T Sommerfelt
Biographic Data
| ID | 18613 |
|---|---|
| NAME | T Sommerfelt |
| GIVEN NAMES | T |
| FAMILY NAME | Sommerfelt |
| SIGNATURE | SOMMERFELT T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Peace Research Institute Oslo |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5150-5242 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Countdown: Timespaces of Deadlines and Displacement
This article examines how politically structured deadlines and their accompanying countdowns generate dynamics of displacement by shaping anticipations of violence and prompting accelerated migration. Drawing on ethnographic research on Burundi's 2015 third‐term crisis and The Gambia's 2017 electoral impasse, we show how constitutional deadlines became timespace devices— instruments of temporal power that condensed speculations about danger, susp…
How Do Transnational Ties Shape Migration Aspirations
People with family or friends abroad are more inclined to migrate. But why is this so? Perhaps people with transnational ties have a rosier view of life as a migrant, or maybe it is remittances, specifically, that work as tangible proof of opportunities abroad. Or perhaps subconscious comparisons with migrants result in lower satisfaction with life at present, which in turn stimulates migration aspirations. There are, in other words, a range of p…
Systematic literature reviews in migration studies: Approaches to context-sensitive synthesis
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40878-025-00502-7
Tribute to Signe Howell (1942-2025)
Professor Signe Howell passed away on 25 January, leaving a virtually unfillable void at the University of Oslo's Department of Social Anthropology, where she had been working since 1987. She joined us from the University of Edinburgh, coming as a welcome breath of fresh air with her combination of erudition, theoretical sophistication and a remarkable fascination with all things human. The latter trait had followed her since her childhood in the…
Politics of Shared Humanity: On Hospitality, Equality and the Spiritual in Rural Gambia
In rural communities on the north bank of River Gambia, religious 'visitations' or pilgrimage ceremonies (siyaare) are becoming increasingly popular. These ceremonies have been described as a hallmark of Senegalese urban Sufism but are currently organised across the countryside and communicated in wide personal networks and through social media to attract guests and strangers from near and far. The sensibilities articulated in preparations for si…
A biographic foreword to Axel Sommerfelt’s 1967 paper – from a daughter’s point of view
Axel Sommerfelt’s paper for the symposium organized by Fredrik Barth ahead of the publication of Ethnic Groups and Boundaries is given a broader readership in this issue. This biography provides some background to the perspectival differences between Axel Sommerfelt and Barth, that revolve around issues of political inequality, experience and historicity. Axel Sommerfelt shared Barth’s anti-essentialist view on ethnicity, but did not fully embrac…
Anticipatory tribalism: Accusatory politics in the 'New Gambia
This article examines the upsurge in denunciations of 'tribalism' in public debate during The Gambia's transition from the autocracy of Yahya Jammeh to the 'New Gambia' under President Adama Barrow. In these public debates, derogatory statements about particular ethnicities articulate fears of present or future alliances to monopolise political power. These fears are disproportionate to attempts of organised political mobilisation on ethnic groun…
Danger, Moral Opacity, and Outrage
This article explores hostile narratives and moral outrage in the context of rising conflict in urban Mali, with a specific emphasis on religious and spatial politics in Bamako. Based on ethnographic observations, interviews, and group discussions, the article examines the specific forms that moral outrage may take in contexts of insecurity and an imminent threat of violence. It argues that moral outrage concerns the transgression of values that …
Helse, nasjonalstat og virkelighetspolitikk: Analogier fra Mongolia og GambiaDenne artikkelener en bearbeidet versjon av en innledning til en arbeidsgruppe omantropologi, helse og velferd som vi arran…
Denne artikkelen er en antropologisk refleksjon rundt helse og nasjonalstat. Formålet er å utforske hvordan nasjonalstat og helse samskapes og sampraktiseres i historiske og geografiske kontekster der store, statlige helseprogrammer har gjennomgått dyptgripende endringer: i Mongolia under sosialismen og etter sosialismens fall, og i Gambia etter avkoloniseringen og under landets påfølgende Andre Republikk. Vi utforsker helseprogrammenes betydning…
From Cutting to Fading: A Relational Perspective on Marriage Exchange and Sociality in Rural Gambia
Based on 21 months of field research on the northern bank of the Gambia River, this study deals with ceremonial exchange and sociality among rural Wolof speakers. In exploring the procurement and distribution of bridal trousseaus, I examine the process of exchange that shapes and limits these potentially endless affinal networks and analyze the social forms that arise from these complex sets of transfers. It is argued that redistributions of obje…
Child Migration in Africa
Forbindelser gjennom bryst: Om melk, sosial tilknytning og passende ekteskapspartnere blant wolof-talende folk i Vest-Afrika
Studying children in armed conflict: Data Production, Social Indicators and Analysis
Studying children in armed conflict: Data Production, Social Indicators and Analysis
A biographic foreword to Axel Sommerfelt’s 1967 paper – from a daughter’s point of view
Axel Sommerfelt’s paper for the symposium organized by Fredrik Barth ahead of the publication of Ethnic Groups and Boundaries is given a broader readership in this issue. This biography provides some background to the perspectival differences between Axel Sommerfelt and Barth, that revolve around issues of political inequality, experience and historicity. Axel Sommerfelt shared Barth’s anti-essentialist view on ethnicity, but did not fully embrac…
Anticipatory tribalism: Accusatory politics in the 'New Gambia
This article examines the upsurge in denunciations of 'tribalism' in public debate during The Gambia's transition from the autocracy of Yahya Jammeh to the 'New Gambia' under President Adama Barrow. In these public debates, derogatory statements about particular ethnicities articulate fears of present or future alliances to monopolise political power. These fears are disproportionate to attempts of organised political mobilisation on ethnic groun…
Child Migration in Africa
Studying children in armed conflict: Data Production, Social Indicators and Analysis
Forbindelser gjennom bryst: Om melk, sosial tilknytning og passende ekteskapspartnere blant wolof-talende folk i Vest-Afrika
From Cutting to Fading: A Relational Perspective on Marriage Exchange and Sociality in Rural Gambia
Based on 21 months of field research on the northern bank of the Gambia River, this study deals with ceremonial exchange and sociality among rural Wolof speakers. In exploring the procurement and distribution of bridal trousseaus, I examine the process of exchange that shapes and limits these potentially endless affinal networks and analyze the social forms that arise from these complex sets of transfers. It is argued that redistributions of obje…
Child Migration in Africa
Danger, Moral Opacity, and Outrage
This article explores hostile narratives and moral outrage in the context of rising conflict in urban Mali, with a specific emphasis on religious and spatial politics in Bamako. Based on ethnographic observations, interviews, and group discussions, the article examines the specific forms that moral outrage may take in contexts of insecurity and an imminent threat of violence. It argues that moral outrage concerns the transgression of values that …
Helse, nasjonalstat og virkelighetspolitikk: Analogier fra Mongolia og GambiaDenne artikkelener en bearbeidet versjon av en innledning til en arbeidsgruppe omantropologi, helse og velferd som vi arran…
Denne artikkelen er en antropologisk refleksjon rundt helse og nasjonalstat. Formålet er å utforske hvordan nasjonalstat og helse samskapes og sampraktiseres i historiske og geografiske kontekster der store, statlige helseprogrammer har gjennomgått dyptgripende endringer: i Mongolia under sosialismen og etter sosialismens fall, og i Gambia etter avkoloniseringen og under landets påfølgende Andre Republikk. Vi utforsker helseprogrammenes betydning…
Anticipatory tribalism: Accusatory politics in the 'New Gambia
This article examines the upsurge in denunciations of 'tribalism' in public debate during The Gambia's transition from the autocracy of Yahya Jammeh to the 'New Gambia' under President Adama Barrow. In these public debates, derogatory statements about particular ethnicities articulate fears of present or future alliances to monopolise political power. These fears are disproportionate to attempts of organised political mobilisation on ethnic groun…
A biographic foreword to Axel Sommerfelt’s 1967 paper – from a daughter’s point of view
Axel Sommerfelt’s paper for the symposium organized by Fredrik Barth ahead of the publication of Ethnic Groups and Boundaries is given a broader readership in this issue. This biography provides some background to the perspectival differences between Axel Sommerfelt and Barth, that revolve around issues of political inequality, experience and historicity. Axel Sommerfelt shared Barth’s anti-essentialist view on ethnicity, but did not fully embrac…
Politics of Shared Humanity: On Hospitality, Equality and the Spiritual in Rural Gambia
In rural communities on the north bank of River Gambia, religious 'visitations' or pilgrimage ceremonies (siyaare) are becoming increasingly popular. These ceremonies have been described as a hallmark of Senegalese urban Sufism but are currently organised across the countryside and communicated in wide personal networks and through social media to attract guests and strangers from near and far. The sensibilities articulated in preparations for si…
Systematic literature reviews in migration studies: Approaches to context-sensitive synthesis
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40878-025-00502-7
Tribute to Signe Howell (1942-2025)
Professor Signe Howell passed away on 25 January, leaving a virtually unfillable void at the University of Oslo's Department of Social Anthropology, where she had been working since 1987. She joined us from the University of Edinburgh, coming as a welcome breath of fresh air with her combination of erudition, theoretical sophistication and a remarkable fascination with all things human. The latter trait had followed her since her childhood in the…
Countdown: Timespaces of Deadlines and Displacement
This article examines how politically structured deadlines and their accompanying countdowns generate dynamics of displacement by shaping anticipations of violence and prompting accelerated migration. Drawing on ethnographic research on Burundi's 2015 third‐term crisis and The Gambia's 2017 electoral impasse, we show how constitutional deadlines became timespace devices— instruments of temporal power that condensed speculations about danger, susp…
How Do Transnational Ties Shape Migration Aspirations
People with family or friends abroad are more inclined to migrate. But why is this so? Perhaps people with transnational ties have a rosier view of life as a migrant, or maybe it is remittances, specifically, that work as tangible proof of opportunities abroad. Or perhaps subconscious comparisons with migrants result in lower satisfaction with life at present, which in turn stimulates migration aspirations. There are, in other words, a range of p…
Sociology (9 works) · Political science (7 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Politics (5 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · Migration and Labor Dynamics (4 works) · Gender Studies (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Philosophy (3 works)