Escalations: A Comparative Study of Accelerating Change

This project aims to understand and theorize escalating processes from an
anthropological perspective. Through a comparison of different ethnographic settings, the project
examines shared features of contemporary escalations, defined as accelerating and unpredictable
changes that involve transformations of scale, intense imaginations of past and future and ripple
effects. In the project, escalations will be examined from the vantage point of the Mongolian mining
boom, Danish Muslims’ engagement in the Arab Spring and the monsoon in India. A comparison of
these settings – enabled by a project design of coordinated field methods and shared theoretical
concepts – facilitates an understanding of the nature of escalations in specific settings and as a
general phenomenon. An understanding of this may be crucial for grasping the dynamics of the
unprecedented change emerging in the 21st century.