PROF Edward Simpson's Outputs (52)

Bards, patrons and ancestors: myths, aspirations and predicaments of Dalit castes in Saurashtra, India (2025)
Thesis
Himalay, G. Bards, patrons and ancestors: myths, aspirations and predicaments of Dalit castes in Saurashtra, India. (Thesis). SOAS University of London

Dalit caste histories in India typically reveal contradictions within the Hindu ideology and its inherent disposition towards inequality. Dalit histories also carry a record of counterhegemonic interventions, spiritual emancipatory practices, and an... Read More about Bards, patrons and ancestors: myths, aspirations and predicaments of Dalit castes in Saurashtra, India.

Highways to the End of the World: Roads, Roadmen and Power in South Asia (2022)
Book
Simpson, E. (2022). Highways to the End of the World: Roads, Roadmen and Power in South Asia. Hurst and Co

This book argues that road-building was naturalised in the twentieth century to the point of common sense, integrating roadbuilding into a system of climate change denial hidden within a broad international development imperative. But if we can ‘read... Read More about Highways to the End of the World: Roads, Roadmen and Power in South Asia.

Roads and the politics of thought: Climate in India, democracy in Nepal (2021)
Book Chapter
Rankin, K., & Simpson, E. (2021). Roads and the politics of thought: Climate in India, democracy in Nepal. In L. Heslop, & G. Murton (Eds.), Highways and Hierarchies: Ethnographies of Mobility from the Himalaya to the Indian Ocean (197-220). Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.5117/9789463723046_CH08

This chapter brings together two major research projects led respectively by Edward Simpson and Katharine Rankin: ‘Roads and the Politics of Thought: Ethnographic Approaches to Infrastructure Development in South Asia’ and ‘Infrastructures of Democra... Read More about Roads and the politics of thought: Climate in India, democracy in Nepal.

Dharamsey: Assembler of Tradition (2021)
Book Chapter
Simpson, E. (2021). Dharamsey: Assembler of Tradition. In L. Bjorkman (Ed.), Bombay Brokers (278-285). Duke University Press

Obituary (I): F. G. Bailey (24 February 1924–8 July 2020) (2021)
Journal Article
Simpson, E. (2021). Obituary (I): F. G. Bailey (24 February 1924–8 July 2020). Contributions to Indian Sociology, 55(1), 123-125. https://doi.org/10.1177/0069966720976507

Forgetfulness without memory: Reconstruction, Landscape and the Politics of Everyday in Post-Earthquake Gujarat, India (2020)
Journal Article
Simpson, E. (2020). Forgetfulness without memory: Reconstruction, Landscape and the Politics of Everyday in Post-Earthquake Gujarat, India. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 26(4), 786-804. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.13416

For many good reasons, after natural disasters it is common to work with ‘memory’ as part of a collective catharsis and a globalized humanitarian logic. Long‐term anthropological research on the aftermath of the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat, however, a... Read More about Forgetfulness without memory: Reconstruction, Landscape and the Politics of Everyday in Post-Earthquake Gujarat, India.

The Point of Death II (2019)
Journal Article
Simpson, E. (2019). The Point of Death II

Earthquake Citizens: Disaster and Aftermath Politics in India and Nepal (2019)
Book Chapter
Simpson, E., & Serafini, M. (2019). Earthquake Citizens: Disaster and Aftermath Politics in India and Nepal. In M. Holbraad, B. Kapferer, & J. F. Sauma (Eds.), Ruptures: Anthropologies of Discontinuity in Times of Turmoil (193-217). UCL Press. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781787356184

The Transnational Life and Political Philosophy of Shyamji Krishnavarma (2019)
Book Chapter
Simpson, E. (2019). The Transnational Life and Political Philosophy of Shyamji Krishnavarma. In S. Keller (Ed.), Knowledge and the Indian Ocean: Intangible Networks of Western India and Beyond (245-258). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96839-1

Marriage and the crisis of peasant society in Gujarat, India (2018)
Journal Article
Tilche, A., & Simpson, E. (2018). Marriage and the crisis of peasant society in Gujarat, India. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 45(7), 1518-1538. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2018.1477759

This contribution takes marriage as the example of a crisis of production and reproduction in rural India. Through the juxtaposition of ethnography separated by six decades, we detail a shift away from land and agriculture as the primary markers of s... Read More about Marriage and the crisis of peasant society in Gujarat, India.

Memory Interventions: Gujarat and Sri Lanka (2018)
Book Chapter
Simpson, E., & de Alwis, M. (2018). Memory Interventions: Gujarat and Sri Lanka. In S. Reddy (Ed.), The Asia Tsunami and Post-Disaster Aid (253-269). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0182-7_13

This article explores some of the memorial practices that emerged after the devastating 2001 earthquake in Gujarat and the Tsunami of 2004 that decimated most of the coastal regions in Sri Lanka. In both locations, acts of memorialization were insepa... Read More about Memory Interventions: Gujarat and Sri Lanka.

An anthropologist among the transport specialists: Social science insights on the political-economy barriers to the implementation of low-carbon transport in urban South Asia and Africa (2018)
Report
Simpson, E. (2018). An anthropologist among the transport specialists: Social science insights on the political-economy barriers to the implementation of low-carbon transport in urban South Asia and Africa

Social science knowledge can be communicated to encourage transport professionals to think positively about the insights derived from qualitative research. Social science asks different kinds of questions and makes different types of connections in t... Read More about An anthropologist among the transport specialists: Social science insights on the political-economy barriers to the implementation of low-carbon transport in urban South Asia and Africa.

A Brief History of Incivility in Rural Postcolonial India: Caste, Religion, and Anthropology (2018)
Journal Article
Simpson, E., Tilche, A., Sbriccoli, T., Jeffery, P., & Otten, T. (2018). A Brief History of Incivility in Rural Postcolonial India: Caste, Religion, and Anthropology. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 60(1), 58-89. https://doi.org/10.1017/S001041751700041X

Memory and Earthquake Forgetfulness in India (2018)
Book Chapter
Simpson, E. (2018). Memory and Earthquake Forgetfulness in India. In V. Lakhani, & E. de Smalen (Eds.), Sites of Remembering: Landscapes, Lessons, Policies (85-88). Rachel Carson Center. https://doi.org/10.5282/rcc/8490

On trusting ethnography: Serendipity and the reflexive return to the fields of Gujarat (2017)
Journal Article
Tilche, A., & Simpson, E. (2017). On trusting ethnography: Serendipity and the reflexive return to the fields of Gujarat. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 24(4), 690-708. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12695

We draw on David Pocock's fieldwork of the 1950s in central Gujarat, India, as a comparative resource to think about social change and anthropological knowledge. Revisiting where Pocock had been through new fieldwork, we were encouraged to think abou... Read More about On trusting ethnography: Serendipity and the reflexive return to the fields of Gujarat.

Prospecting in Rajasthan (2016)
Journal Article
Simpson, E. (2016). Prospecting in Rajasthan. Religion and Society, 7, 27-31. https://doi.org/10.3167/arrs.2016.070102

On the anthropology of Ann Gold.

The future of the rural world? India's villages 1950-2015 (2016)
Book
Simpson, E., & Tilche, A. (Eds.). (2016). The future of the rural world? India's villages 1950-2015. SOAS University of London

Exhibition catalogue based on an ESRC-funded project 'restudying' villages in India.

F.G. Bailey's Bisipara revisited (2016)
Journal Article
Otten, T., & Simpson, E. (2016). F.G. Bailey's Bisipara revisited. Economic and political weekly, 51(26-27), 25-32

F G Bailey, the renowned British social anthropologist, conducted fieldwork in Bisipara in the highlands of Orissa in the 1950s to examine the ways in which the state, democracy and new forms of economy were changing the traditional organisation and... Read More about F.G. Bailey's Bisipara revisited.

Village restudies: Trials and tribulations (2016)
Journal Article
Simpson, E. (2016). Village restudies: Trials and tribulations. Economic and political weekly, 51(26-27), 33-42

This article is an account of the inception, management and initial conclusions of a research project which ‘restudied’ three villages in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. These villages had been first studied in the 1950s by the British anthropolo... Read More about Village restudies: Trials and tribulations.

Is anthropology legal? Earthquake, blitzkrieg, and ethical futures (2016)
Journal Article
Simpson, E. (2016). Is anthropology legal? Earthquake, blitzkrieg, and ethical futures. Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, 74(1), 113-128. https://doi.org/10.3167/fcl.2016.740109

Th is article is a contribution to the growing literature that suggests that the methodological and writing practices of anthropology are out of kilter with the times. The processual structures and regulative mechanisms that produce anthropological k... Read More about Is anthropology legal? Earthquake, blitzkrieg, and ethical futures.