Sight has been described as the modernist sense par excellence (Levin 1993). It is the sense that discriminates, divides and orders the world into mutually exclusive categories. Smell, by contrast, has been dubbed the sense of the postmodern (Classen, Howes and Synnott 1994: 203-5), the sense that confuses categories and challenges boundaries. It is difficult to localize, hard to contain and has the character of flux and transitoriness. If this is acknowledged to be so, then one can immediately note some interesting affinities between the character of smells and recent theorizations of gender and sexuality often gathered under the rubric of "queer." Queer theories are suspicious of categorical neatness, and in particular the heterosexual homosexual binary that fractures so much of Western culture (Sedgwick 1990; Warner 1994; Seidman 1997:93). For Judith Butler (1990), gender, sex and sexuality are practical accomplishments that are brought into existence through performative creation. That is to say, gendered norms are repeatedly enacted and create over time the illusion that there are two essential genders-male and female-and that these are expressions of two fundamental sexes. Furthermore, sexual desire ought to occur between the two genders in the form of prescribed heterosexuality. In fact, argues Butler, these correspondences, in which gender follows sex and desire follows gender, are themselves the effects of performative acts, not the causes of them. Precisely because they are the results of social practices and not eternal essences, these effects are open to contestation, they are inherently unstable and they are always in a state of actual or potential flux and transition. In short, they are highly reminiscent of smells.

This book explores how the often well-meaning routines and assumptions of a generous welfare state can reflect and even contribute to the stigmatisation of refugees and Muslims in Europe today. While the main cases are from Sweden, examples are included from the UK, France, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands. Mark Graham examines how suspicion is woven into the fabric of welfare bureaucracies with potential adverse consequences for the people they serve. He complicates our understanding of what Islamophobia means, and how it is expressed and created, by exploring contexts in which the logic of "othering" Muslims operates, but where explicit Islamophobia itself is absent. The book starts with Swedish public-sector bureaucracies and attempts by staff to make sense of Muslim refugee clients with categories and models that reappear in wider society. It goes on to explore the logic of integration policies, official concepts of culture, Swedish multiculturalism, educational strategies in schools, and debates surrounding "genuine" and "false" refugees. In all cases, the homologies between these different socio-cultural domains are explored.

The book many of us have been waiting for somebody to write: anthropology meets contemporary theory, with summaries and overviews ranging from Lacan to process philosophy and more. Anthropological Explorations in Queer Theory is helpful for researchers wanting to update themselves, and also for classroom use. Ethnographic discussion of exciting themes such as perfume and species thinking weave in with contributions to current debate, including an excellent critique of intersectionality.