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- Convenor:
-
Sigridur Duna Kristmundsdottir
(University of Iceland)
- Formats:
- Panels
- Location:
- Stevenson Lecture Theatre
- Start time:
- 8 June, 2012 at
Time zone: Europe/London
- Session slots:
- 2
Short Abstract:
How anthropologists have used anthropological knowledge as diplomats, politicians or advisers to politicians.
Long Abstract:
The aim of the panel is to explore how anthropologists have used their knowledge both in representative capacity such as MP´s or diplomats and as behind the scenes advisers to public reprentatives. I suspect that many have done so and that the lessons that can be drawn from their experiences can be of value to different fields in anthropology e.g. political anthropology, anthropology of gender and applied anthropology. I have myself served both as an MP in the Icelandic Parliament and as Ambassador in the Icelandic Foreign Service on such diverse posts as South Africa and Norway. That experience and a formulation of it I shall bring to the panel. Otherwise it is of interest what other anthropologists/participants can bring to a panel of this kind so further formulation is left open at this stage.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Rachel Irwin (Lund University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper presents an ‘anthropology of diplomacy,’ focussing on policy-making at the World Health Organization (WHO). It examines issues of space, control and power in the negotiations and policy-cycle, creating a narrative of how issues are translated into resolutions and then implemented (or not).
Paper long abstract:
This paper presents an'anthropology of diplomacy,' focussing on policy-making at the World Health Organization (WHO). It examines issues of space, control and power in the negotiations and policy-cycle, creating a narrative of how 'global health issues' are indentified, translated into resolutions and then implemented (or not). The paper draws upon a year of participant observation at the WHO and meetings of its governing bodies, as well as in-depth interviews with diplomats and civil servants. This paper also draws upon the author's position within global health diplomacy, reflecting on being both an actor in global health diplomacy, whilst simultaneously studying it.
Niels Nagelhus Schia (NUPI)
Paper short abstract:
Anthropology of politics, Practice theory, International organizations, Knowledge production, Diplomacy, Power, UN Security Council
Paper long abstract:
How do small states behave once they have a seat at the table? In this article, I describe how one small state - Norway - operated when it was a member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in 2001-2002. From my anthropological fieldwork in this period, I present a substantive, institutional, and methodological argument: substantively, that Norwegian diplomats at the Council were caught in a bind between representing national interests, on the one hand, and being 'team players' vis-à-vis the permanent members, on the other; institutionally, that organizational design shapes political decisions in significant and often unexpected ways; in terms of theory and method, that even in a highly formalized diplomatic setting like the UNSC, informal processes are central to understanding how states operate, as well as how the Council functions.
Petr Skalník
Paper short abstract:
After the end of civil war (1975-1990) Lebanon was seeking new legitimacy as a normal country by encouraging as many countries as possible to appoint ambassadors resident in Beirut. Czechoslovakia decided to comply with this expectation at the moment when it as a state was on the brink of disintegration. The Czech Republic as a successor state had also to make itself visible and known in a country that until then knew only Czechoslovakia. The paper discusses the ways of mutual legitimization through diplomacy.
Paper long abstract:
The paper will address the problem of starting from scratch of diplomatic relations and embassy as a functioning office at the moment both were practically paralyzed during the latest phases of Lebanese civil war. By coincidence this reconstruction took place when Czechoslovakia first got rid of communist rule in 1989 but soon faced division into two states, namely the Czech Republic and Slovakia. When I was made ambassador in summer 1992, the Czechoslovak president Václav Havel resigned and I was leaving for Lebanon amid worries about the future of my country. As a matter of fact I served as ambassador of two countries (Czechoslovakia asnd the Czech Republic) while Lebanon was slowly recovering from the scars of civil war. To revive the Czech-Lebanese relations required double effort as the Czech Republic was a new state and needed badly friends around the world. The paper describes various methods used by me as ambassador in supporting the quest of post-war Lebanon to be fully accepted as a normal state even though its dependence on Syria was evident and southernmost part of the country was occupied by Israel and pro-Israel militia. On the other hand economic and cultural exchanges were used for promoting the new Czech Republic in Lebanon. My anthropological knowledge and experience from South Africa proved indispensable for the successful negotiation of the main task: to bring mutual relations to a normal footing.
Sigridur Duna Kristmundsdottir (University of Iceland)
Paper short abstract:
The paper describes and analyses how anthropological knowledge informed the ideas and methods of the Icelandic Women´s Party, established in 1982, and how these ideas were reflected in the policy of the party in Parliament. The party had considerable influence in changing the gender dimension of Icelandic politics but not so the Icelandic Foreign Service. The paper goes on to explore how these ideas came at a later stage to play a part both in Icelandic Foreign Policy and in the establishment of a Women Ambassadors´ group in Oslo.
Paper long abstract:
See above.
Lourdes Arizpe (National University of Mexico)
Paper short abstract:
Since the nineties anthropologists have been increasingly invited to participate in international programs on cultural diversity, multiculturalism and development. Yet their contributions have now gone beyond policy anthropology or discursive debates on globalization.
Paper long abstract:
My own participant decision-making in international negotiations about international cultural programs make me reflect on the need to develop new anthropological tools to deal with shifting political arrangements of multiple scale processes of identities, ethnicities and conviviality. This includes new political proposals of cultural futures such as the "Buen Vivir" proposal of the Bolivian national indigenous movement.
W Douglass R Potts (Australian Technology Ltd.)
Paper short abstract:
The late Professor Leach drew the analogy between engineering and functional structuralism. Claude Levi-Strauss developed the concept of mechanical and statistical models of social relations. As a chartered engineer advising government departments, this author expands on the engineering/anthropological intersection.
Paper long abstract:
Managing change in organisations is an industry in itself and a focal point of academic study. "We live in times of change" is often used with a breathless urgency as if the concept of change has just been discovered. In Kotter's "eight steps to bring about change", the first is "to bring about a sense of urgency". It is a metaphysics with a propensity to absorb energy and thus be self destroying like an undamped mechanical system.
Both engineering and anthropology seek ways to understand systems and structures and the response to perturbations.
An engineer for instance is unconcerned with the origins of intermolecular attraction within a material, only with useful relationships between stress and strain that are supported with empirical evidence.
In Structural Anthropology Levi-Strauss writes of "mechanical and statistical" models of social relations.
Engineering as a discipline is underpinned by concepts such as Lord Fisher's "community of knowledge and a life long commitment to a community of sentiment" and statistician Edwards Deming's notions of "constancy of purpose, respect for systems and profound knowledge".
These structural pillars of engineering as a discipline can become contrapuntal to systems where managers, especially govenment managers "set the agenda" and "I know nothing about the topic but I know our policies".
This author explores the congruence between models of systems and structures in both engineering and anthropology and extends some engineering concepts relating to dynamics that may add to the functional structural model in a way that is revealing to policy makers.