AANA18132U Political Anthropology, introductory course

Political Anthropology is concerned with the distribution of resources, power and authority in different societies. More specifically, it explores people’s negotiations of social possibilities and limitations, constructions of social categories and positions, as well as broader processes of differentiation and discrimination. From studies of close-knit communities to global constellations, political anthropology investigates people's attempts to realize, uphold, or change communities, societies and networks. Hence, political anthropology is concerned with local, national and global levels, as it considers national policies and political decisions as well as unofficial connections, international networks and illegal organizations. The ethnographic approach of anthropology illuminates the official "visible" policy and its consequences as well as unofficial and "invisible" political positions and processes. In this way, political anthropology deepens our knowledge and understanding of the world's political diversity and constructions of power.

The aim of this introductory course is to present and discuss key theoretical and thematic developments in the subfield of political anthropology. The course is divided into two parts. The first part provides a genealogical history of classical political anthropological studies of stateless societies, while situating these foundational studies in relation to relevant themes in political philosophy. It then engages with themes such as state power, national identity, globalization, colonialism, post-colonialism, global capitalism, neo-liberalism, violence and conflict. In the second part, the course explores the social, economic, historical and cultural dimensions of the development, implementation and experiences of the use of biometric technologies in migration and development settings - contextualised with a view to the use of biometrics in various other settings. We critically explore how biometric technologies have, over the past 20 years or so, been used by a wide range of actors in a range of policy fields as a form of collective answer - or imagined silver bullet - to a diverse set of challenges within the migration and development sector as well as beyond: from border control, anti-piracy and anti-terror tools to the gathering of votes during elections in the Global South. At the same time, we examine the experiences of the people these technologies are applied to, such as asylum seekers or refugees in Europe and the Global South.

A crosscutting subject throughout the entire course will be the ways in which political forms and practices are situated in local as well as global contexts, as well as a focus on how anthropology legitimates its own role as a critical discipline in the world outside of academia.