Sozialanthropologie

Sachbereichs-Regionalübung: At the heart of the state? Anthropological approaches to detention, containment and imprisonment

Dienstag, 05.12.2023

This course will focus on three core spaces of ethnographic investigation - criminal incarceration, administrative and immigration detention – in order to critically reflect upon state practices of detention. An anthropological approach to these spaces will consider theoretical dimensions of the organisation of power and social control, starting with foundational texts such as Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish, The Birth of the Prison. Building from these theoretical notions of control and organisation, this course will explore and interrogate approaches to state power, sovereignty and violence. In looking more closely at different forms of detention and how processes of containment are carried out by a multiplicity of actors, we will challenge common conceptions of states as unified, rational entities. Concretely, this could mean re-thinking the dichotomy between the public and the private sector with case studies from the prison industry for example. As a second focus point, we will explore how different projects of governance participate in the construction of certain groups as societal problems that need to be immobilised, contained and/or punished. This will raise questions such as how is detention racialized and in which contexts? And what ‘truths’ are produced through government? Examples will be drawn mostly from – but are not limited to - European and US contexts.

Veranstaltungsart:Vorlesung/Seminar
Dozierende(r): Kiri Olivia Santer
05.12.2023:12:15 - 14:00
Ort: Hörsaalgebäude vonRoll
Fabrikstrasse 6
3012 Bern
EG, 005, Seminarraum

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