Power, politics and the state: Anthropological perspectives

Course goals

Advanced knowledge of the principal theoretical debates in anthropology and adjoining disciplines about state, power and politics.

• Gain knowledge of the principal theoretical approaches and debates in the ethnography of the state.
• Understand the relationship between theory and empirical analysis in the study of politics and the state.
• Consider how to apply these approaches and debates in formulating a research project, including methodological considerations.

Use written and oral assignments to develop skills in both applying these approaches to case studies and in critiquing their applicability.
 
 

Content

This course provides a theoretical and ethnographic introduction to the anthropology of the state. We focus specifically on key sets of questions that help us to understand and think about how to study authority, power, and the everyday construction of stateness. Questions we will ask include:

• What is a state? How do we recognize one? Are states things or sets of relations? Are they found in practices and performances, or in institutions and infrastructures?
• Why and when do we submit to state authority? What allows us to see that authority as legitimate or not? How does our submission to that authority make us as social persons?
• What is sovereignty? We assume that states are or should be sovereign, but what about anomalies, such as unrecognized or exiled states, or protectorates and overseas territories? What does it mean to live and govern without full sovereignty, and what can this tell us about the sovereign state as such?
• Borders are lines that are drawn in often arbitary ways to separate territories and the peoples they contain. How do we understand borders and border-making anthropologically? How do we study the role of these boundaries in creating a “national body” and idea of the state?
• The “war on terror” and subsequent refugee crises have produced increased security concerns globally. How do we study security and phenomena such as walling ethnographically?
• If one wants to point to “the state,” one often indicates its institutions and infrastructure, including administration and bureaucracy, as well as development projects, roads, and provision of water. Where do we find “the state” in these materialities? When do we not find it there?
• Although democracy is the standard for rule in the modern state, we know that democracies are never fully equal or inclusive. What happens in practice when people believe that the state and its politics do not represent them? How do they cope? What do they aspire to?

Schedule: For a week-by-week class schedule, please consult the course manual. 

Course Attendance: Utrecht University has an official course commitment policy. This policy consists of:
•        80% attendance (only a maximum of 20% absence is accepted, irrespective of the reasons).
•        Handing in papers and assignments on time; and
•        Mandatory participation in seminars. Overdue papers are downgraded with a one point per day penalty.
There exists no collective possibility to resubmit rewritten papers. Only students who have complied with all commitment policy requirements will be given one additional chance to submit a rewritten paper within three weeks after the end of the course. Resubmission is not a right of students but a privilege given by the course coordinator on a case-to-case basis, and therefore requires her permission.