About the talk:

British sociologist and lecturer Keith Kahn-Harris studies big fish in small ponds. Like the best water skier in Luxembourg, the Icelandic Special Forces or the top novelist in Suriname. He’s fascinated by we can learn from these “small worlds” and curious about the power of small in a world that is increasingly focused on (and dominated by) the big.

Recorded during: TEDxKraków 2012

About the speaker:

Keith Kahn-Harris is a London-based sociologist, writer and community activist. He describes himself as being “professionally curious” and loves to discover communities and hear their members' stories, and wants to cultivate that curiosity in small worlds.

Keith’s obsession is with communities and small worlds – subcultures, in a nutshell. His previous work focused on two subcultures in particular: extreme heavy metal and the British Jewish community, and he’s managed to find that these sub-subcultures have quite a bit in common. His current book is a further exploration of “big fish in small ponds” and what we can learn from them about the power of small in a world that’s increasingly focused on the big.