The first year of the Moving Anthropology Student Network (MASN)

The projects that are being developed in the doctoral studies can show faithfully which are the dynamics and the character of our "domestic" space of research, the university department. Even though is true that being close to the 2010 horizon it has no sense to keep only to that field to formulate, develop and evaluate the research lines, what we need is to sound out the activity of this operative and disciplinal unit.. In this third number of Periferia we want to contribute with the exposition of a sample of the research that is being developed by part of the PhD students of the program. Only in that selection we can find some significant dynamics:

- First of all, research groups with a large experience are meeting new ones that grow from new interests. In that number is presented a research line with more than 20 years of experience, that is the case of GETP (Transcultural Study of Procreation Group) who is still in evolution incorporating new members and approaches. Together with that one we can identify one group working on health anthropology who has created an exchange space and is generating researches like the ones we can find in Jaume Llopis and Roser Fernández article, or in the book about Radio Nikosía, whose review we include. This book tell us about a mental health project experience in which the anthropological perspective has an essential role.

- In second place, among the diversity of research projects we can collect the theoretical and methodological challenges in front of the new social contexts. For example the application of the social network concept to studies in the health area, or the approach to virtual ethnography through the idea of a network like a social interaction space, as we can find in Mayte Heredia's article.

- Finally emphasize that the formulation and design of several research projects arise from questions brought up in the professional fields of the PhD students and that go beyond the academic field.
Without a doubt these are processes that contribute to the learning experience in the departmental context.
Lastly we wish to show the MASN EXPERIENCE, an European network of Social and Cultural Anthropology students. It is an open space to share experiences related to the practice and study of the discipline. Second and third stage UAB students take part from the beginning in this enterprise. In the current frame of change in which all universities are immersed, the students couldn't be missing. We can face up to the future with a moderate optimism.

Editorial Team