Social Anthropology

In social anthropology we compare how people live in different social and cultural contexts on earth. 

This means that we study people's different worldviews, rituals, livelihoods, beliefs, social and political organisation, and how people's societies change and influence one another over time.

Characteristic of social anthropology is the ambition to put human diversity at the centre and not use the industrial western society as a norm.

At LiU, social anthropologists' research includes areas such as young people and identity, health, medical practice, gender, technology and science studies, socioeconomics and cultural heritage.

Despite globalisation processes, human societies demonstrate an enormous diversity in terms of the means of social, political and economic organisation and cultural and religious practices. We study this variation in all its complexity, in order to contribute to a broader understanding of what it is like to be human – what unites us as people and what makes us so different.

Research

The Ageing and Social Change research environment

The Ageing and Social Change research environment conducts leading-edge research on key social, political and cultural issues of ageing.

Older compass against a grey background.

COMPASS – A Research Hub on Knowledge Circulation

COMPASS is a research hub for interdisciplinary studies of  the creation and circulation of knowledge. It is based on the premise that the conditions of this circulation can be approached as a dynamics between forms and norms of knowledge

Ung kvinna använder sin mobiltelefon.

Apps and downs: Mental health and teenage girls’ interpretations of social media content

Teenage girls often follow influencers, and a common topic is mental health. But what norms about health and well-being are conveyed on social media? We examine influencers' posts on mental health issues and how they are interpreted by followers.

News