Ethnographies of interest: between enthusiasm and the instrumental
(2024)
Journal Article
Candea, M., Heywood, P., Reed, A., & Yarrow, T. (in press). Ethnographies of interest: between enthusiasm and the instrumental. Current Anthropology,
Outputs (20)
Retaining character: heritage conservation and the logic of continuity (2018)
Journal Article
Yarrow, T. (2018). Retaining character: heritage conservation and the logic of continuity. Social Anthropology, 26(3), 330-344. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8676.12532In anthropology and beyond, discussions of character have more often focused on this as a quality of human subjects rather than of the material world. How is character figured as a quality of historic buildings, monuments and places? I situate this q... Read More about Retaining character: heritage conservation and the logic of continuity.
How Conservation Matters: ethnographic explorations of historic building renovation (2018)
Journal Article
Yarrow, T. (2019). How Conservation Matters: ethnographic explorations of historic building renovation. Journal of Material Culture, 24(1), 3-21. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183518769111This article focuses on ideas of historic conservation, examining the multiple ways in which these are made to matter through practices of renovation. Bypassing normatively inflected literatures on heritage, the author adopts a more ‘agnostic’ ethnog... Read More about How Conservation Matters: ethnographic explorations of historic building renovation.
Remains of the Future: rethinking space and time of ruination through the Volta Resettlement Project, Ghana (2017)
Journal Article
Yarrow, T. (2017). Remains of the Future: rethinking space and time of ruination through the Volta Resettlement Project, Ghana. Cultural Anthropology, 32(4), 566-591. https://doi.org/10.14506/ca32.4.06Walking around the township of New Senchi, Ghana, the ghost of the original plan is still faintly discernible in linear rows of crumbling, single-story houses.1 Constructed to resettle people displaced by a large hydroelectric power scheme in the 196... Read More about Remains of the Future: rethinking space and time of ruination through the Volta Resettlement Project, Ghana.
Where Knowledge Meets: heritage expertise at the intersection of people, perspective, and place (2017)
Journal Article
Yarrow, T. (2017). Where Knowledge Meets: heritage expertise at the intersection of people, perspective, and place. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 23(S1), 95-109. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12596Drawing on ethnographic research with heritage professionals in Scotland, the essay explores meetings as organizational devices for differentiating and relating various forms of epistemic, social, and material context. The account describes how the b... Read More about Where Knowledge Meets: heritage expertise at the intersection of people, perspective, and place.
Introduction: towards an ethnography of meeting (2017)
Journal Article
Brown, H., Reed, A., & Yarrow, T. (2017). Introduction: towards an ethnography of meeting. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 23(S1), 10-26. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12591This introductory essay describes a novel approach to meetings in relation to broader literatures within and beyond anthropology. We suggest that notwithstanding many accounts in which meetings figure, little attention has been given to the mundane f... Read More about Introduction: towards an ethnography of meeting.
Negotiating Heritage and Energy Conservation: an ethnography of domestic renovation (2016)
Journal Article
Yarrow, T. (2016). Negotiating Heritage and Energy Conservation: an ethnography of domestic renovation. The Historic Environment: Policy & Practice, 7(4), 340-351. https://doi.org/10.1080/17567505.2016.1253149What is the relationship between energy efficiency and old buildings? While a large body of research exists on the buildings science and technology of retro-fit, relatively little attention has focused on the social practices and assumptions that sha... Read More about Negotiating Heritage and Energy Conservation: an ethnography of domestic renovation.
Science, value and material decay in the conservation of historic environments (2016)
Journal Article
Douglas-Jones, R., Hughes, J., Jones, S., & Yarrow, T. (2016). Science, value and material decay in the conservation of historic environments. Journal of Cultural Heritage, 21, 823-833. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2016.03.007The historic environment undergoes cycles of material deterioration, and these processes have a powerful impact on the meanings and values associated with it. In particular, decay informs the experience of authenticity, as a tangible mark of age and... Read More about Science, value and material decay in the conservation of historic environments.
Archaeology, Anthropology and the Stuff of Time (2015)
Journal Article
Yarrow, T. (2015). Archaeology, Anthropology and the Stuff of Time. Archaeological Dialogues, 22(1), 31-36. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1380203815000070Lucas's discussion of contemporaneity makes an important contribution to archaeological understandings of chronology and dating and to broader debates about temporality. Extending his earlier work on time (Buchli and Lucas 2001; Lucas 2001; 2005), Lu... Read More about Archaeology, Anthropology and the Stuff of Time.
Journeying through Words: Les Back reflects on writing with Thomas Yarrow (2014)
Journal Article
Back, L. (2014). Journeying through Words: Les Back reflects on writing with Thomas Yarrow. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 20(4), 766-770. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12135
Building with History: Exploring the Relationship between Heritage and Energy in Institutionally Managed Buildings (2014)
Journal Article
Adams, C., Douglas-Jones, R., Green, A., Lewis, Q., & Yarrow, T. (2014). Building with History: Exploring the Relationship between Heritage and Energy in Institutionally Managed Buildings. The Historic Environment: Policy & Practice, 5(2), 167-181. https://doi.org/10.1179/1756750514z.00000000053Drawing on interdisciplinary research focusing on Durham University estate, we describe how buildings constructed as part of an eighteenth century transition to a high carbon coal-based economy, are used and understood by their current inhabitants. A... Read More about Building with History: Exploring the Relationship between Heritage and Energy in Institutionally Managed Buildings.
'Stone is stone': engagement and detachment in the craft of conservation masonry (2014)
Journal Article
Yarrow, T., & Jones, S. (2014). 'Stone is stone': engagement and detachment in the craft of conservation masonry. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 20(2), 256-275. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12103Since the mid-nineteenth century, craft has been characterized by relations of engagement, resonating with broader romantic discourses that idealize craftsmen in explicit contrast to forms of alienation linked to capitalist production. In recent work... Read More about 'Stone is stone': engagement and detachment in the craft of conservation masonry.
The Place of Theory: Rights, Networks, and Ethnographic Comparison (2013)
Journal Article
Englund, H., & Yarrow, T. (2013). The Place of Theory: Rights, Networks, and Ethnographic Comparison. Social Analysis: The International Journal of Social and Cultural Practice, 57(3), 132-149. https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2013.570308The relationship between theory and place has remained a central problem for the discipline of anthropology. Focusing on debates around the concepts of Human Rights and Networks, specifically as these traverse African and Melanesian contexts, this pa... Read More about The Place of Theory: Rights, Networks, and Ethnographic Comparison.
Crafting authenticity: An ethnography of conservation practice. (2013)
Journal Article
Jones, S., & Yarrow, T. (2013). Crafting authenticity: An ethnography of conservation practice. Journal of Material Culture, 18(1), 3-26. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183512474383
"Age of Innocence": personal histories of the digging circuit. (2012)
Journal Article
Cooper, A., & Yarrow, T. (2012). "Age of Innocence": personal histories of the digging circuit. International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 16, 300-318
Paired Opposites: Dualism in Development and Anthropology. (2008)
Journal Article
Yarrow, T. (2008). Paired Opposites: Dualism in Development and Anthropology. Critique of Anthropology, 28(4), 426-455
Negotiating Difference: Discourses of Indigenous Knowledge and Development in Ghana (2008)
Journal Article
Yarrow, T. (2008). Negotiating Difference: Discourses of Indigenous Knowledge and Development in Ghana. Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 31(2), 224-242. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1555-2934.2008.00023This article examines the contested ways in which the international development concept of “indigenous knowledge” has been used and understood by a variety of actors within Ghana including both Ghanaian and non-Ghanaian development workers, chiefs, a... Read More about Negotiating Difference: Discourses of Indigenous Knowledge and Development in Ghana.
Life/History: personal narratives of development amongst NGO workers and activists in Ghana (2008)
Journal Article
Yarrow, T. (2008). Life/History: personal narratives of development amongst NGO workers and activists in Ghana. Africa, 78(3), 334-358. https://doi.org/10.3366/e0001972008000211Widespread assumptions about the extractive and self-serving nature of African elites have resulted in the relative neglect of questions concerning their personal ethics and morality. Using life-history interviews undertaken with a range of Ghanaian... Read More about Life/History: personal narratives of development amongst NGO workers and activists in Ghana.
"This is not the academic world of right and wrong": the obviation of truth through NGO documentary practice (2006)
Journal Article
Yarrow, T. (2006). "This is not the academic world of right and wrong": the obviation of truth through NGO documentary practice. Cambridge Journal of Anthropology, 6(1), 50-59
Artefactual Persons: the Relational Capacities of Persons and Things in the Practice of Excavation. (2003)
Journal Article
Yarrow, T. (2003). Artefactual Persons: the Relational Capacities of Persons and Things in the Practice of Excavation. Norwegian Archaeological Review, 36(1), 65-73