Dear all,
The EASA Anthropologies of the State network invites paper proposals for its panel at the upcoming EASA conference in Lisbon, 21-24 July 2020.
“Relational States: New Directions in the Anthropology of the State”
Phil Abrams and Tim Mitchells’ seminal interventions, introducing a Foucauldian perspective to the study of the state, transformed political anthropology profoundly. This approach produced important and necessary insights but, at times, also reified the power of the state as a particular, almost universal instantiation of power, and more recently, neoliberalism. This panel aims to engage critically with the anthropology of the state literature by focusing on the relational aspects of the state as a way to explore the state in less normative ways. Thinking of the state relationally also draws our attention to the continuous elaboration of boundaries that sets the state apart from other entities, or, in contrast, may work to downplay such distinctions. It helps us see how, in multiple contexts, the state manifests itself as one formation among and in relation to others. Care, for example is often viewed through the lens of disciplinary power, but questions about who cares and how state officials care as representatives of the state opens up a different set of questions about affective investments and entanglements, and boundary work. Focusing on exchange relations between citizens and states and within the state itself beyond the aberration of corruption likewise opens up for thinking differently about the state. Similarly, exploring how brokerage is central to the working of states also foregrounds a relational perspective. This panel invites contributions that in these and other ways engage critically with the literature on the anthropology of the state by focusing on the relationality of state formation.
We expect contributions to draw on ethnographic research to speak to debates on the anthropology of the state, and ideally, to make an intervention related to the idea of relational states. We ask all presenters to provide a full paper ahead of time.
You can submit a paper abstract through the EASA website: https://nomadit.co.uk/conferen
The call closes on 20 January 2020.
Should you be interested in joining the network, you can simply sign up for the network mailing list https://easaonline.org/network
We look forward to your proposals! Very best, also on behalf of my fellow AnthroState conveners, Steffen Jensen, Morten Koch Andersen, and Martijn Koster,
Anouk de Koning
Anouk de Koning | Associate Professor | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology | Leiden University
Pieter de La Court 3.A45 | a.de.koning@fsw.leidenuniv.nl <mailto:a.de.koning@fsw.leiden
PI Reproducing Europe project www.reproducingeurope.nl <http://www.reproducingeurope.