Jeremy Boissevain

Jeremy Boissevain (1928) is Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Amsterdam. Currently a Fellow at the Amsterdam School of Social Science Research, he also helps coordinate the Med-Campus Programme for Sustainable Cultural and Ecological Tourism, University of Malta. After obtaining his BA from Haverford College (USA) in 1952, he directed the CARE aid programmes in the Philippines, Japan, India and Malta. In 1962 he obtained his PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has taught at the Universities of Montreal, Sussex, Malta, New York (Stony Brook) and Massachusetts (Amherst) as well as at Columbia University and the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. His field research has focussed on local politics, ethnic relations, small entrepreneurs, ritual change and, currently, tourism.

His books include Saints and Fireworks: Religion and Politics in Rural Malta (1965, 1993), Hal-Farrug: A Village in Malta (1969), The Italians of Montreal (1970), and Friends of Friends: Networks, Manipulators and Coalitions (1974). He co-edited Network Analysis (1973), Beyond the Community (1975), Ethnic Challenge (1984) and Dutch Dilemmas: Anthropologists Look at the Netherlands (1989). He recently edited Feestelijke Vernieuwing in Nederland? (Ritual Renewal in the Netherlands?) (1992) and Revitalizing European Rituals (1992) and has just finished editing Coping with Tourists: European Reactions to Mass Tourism. Translations of his work have appeared in Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish and Japanese.