Heinz Nigg (born August 23, 1949 in Zurich, Switzerland) is a Social Anthropologist and Community Media activist.

Nigg studied Social Anthropology, History and Political Science at the University of Zurich where he received his PhD in 1980 for his research on community communication in the United Kingdom (1976-1980). Since then he has been working as an independent researcher and community artist. His fields of interest are social movements, alternative culture, youth protest, migration, mobility and urban development, as well as Media Art and Visual Anthropology/Sociology.

In the late seventies and eighties Nigg belonged to the forerunners of the Community Media movement in the UK and in the German speaking countries. In 1980 he drew public attention with a short film on the Opera House Riots in Zurich which marked the beginning of Youth Protest movements in many cities and small towns in Switzerland.

Nigg teaches Media Anthropology at the Institute of Social Anthropology at the University of Bern.

Books (Selection)

• Global Town Baden. 30 Porträts aus einer urbanen Region (2010), Zürich: Limmat Verlag
• Wir sind wenige, aber wir sind alle. Biografien aus der 68er-Generation in der Schweiz (2008), Zürich: Limmat Verlag
• Wir wollen alles, und zwar subito. Die Achtziger Jugendunruhen in der Schweiz und ihre Folgen. Mit DVD (2001), Zürich: Limmat Verlag
• Da und fort. Leben in zwei Welten. Immigration und Binnenwanderung in der Schweiz (1999), Zürich: Limmat Verlag
• Bürer, Margrit und Nigg, Heinz. Video - Handbuch zur praktischen Videoarbeit mit Kindern und Jugendlichen. Pro Juventute Verlag. Zürich 1990: Pro Juventute Verlag
• Nigg, Heinz und Wade, Graham. Community Media. Community communication in the UK: video, local TV, film, and photography. A documentary report on six groups. Zurich/London 1980: Regenbogen Verlag

References

Book titles from Heinz Nigg in the Library of Congress
Book titles from Heinz Nigg in the British Library
Book titles, photo documents and videos from Heinz Nigg in the NEBIS catalogue

Website AV-Productions Heinz Nigg: www.av-produktionen.ch
Websites on projects from AV-Productions Heinz Nigg: www.globaltown.baden.ch; www.migrant.ch; www.sozialarchiv.ch/80; www.miavista.ch
Community Media many years later...