The Politics of Relations

Rethinking the contributions of the Manchester School of Social Anthropology for political ethnography, the Politics of Relations elaborates its relational approach to the state along four interlaced axes of research - embeddedness, boundary work, modalities and strategic selectivity - that enable thick comparisons across spatio-temporal scales of power. In Serbia local experiences of self-government, infrastructure and care motivate its citizens to "become the state" while cursing it heartily. While both officials and citizens strive for a state that enables a "normal life," they navigate the increasingly illiberal politics enacted by national parties and tolerated by trans-national donors.