This volume of kritisk etnografi-Swedish journal oj Anthropology is composed of two issues. The first issue is a VARIA, that is, an issue open to research papers of any theme or entry-point. It results from an open invitation to scholars from all disciplines to contribute with papers that use ethnography critically to discuss topics that have a potential to bring broad audiences into engagement with anthropological perspectives. The papers make use of ethnography and ethnographic analysis to address a range of different topics in a variety of regions of the world. The second issue is composed of six papers on the theme THE SOCIAL LIFE OF WATER. Compiled by guest editors Karsten Paerregaard and Paula Uimonen, the issue demonstrates the power of ethnography, as it deepens our common knowledge of what water is all about. It stretches over large parts of the world: from a comparative piece on water serpent deities, and Swahili dwellers' relation to the Ocean on the coast of Tanzania, via scuba waste divers in Stockholm, to rural communities in the Peruvian Andes and a Mapuche island community in Chile.