‘Follow the things’ is a phrase coined by anthropologist Arjun Appadurai in 1988 and expanded upon by anthropologist George Marcus in 1995. Both encouraged academic researchers to undertake multi-site research with people whose lives were (often unknowingly) intertwined through, among other factors, the making, trading, purchase, use and disposal of things. The 'Follow the things' website is run by Ian Cook, an Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Exeter in the UK, with considerable help from Keith Brown, Associate Research Professor at the Watson Institute for International Studies, at Brown University in the USA. Most of the pages have been produced by students taking Ian’s ‘Geographies of Material Culture’ module at the Universities of Birmingham and Exeter and Keith's ‘Anthropologies of Global Connection’ module at Brown.
One of these pages, by Eeva Kemppainen, addresses the commodification of human organs:
One of these pages, by Eeva Kemppainen, addresses the commodification of human organs:
http://www.followthethings.com/kidneytrade.shtml . Kemppainen generated an interesting map to examine the flows and sites specific to international trade in kidneys: https://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=215401690512249291683.0004c39af5a05b539fb94&ie=UTF8&t=m&ll=23.563987,13.007813&spn=110.040698,246.09375&z=2&source=embed
