This seminar examines and discusses recent and classical literature on the anthropology of the state, focusing on the perspective of actors, who are consciously and strategically trying to impact, plan, and manage the state. How do politicians and state bureaucrats try to keep the state going? How do they try to tackle acute issues that are very often tied up with the ways of how state-power is produced in the first place? Which predicaments and challenges do they face and how do they solve them? How do bottom-up processes that try to impact similar issues, but challenge or ignore established procedures craft the state?
The seminar combines reading and course work with a small research project conducted by students on local actors who craft the state.
Literaturempfehlung: Thelen, Tatjana, Larissa Vetters & Keebet von Benda-Beckmann, eds. 2022. Stategraphy: Toward a Relational Anthropology of the State. New York & Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Sharma, Aradhana & Akhil Gupta, eds. 2006. The Anthropology of the State: A Reader. Malden, Massachusetts & Oxford: Blackwell Pub.
Modulleistung: Hausarbeit
