Tactics as ethnographic and conceptual objects
Introduction to special section
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This special section proposes that an ethnographic and conceptual emphasis on tactics can contribute to anthropological understandings of thinking, acting and being in the world. Although they can be perceived as intrinsic tenets of human sociality and subjectivity, tactical thinking and doing are becoming important parts of socio‐political landscapes around the world. Approaching the notion of tactics ethnographically demands highlighting how and why tactical sociality and subjectivity emerge in everyday life. Granting ethnographic attention to tactical practices of people can aid in showcasing how such practices do not merely strive to fulfil a certain outcome, but rather attempt to reinforce awareness of one's, often uncertain, structural position in a social, political or legal apparatus. In addition, a conceptual emphasis on tactics can provide a useful analytic lens in rethinking notions of relationality, agency, structure and method as these are contained in already existing anthropological concepts, such as habitus, access, alliance, subjectivity and uncertainty. By ethnographically and conceptually exploring tactical sociality and subjectivity as they become implicated in everyday contexts and situations, the articles in this section aim to provide a contemporary anthropological perspective of tactics.