Autor: Melania Calestani

Trained as a geographer and anthropologist in Italy and the UK, Melania Calestani has carried out research in the Bolivian highlands, Western Samoa, Guam, Europe, and the UK. Her main interests include issues related to well-being, faith, morality, and value. Her work has mainly focussed on individual and collective definitions of `the good life», exploring potential contradictions between different models and analysing how individual dimensions compete with collective ones in this context. In Bolivia Melania looked at different actions adopted for the achievement of well-being, taking into account gender and generational differences. In particular, these include social protests, moments of fiesta, household cooperation, and the resort to supernatural forces through private rituals such as cambio de suerte -change of luck, showing how material and spiritual well-being are both mediated through objects and faith. Melania Calestani is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Southampton.