syria; 'butterfly effect' activism among environmental anarchistsin northern Europe; the experiences of political trauma and its 'repair'through privately sponsored museums of Mao's revolution in China; people'sexperience of the devastating 2001 earthquake in Gujurat; the 'inner' ruptureof Protestant faith among Danish nationalist theologians; and the attempt exnihilo to invent an alphabet for use in Christian prophetic movements in Congoand Angola.Ruptures takes in new directions broader intellectualdebates about continuity and change. In particular, by thematising rupture as aradical, sometimes violent, and even brutal form of discontinuity, it adds asharper critical edge to contemporary discourses, both in social theory andpublic debate and policy.