scholarly journals Proliferation of borders: On border policing, state, and sovereignty

2020 ◽  
pp. 159-191
Author(s):  
Dejana Kostić
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
The State ◽  
Border Studies ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Sovereign Power ◽  
Territorial State ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
Control And Management ◽  
Is Outsourcing

This article summarizes relevant literature in critical border studies and explores how contemporary changes in border policing and management affect the nature of the contemporary state and sovereignty. It asks: If it is not clear where exactly borders are, how does this impact our understanding of state sovereignty? How is the deterritorialization of borders challenging our understanding of territorial sovereignty? How is outsourcing "legitimate means of violence" to non-state actors on borders reshaping the state's authority? In dominant political and public discourse, borders are seen as a common and defining feature of modern statehood. The modern nation-state political theology has invested the monopoly of governance over borders exclusively to the state. However, contemporary border practices challenge such an idea. Ethnographic studies show that while borders are bound to the nation-state sovereign power, they are also sites where multiple actors come into play and are increasingly disentangled from the geopolitical lines on a map. Ethnographic focus provides insights into everyday workings of sovereign power, a topic often overloaded with abstraction and relegated to the realm of theory. However, while ethnographic studies about border control and management question the prevailing ideas about state and borders, these studies often remain trapped in statist logic and spatial assumptions of the modern territorial state. Considering the historical perspective and incorporating the analysis of economic processes on the state and border could help mitigate the shortcomings mentioned above.

Taxation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lotta Björklund Larsen ◽  
Karen Boll
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Economic Growth ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
The State ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Economic Stability ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
The World ◽  
State Taxation

Taxation is the collection by a revenue authority of levies, fees, or charges from residents, businesses, or other legal entities deemed taxable pursuant to laws and regulations. Taxation affects most people in the world within the confines of a nation, state, or region. Some people claim taxation is theft by the state, others claim that it is a moral action and duty, and a third view is that taxes are expenses that citizens incur in order to make claims on the state. Taxation is thus an area of contestation. Taxpayers pay taxes on what they produce or transport, on their salaries and other income, and on their consumption. Taxation not only has a fiscal purpose, but can be used for resource allocation within society, for income redistribution, and for leveling economic stability to address issues of unemployment, prices, and economic growth. Research on taxation has been conducted in most social sciences. Legal scholars discuss changes to the law, economists emphasize taxation’s economic impact within the constraints of models, the accounting discipline addresses the organization and measurement of taxation, and behavioral economists and psychologists aim to predict human behavior in taxation experiments. While this research has extended the knowledge of fiscal practices, taxation has long been in dire need of a critical perspective on its human consequences, its social impact, and how it is culturally shaped. An emerging anthropology of taxation can address these issues. The anthropology of taxation opens a host of interconnected issues at the nexus of states, markets, and citizenship. It focuses on money, work, and ownership; notions of fairness and honesty or avoidance and evasion; the politics of regulation and redistribution; and the balance between taking responsibility for oneself and for others, to name a few. Ethnographic studies of taxation can depict how various stakeholders in the tax arena shape and are shaped by taxation. And they can illustrate how subjects of taxation—residents, businesses, communities, and societies—through their view on and practices of taxation, negotiate their relation to the state and to other beneficiaries. Turning our attention to the collecting side, taxation provides a multifaceted arena for issues such as policymaking, governance, and digitalization. The role that tax advisers play, often advising taxpayers on curtailing tax, also suggests a complicated relation with society. Anthropologists can untangle and illustrate the relations taxation create between various stakeholders through notions of social contract, governance, fiscal citizenship, reciprocity, and redistribution.

Untimely Development, Ugly History:A Drama in Muslinand the Rejection of National-Historical Time

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-183
Author(s):  
Mary L. Mullen
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The Core

This article considers the politics and aesthetics of the colonial Bildungsroman by reading George Moore's often-overlooked novel A Drama in Muslin (1886). It argues that the colonial Bildungsroman does not simply register difference from the metropolitan novel of development or express tension between the core and periphery, as Jed Esty suggests, but rather can imagine a heterogeneous historical time that does not find its end in the nation-state. A Drama in Muslin combines naturalist and realist modes, and moves between Ireland and England to construct a form of untimely development that emphasises political processes (dissent, negotiation) rather than political forms (the state, the nation). Ultimately, the messy, discordant history represented in the novel shows the political potential of anachronism as it celebrates the untimeliness of everyday life.

1830: van de Belgische protonatie naar de natiestaat (deel 2)

2007 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 303-321
Author(s):  
Lode Wils
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
The State ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The South ◽  
Public Office ◽  
The North ◽  
Ministerial Responsibility ◽  
The Government ◽  
The French Revolution

In het tweede deel van zijn bijdrage 1830: van de Belgische protonatie naar de natiestaat, over de gebeurtenissen van 1830-1831 als slotfase van een passage van de Belgische protonatie doorheen de grote politiek-maatschappelijke en culturele mutaties na de Franse Revolutie, ontwikkelt Lode Wils de stelling dat de periode 1829-1830 de "terminale crisis" vormde van het Koninkrijk der Verenigde Nederlanden. Terwijl koning Willem I definitief had laten verstaan dat hij de ministeriële verantwoordelijkheid definitief afwees en elke kritiek op het regime beschouwde als kritiek op de dynastie, groeide in het Zuiden de synergie in het verzet tussen klerikalen, liberalen en radicale anti-autoritaire groepen. In de vervreemding tussen het Noorden en het Zuiden en de uiteindelijke revolutionaire nationaal-liberale oppositie vanuit het Zuiden, speelde de taalproblematiek een minder belangrijke rol dan het klerikale element en de liberale aversie tegen het vorstelijk absolutisme van Willem I en de aangevoelde uitsluiting van de Belgen uit het openbaar ambt en vooral uit de leiding van de staat.________1830: from the Belgian pre-nation to the nation stateIn the second part of his contribution 1830: from the Belgian pre-nation to the nation state, dealing with the events from 1830-1831 as the concluding phase of a transition of the Belgian pre-nation through the major socio-political and cultural mutations after the French Revolution, Lode Wils develops the thesis that the period of 1829-1830 constituted the "terminal crisis" of the Kingdom of the United Netherlands. Whilst King William I had clearly given to understand that he definitively rejected ministerial responsibility and that he considered any criticism of the regime as a criticism of the dynasty, the synergy of resistance increased between the clericalists, liberals and radical anti-authoritarian groups in the South. In the alienation between the North and the South and the ultimate revolutionary national-liberal opposition from the South the language issue played a less important role than the clericalist element and the liberal aversion against the royal absolutism of William I and the sense of exclusion of the Belgians from public office and particularly from the government of the state.

Homo homini tigris: Thomas Hobbes and the global images of sovereignty

2021 ◽  
pp. 019145372110330
Author(s):  
Sandro Chignola
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
The State ◽  
Modern Concept ◽  
Logical Framework ◽  
Semantic Field ◽  
Sovereign Power ◽  
Global Space ◽  
Lines Of Force

This article addresses the modern concept of sovereignty as a multivocal and conflictual semantic field, arguing for the necessity to trace its genealogy based on the structural tensions that haunt its logical framework – as well as its representations – rather than on a linear historiographic reconstruction. In particular, the scrutiny I propose aims to examine a series of exchanges that have been characterizing this concept since the beginning: the global and the European, the maritime and the territorial, the colony and the state, the imperial and the proprietary. The problematic balance between ‘imperium’ and ‘dominium’ is indeed assumed here as the turning point of the rise of a sovereign power that appears to be originally rooted in the very production and governance of the global space, thus giving up all possible Eurocentric narratives of modernity. To illustrate my argument, I focus on the frontispieces to three of Thomas Hobbes’s most important books, that is, his translation of Thucydides’ Peloponnesian Wars, De Cive and Leviathan. A thorough analysis of these images enables us to understand how these lines of force traverse the very heart of modern European political concepts, along with the mirroring effects that constantly bounce their normative construction of subjectivity back and forth from the periphery to the centre and, ultimately, from the market to the state.

L'ethnie: les vicissitudes d'un concept

1997 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luc de Heusch
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Social Space ◽  
The State ◽  
Nation State ◽  
African History ◽  
Cultural Entities ◽  
Ideas And Institutions

In spite of recent criticisms the concept of ethnicity should be retained in anthropological analysis to designate more or less coherent cultural entities. These entities will be fluctuating, of course, due to their position in a larger social space where women, goods, ideas, and institutions are exchanged. Ethnicity is not, as some have argued, a colonial invention, but an incontestable anthropological fact, where identity is nurtured by otherness. Ethnicity does not of itself have a political vocation: traditional African states were more often than notpluri-ethnic. The ‘national’ phenomenon, the convergence of the State and ethnicity, is rare in pre-colonial African history. The nation-state is a modern phenomenon, the product of a more or less arbitrary manipulation by an elite having a certain number of ethnic traits; a political re-modelling of collective identity.

Re-enacting the international order, or: why the Syrian state did not disappear

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Janis Grzybowski
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
International Order ◽  
The State ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Syrian Civil War ◽  
New States ◽  
Regime Support ◽  
Rare Opportunity ◽  
State Form

Abstract At the height of the Syrian civil war, many observers argued that the Syrian state was collapsing, fragmenting, or dissolving. Yet, it never actually vanished. Revisiting the rising challenges to the Syrian state since 2011 – from internal collapse through external fragmentation to its looming dissolution by the ‘Islamic State’ – provides a rare opportunity to investigate the re-enactment of both statehood and international order in crisis. Indeed, what distinguishes the challenges posed to Syria, and Iraq, from others in the region and beyond is that their potential dissolution was regarded as a threat not merely to a – despised – dictatorial regime, or a particular state, but to the state-based international order itself. Regimes fall and states ‘collapse’ internally or are replaced by new states, but the international order is fundamentally questioned only where the territorially delineated state form is contested by an alternative. The article argues that the Syrian state survived not simply due to its legal sovereignty or foreign regime support, but also because states that backed the rebellion, fearing the vanishing of the Syrian nation-state in a transnational jihadist ‘caliphate’, came to prefer its persistence under Assad. The re-enactment of states and of the international order are thus ultimately linked.

COVID-19 IN KERALA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF COMPARTMENTAL MODELS AND SOCIAL NETWORK-BASED ANALYSIS AND THE CURRENT PERFORMANCE OF THE STATE

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 2549-2559
Author(s):  
K.R. Kumar ◽  
E.N. Satheesh ◽  
V.R. Pravitha
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Compartmental Models ◽  
The State ◽  
Southern State ◽  
Prediction And Control ◽  
Kerala State ◽  
Control And Management ◽  
And Control

Kerala, a southern state of India, has shown better performance in the initial months of the spread of the disease. But in the last few months, the spread of the disease in the state has grown breaking all controls and the control and management system has shown very poor performance. Mathematical modeling of the spread of the disease is effectively is being used in the prediction and control of the disease world over. In this paper, we make a comparative study of the research conducted on this subject based on the compartmental models and social network analysis based models giving special emphasis to Kerala state. We also point out the drawbacks of the current studies in comparison with the intensity of the actual spread of disease.

Food Security as Correlate of Interstate Conflict: A Case Study of the State of Qatar

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Farukh Mohammad Azad ◽  
Dr. Tim Frazier ◽  
Erik Wood
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
The State ◽  
Interstate Conflict ◽  
Regulatory Agencies ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Sequential Mixed Methods

The literature indicates that conflict can result in food insecurity due to economic or political crisis. However, few studies have investigated the effects that nonviolent interstate conflict has on food security in the Middle East. Evidence from this study, based in Qatar, indicates that conflict can result in food insecurity due to economic or political crisis. This research critically examines the lingering political and economic blockade of the State of Qatar and the extent to which this blockade has impacted food security of residents. The study employed a sequential mixed methods approach to gain better insight into the nature of food security in Qatar. A focused qualitative review of the relevant literature was followed by a quantitative analysis which revealed that there was no significant effect of interstate conflict on food security, while the economic and political blockade correlated significantly with food security. Three groups were sampled, including government officials, regulatory agencies, and food suppliers.

scholarly journals Renegotiating the Columbia River Treaty: Transboundary Governance and Indigenous Rights

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 4-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Cohen ◽  
Emma S. Norman
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Columbia River ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
The State ◽  
Environmental Agreements

This article builds on regional environmental governance (REG) scholarship to explore alternatives to conventional transboundary agreements. Specifically, we use two narratives to tell the story of one river variously known as Wimahl, Nich’i-Wàna, or Swah’netk’qhu, and, more recently, the Columbia River. We suggest that the state-led narrative of the signing and implementation of the 1964 Columbia River Treaty has obscured Indigenous narratives of the river—a trend replicated in most scholarship on transboundary environmental agreements more broadly. In exploring these narratives, we: situate the silencing of Indigeneity in the 1964 Columbia River Treaty; highlight the reproduction and amplification of that silence in the relevant literature in the context of strengthened Indigenous rights; and explore what a multilateral—as opposed to binational—approach to environmental agreements might offer practitioners and scholars of REG.

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