Miller - Stuff

Acknowledgements

I have always felt that a subject called Social Anthropology could manage to be a hell of a lot more social than is commonly the case. As a result, I changed my way of working many years ago. Increasingly I carry out almost all my research in collaboration. This means that, although this book is largely about my research, it presents results and ideas that have, in most cases, been developed only through my engagement with others. It is impossible, for example, to consider my discussion of the sari in chapter 1 without this being also credited simultaneously to Mukulika Banerjee, or that of the Jamaican mobile phone without this being equally seen as the work of Heather Horst. Other research collaborators have included Zuzana Brikov for the work on au pairs, Alison Clarke for the work on shopping, Mirca Madianou for the work on long-distance relationships, Lucy Norris for the work on clothing and waste, Fiona Parrott for the work on loss, Don Slater for the work on the Internet in Trinidad, and Sophie Woodward for the work on denim.

One of the other delights of my work has been the collaboration with students and especially with PhD students. This creates a vicarious pride which is not entirely dissimilar from that of parents and children. As in the latter case, it is often the younger party that shows much more maturity than the older. Many years ago I established something we call a dinner/drinking group, which meets monthly to drink, discuss pre-circulated papers by the students and then eat (and occasionally party). Sometimes in each others homes, sometimes in my office, sometimes in restaurants.

Thanks to this format, friendships have often been formed, and also collaborative publications. The publications in turn reflect the cross-influence between what often started as quite different projects. This has made it easier to produce edited collections with relative coherence compared to most such volumes. So I owe a considerable amount to past and present PhD students: Ivana Bajic, Ira Berdichevsky, Julie Botticello, Achsah Carrier, Pat Clark, Alison Clarke, Magda Craciun, Dimitrios Dalakaglou, Inge Daniels, Adam Drazin, Justin Finden-Crofts, Pauline Garvey, Cleo Gougoulis, Martha Guarneros, Anat Hecht, Heather Horst, Gabrielle Hosein, Neil Jarman, Mark Johnson, Emma Lindblad, Tom McDonald, Desmond Mallikarachichi, Simone Mangal, Jean-Sbastien Marcoux, Marjorie Murray, Razvan Nicolescu, Kaori OConnor, Bodil Olesen (honorary), Panarai Ostapirat, Andrea Pellegram, Anna Pertiera, Elia Petridou, Sigrid Rausing, Tom Rogers, Ed Ross, Florian Schlichting, Miran Shin, Andrew Skuse, Jo Tacchi, Chang-Kwo Tan, Sophie Woodward. In addition, over the years there have been constant visitors, students who came for just a few months, who joined this group, and then left again; I simply cannot mention all these and I hope they will forgive me. Others who have commented on this manuscript include Eleana Yalouri and Karen Ida Dannesboe as well as anonymous reviewers.

I also owe a considerable debt to my colleagues over the years in material culture studies at University College London. That is, Barbara Bender, Victor Buchli, Paolo Favero, John Gledhill, Suzanne Kchler, Chris Pinney, Michael Rowlands, Chris Tilley and Graeme Ware. I have only ever worked at UCL and never once been tempted by any other potential job. There are also many colleagues around the world who have encouraged and inspired me from time to time, and helped especially when I was first developing these ideas, for example, Rob Foster, Nicky Gregson, Caroline Humphrey, Webb Keane, Marilyn Strathern, Nicholas Thomas and Rick Wilk. As well as others, sadly deceased, such as Judy Attfield, Alfie Gell and Marianne Gullestad.

On a more personal note, of particular importance has been the friendship and advice over the years of Mukulika Banerjee, Kathryn Earle and Stephen Frosh. Nothing I do has ever been possible without the support of Rickie, Rachel and David and I would like to thank Rickie, in particular, for her assistance in editing the text. Finally I am indebted to a vast number of people who have granted me such generous help during fieldwork in a dozen different countries over many many years. I cant name them but it is their ideas and actions that inform this book.