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14/09/19
 
About this blog
Whereas the 1990s were still marked by a certain globalisation euphoria in which there removal of barriers in social processes of negotiation appeared to be achievable on a global scale, the social upheavals that have emerged in the meantime in relation to globalisation can no longer be ignored. The belief that worldwide exchanges could contribute […]
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Sandra Calkins
13/03/20
Taking measures as end points?
An agronomist measuring the length and width of “fingers” of a new banana variety. Kawanda, Uganda (January 2016, S. Calkins) An arm circumference that is too small, a waistline that is too wide, blood sugar levels that are too high. Measurements count among the powerful tools for ending long negotiations and establishing clear matters of […]
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Godwin Kornes
30/01/20
The Limits of Negotiation
Some Thoughts on Public Anthropology and Critical Scholarship
Horkheimer: Theory is theory in the authentic sense only where it serves practice. Theory that wishes to be sufficient unto itself is bad theory. On the other hand, it is also bad theory if it exists only in order to produce something or other.[1] Adorno: Theory is already practice. And practice presupposes theory. Today, everything […]
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Pam AlldredNick J Fox
20/01/20
Climate change policy
Let the negotiation resume
The avowed purpose of policy, whether devised by a government, non-governmental body or an organisation, is to direct action to address an issue, event or interaction, with the objective of improving or reforming the social or natural world. Social policies address issues bearing upon economic and political stability; continuity, security and cultural integrity, individual and […]
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Heike DrotbohmMartin Sökefeld
19/12/19
Wenn Grenzen neu gezogen werden – wo steht die Ethnologie?
Noch vor etwas mehr als einer Dekade klangen die scheinbar selbstverständlichen Vorannahmen ethnologischer Forschungen ganz anders als heute. Das Fach schien damals übereingekommen, dass eindeutige Unterscheidungen und Grenzmarkierungen obsolet seien, dass der Nationalstaat an Macht und Bedeutung verloren habe, dass Grenzen von Ideen, Identitäten und Zugehörigkeiten verwischt und durchlässig seien. Kreolisierung, Hybridisierung, Transnationalisierung waren die […]
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Christos PanagiotopoulosKatja RieckPhilipp Zehmisch
11/11/19
Doing Good/Doing Right and the Limits of Negotiation
Preface: Why the interest in the “limits of negotiation”? Katja Rieck, Orient-Institut Istanbul Before delving into the main part of this blog post, it is important to begin with a few remarks on the significance of the topic of this blog series, which may not be clear to those who have not studied anthropology. During […]
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Piyush Pushkar
01/10/19
Ideological Closure, Austerity and National Health Service Reforms
How do UK healthcare bureaucrats close down the political space available for ethical debate of budgets, reforms and their consequences?
For my PhD research, I spent a year doing ethnographic fieldwork in Greater Manchester, with political activists campaigning against cuts and privatisation in the National Health Service (NHS), the UK’s public healthcare system. In this blog I focus on what I learnt from interviewing the managers and politicians who were pushing through the reforms to […]
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Magnus Treiber
30/09/19
Notwendige Positionen
Politisches Handeln und die Grenzen der ethnologischen Wissenschaft
„Das Ende der Aushandlungen?“ greift als Leitfrage der DGSKA-Konferenz 2019 nach einem spürbaren, aber längst nicht ausgereift gefassten Phänomen unseres noch jungen Jahrhunderts. Thematische Resonanz und inhaltliches Spektrum eingereichter Workshops, Roundtables und Einzelbeiträge sind ein Gradmesser, ob und wie ein Konferenzthema aufgenommen und weitergeführt wird – in diesem Jahr erweist sich das Konferenzthema als ein […]
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Stefan Leins
18/09/19
“There is no alternative”
Ökonomie zwischen ideologischer Schließung und praktischer Vielfalt
Kaum ein Satz beschwört das Ende der Aushandlungen ökonomischer Denk- und Handlungsmuster so eingängig wie Margaret Thatchers «there is no alternative». Thatcher behauptet damit die absolute Alternativlosigkeit einer modernen kapitalistischen Marktwirtschaft, die, aus ihrer Perspektive, unbeeinflusst vom intervenierenden Staat, kollektiv organisierten Arbeiterbewegungen und (wirtschaftsfeindlichen) sozialen Normen bleiben muss, um zu funktionieren. TINA – so das […]
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16/07/19
The end of negotiations!?
Whereas the 1990s were still marked by a certain globalisation euphoria in which there removal of barriers in social processes of negotiation appeared to be achievable on a global scale, the social upheavals that have emerged in the meantime in relation to globalisation can no longer be ignored. The belief that worldwide exchanges could contribute […]
more