1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910779711903321

Autore

Jackson Michael <1940->

Titolo

The wherewithal of life [[electronic resource] ] : ethics, migration, and the question of well-being / / Michael Jackson in conversation with Emmanuel Mulamila, Roberto M. Franco, and Ibrahim Ouédraogo

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, 2013

ISBN

0-520-27670-1

0-520-95681-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (273 p.)

Altri autori (Persone)

MulamilaEmmanuel

FrancoRoberto M

OuédraogoIbrahim

Disciplina

301.01

Soggetti

Anthropology - Philosophy

Ethics - Anthropological aspects

Well-being

Immigrants

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preamble -- Emmanuel -- Roberto -- Ibrahim -- Postscript -- Appendix: Existential Mobility -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The Wherewithal of Life engages with current developments in the anthropology of ethics and migration studies to explore in empirical depth and detail the life experiences of three young men - a Ugandan migrant in Copenhagen, a Burkina Faso migrant in Amsterdam, and a Mexican migrant in Boston - in ways that significantly broaden our understanding of the existential situations and ethical dilemmas of those migrating from the global south. Michael Jackson offers the first biographically based phenomenological account of migration and mobility, providing new insights into the various motives, tactics, dilemmas, dreams, and disappointments that characterize contemporary migration. It is argued that the quandaries of African or Mexican migrants are not unique to people moving between 'traditional' and 'modern' worlds. While more intensely felt by the



young, seeking to find a way out of a world of limited opportunity and circumscribed values, the experiences of transition are familiar to us all, whatever our age, gender, ethnicity or social status - namely, the impossibility of calculating what one may lose in leaving a settled life or home place; what one may gain by risking oneself in an alien environment; the difficulty of striking a balance between personal fulfillment and the moral claims of kinship; and the struggle to know the difference between 'concrete' and 'abstract' utopias (the first reasonable and worth pursuing; the second hopelessly unattainable).