As part of the closing of the project Everyday statehood at the geopolitical margin: Social Stability despite chronic political crisis? (financed by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung), Lotje de Vries and the CSPS Conflict Cluster organize a series of events between November 4 and November 6 in Wageningen. You are all warmly invited to join the public seminar by Prof Henrik Vigh, Tuesday 5 November, or the PhD Masterclass that he offers on Wednesday 6 November.
Public Seminar by Prof Henrik Vigh (Copenhagen University)
The Politics of Aporia: On Pariah States and Alternative Orders in Bissau
Tuesday 5 November 15.30 – 17.00 followed by drinks (Orion B4030, Wageningen Campus)
This paper examines how the Guinea-Bissauan state and its population have adjusted to the international sanctions and regulations directed at them. The endless conflicts, coups, and cocaine trafficking that have marred the country during the last two decades have led to a large-scale withdrawal of development aid and assistance by the Global North. This coordinated political abandonment has severely diminished economic growth and destabilized social relations in the capital, Bissau. With limited employment opportunities and modest means of mobility, the urban population has adapted their ways of life to a city which has, in many respects, been cut off from regular global flows and exchanges. Building on fieldwork conducted in Bissau and with Guinea-Bissauan migrants in North Africa and Europe, the paper highlights the unintended consequences of these sanctions. It shows that the state in Bissau has remained dynamic, though politically and geographically decentralized. Instead of resulting in compliance with the international order, the abandonment of Bissau has, it would seem, produced more of the problems they sought to resolve.
About: HENRIK VIGH is professor of anthropology and director of the Centre for Global Criminology at the University of Copenhagen. He has researched issues of youth and conflict in both Europe and Africa and is currently researching the intersection between war and crime focussing on the criminalized movement of people, goods and drugs from Africa into Europe.
PhD masterclass with Henrik Vigh
Social chronicity: Unpacking crisis, conflict and criminality
Wednesday 6 November 9.30 – 12.00
This Masterclass for PhD researchers hosts Professor Henrik Vigh to focus on research in (or contexts of) crisis, conflict and criminality. Henrik Vigh is professor of anthropology and director of the Centre for Global Criminology at the University of Copenhagen. He has researched issues of youth and conflict in both Europe and Africa and is currently researching the intersection between war and crime focussing on the criminalized movement of people, goods and drugs from Africa into Europe. The master class offers room to discuss your challenges of fieldwork as well as challenges of theory building.
Please address any questions to Lotje de Vries: Lotje.devries@wur.nl | Register via this link.
Citizens and their States in everyday life
Understanding social stability and public authority in a state of lack
Workshop 4 and 5 November 2024
This workshop brings together a select group of invited social anthropologists, geographers and political scientists to rethink the relationship between citizens and their public authorities in urban environments in different parts of the world. During this two-day collaborative exploration, we will ask questions such as: What do people make of their states? What do people expect and need from their public authorities? In what ways do they see a connection between their social stability and the politics of the state?
During the workshop collectively reflect on how to move forward with these questions, to different parts of the world and beyond the urban space. Participants to the workshop will broadly speak to:
- How the social fabric of society is maintained and undermined in everyday life.
- An alternative language of statehood that reflects the way people perceive it.
- The impact of international interests and interventions and/or their relative absence.
Centre for Space, Place and Society 