Shahzia Sikander’s video installation Gopi Contagion made similar incursions for the next month, overtaking Times Square’s false skies with images of uncertainty – masses in loose coordination, strange stases of circular movement. In this and Sikander
Singularity and Uncertainty
Counter-Ethics of Gender and Sexuality in an Indian Dream Analysis
Sarah Pinto
In The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2017
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 30–46
Hendrik Paasche, Katja Paasche, and Peter Dietrich
number of data sets, a and b denote two different data sets, e quantifies aleatory uncertainty, E is the final decision, and P k are the personality traits of the k th member of the interpreting/decision-making group of human individuals. Note
Governing through Uncertainty
Experiences of Being a Refugee in Turkey as a Country for Temporary Asylum
Kristen Sarah Biehl
This article addresses the question of how to theorize the relation between uncertainty and governmentality with regard to displacement and its consequences. It explores the experiences of asylum seekers in Turkey and the bureaucratic processes of refugee status determination, local dispersal, and third country resettlement, illustrating two main points throughout. First, 'protracted uncertainty', characterized by indefinite waiting, limited knowledge, and unpredictable legal status, is a central element of the experience of being an asylum seeker in Turkey. Second, this uncertainty serves to demobilize, contain, and criminalize asylum seekers through the production of protracted uncertainty, which in turn is normalized as a necessity of bureaucracy and/or security. The article invites readers to question the governmentalities of asylum and border regimes that not only discipline refugees' everyday movements but also determine the uncertainty of 'refugeeness'.
The Workings of Uncertainty
Interrogating Cases on Refugees in Sweden
Karin Norman
In this essay, two cases are constructed in order to highlight the seemingly distinct yet intertwined problems of how realities shape the construction of a case and how the constitution of a field in time and space, as well as experiences of fieldwork, contribute to the formation of a case. The ethnographic material described concerns two different social realities of Kosovo Albanian refugees in Sweden and their confrontation with Swedish bureaucracy and the uncertainties to which this gives rise, both for the refugees and the anthropologist. A main aim is to explore the blurred line between the apt illustration and the extended case in relation to processes of bureaucratization and, in turn, the implications such processes have for the way in which the field is circumscribed and conceptualized.
Introduction
Infrastructures of Certainty and Doubt
Matthew Carey and Morten Axel Pedersen
Debates surrounding notions of certainty and conviction and, conversely, of doubt, uncertainty and opacity have proved to be some of the liveliest and most anthropologically productive of recent years. The contention that a kernel of uncertainty
In The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2017
- Article Type:
- Introduction
- Pages:
- 18–29
Made in Nigeria
Duress and Upwardly Mobile Youth in the Biography of a Young Entrepreneur in Enugu
Inge Ligtvoet
(s) of people and understand them in the context of hardship, whether this is in times of violent conflict or in long-term lingering insecurity and uncertainty. Azu’s biography serves as an analytical tool to understand the choices of young Nigerians with
Intimate Uncertainties
Ethnographic Explorations of Moral Economies across Europe
Sabine Strasser and Luisa Piart
For this special issue we are bringing together six ethnographic cases of intimate uncertainties that are situated within different regimes of reproduction, healthcare and borders in and beyond Europe. These ethnographic inquiries exemplify unprecedented settings of moral ir/responsibility shaping the intimate on different scales and in various sites of power (agencies, clinics, borderlands). These uncertainties in times of major transitions from old to new moral orders, from industrial to postindustrial, from welfare to austerity spark off a renewed debate on moral economy. The authors of these contributions all focus the theoretical lens of moral economy squarely onto the intimate.
In Anthropological Journal of European Cultures
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2018
- Article Type:
- Introduction
- Pages:
- v–xv
Marco Giuliani and Erik Jones
The year 2009 was a period of uncertainty, during which the Italian
political world appeared to be floundering and in need of a compass.
As evidenced by the chronological overview, many events continued
to beleaguer the political and social life in Italy. Some, such as the
result of the European elections and the escalation of the economic
crisis and its repercussions, were foreseen or, in any case, predictable.
Others, including the numerous scandals and irregularities that
tarnished the political year, continuously feeding the mass media with
distractions and nurturing the public debate with less then edifying
themes, were less expected.
Arjun Appadurai
This article is built on a close reading of the use of the term 'calculation' by Max Weber. On the basis of this reading, I argue for a deeper understanding of Weber's views on uncertainty in the Calvinist ethos, and for a new approach to some key issues in the moral and discursive world of financial capital today, in which accounting, accountability and profit-making have become dangerously delinked from one another.
In The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2012
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 3–17
Living with Uncertainty
Indefinite Immigration Detention
Melanie Griffiths
Immigration detention is a central tenet of the British government’s response to immigration but remains under-theorised in academia. This article uses testimonies drawn from anthropological research conducted with detainees at an Immigration Removal Centre to examine lived experiences of immigration detention and explore the relationships between detainees and the British state. It suggests that despite being a space of extreme control (both in terms of legislation and daily practice), immigration detention is beset with uncertainty and confusion. Examples are given of chronic instability in relation to mobility, violent ‘incidents’, time frames and access to information. The article examines the repercussions of such instability on individuals and coping strategies employed. It argues that immigration detainees live in a context of continual crisis, in which profound uncertainty becomes normalised. This disorder should be understood as a technique of power, with governance through uncertainty constructing certain immigrants as expendable, transient and ultimately, deportable.
In Journal of Legal Anthropology
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2013
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 263–286