This series explores policy through anthropological methodologies to better understand how policies work as instruments of political intervention and social change. What new kinds of actors, subjects, and social spaces do policies create, and how are they used to manage populations? Can policy analysis shed light on wider transformations of governance and power? How can ethnography capture critical dimensions of policymaking, and the cultural worlds of policymakers themselves? For more on the series, click below.
A Vital Anthropology of Foreign Policy — Review of Drugs, Thugs, and Diplomats: US Policymaking in Colombia The Association for the Anthropology of Policy Review of Drugs, Thugs, and Diplomats: US Policymaking in Colombia by Janne Bjerre Christensen (Danish Institute...
Living with Debt — Review of Navigating Austerity: Currents of Debt Along a South Asian River The Association for the Anthropology of Policy Review of Navigating Austerity: Currents of Debt Along a South Asian River by Kenneth Bo Nielsen (U Bergen, Norway) October 12,...
Reflections on Minneapolis from the Section Leadership The Association for the Anthropology of Policy Cris Shore (University of Auckland) David Haines (George Mason University) February 14, 2017 As we noted in an earlier column, ASAP was active at the Minneapolis...
Presidential Election in Austria and Rise of the Far Right The Association for the Anthropology of Policy Cansu Civelek (University of Vienna) March 2, 2017 On December 4, 2016, Austrians elected Alexander Van der Bellen, a former member of the GreenParty, as the...
Speaking Ethnography to Policy The Association for the Anthropology of Policy Jessica Mulligan (Providence College) Rebecca Peters (Syracuse University) April 2017 Interdisciplinary Conversations on the Affordable Care Act Mainstream policy studies schools rarely...
Between Tradition and Modernity The Association for the Anthropology of Policy Numvi Gwaibi (University of Pretoria) April 27, 2017 Politics and Policy in Cameroon The government of Cameroon introduced changes to the county’s constitution in the 1990s. These changes...
The Anthropology of Policy Emerges The Association for the Anthropology of Policy Judi Pajo and Theodore Powers July 24, 2017 The Association for the Anthropology of Policy (ASAP) promotes the anthropological study of policy, including makings, workings, contexts,...
Making Sense of Nuclear Waste The Association for the Anthropology Judi Pajo (Pace University) November 2, 2016 Nuclear energy is having a busy summer. While the industry is keeping its 99 US nuclear plants running, at close to full capacity, to supply for the...
Blue Children and All Shades of Responsibility The Association for the Anthropology of Policy Ema Hrešanová January 8, 2018 Book Review One Blue Child: Asthma, Responsibility, and the Politics of Global Health. Susanna Trnka. Stanford: Stanford University Press,...
Forecasting Policy Trends The Association for the Anthropology of Policy Kristina Hook July 13, 2018 The application of predictive technologies to public policy questions opens opportunities for anthropologists to inject a human-focused approach into policy tools,...
Encounters with Lunar Dust The Association for the Anthropology of Policy Dana Burton July 12, 2019 From Neil Armstrong’s footprints to future missions to Mars, contamination fears and policies lie at the heart of our cosmic explorations. The stiff, gray cardboard...
Talking about Sovereignty and Action with Gregory Feldman Association for the Anthropology of Policy Theodore Powers and Gregory Feldman January 22, 2020 In this Association for the Anthropology of Policy column, Ted Powers interviews Gregory Feldman about his 2019...
Discussing Policy with Prisoners Association for the Anthropology of Policy Jason Bartholomew Scott June 16, 2020 I teach an anthropology course within the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. The course is online in that video lectures, movies, assignments, and...
"Off the Record and In the Loop": Excavating Power in the Washington Foreign Policy Establishment The Association for the Anthropology of Policy Negar Razavi September 19, 2017 Power and the Washington Establishment Graduate Student Paper Prize Winner These days...
The Neighborhood School Stigma: Choice, Stratification, and Shame The Association for the Anthropology of Policy Julia McWilliams February 15, 2018 “The Neighborhood School Stigma: School Choice, Stratification, and Shame” Over the past decade, social scientists...
Readmission Policy and State-NGO-Funder Relations in Malawi Rachel Silver, 2018 Abstract: Within the anthropology of development, a rich body of work highlights the unintended—and gendered—consequences of development interventions. According to Mosse (2004), however,...
Good Practices: Humanized Birth, and Political Subjectivity in Brazil Eliza Williamson, 2019 Abstract: In this paper, I attend to the disconnect between current Brazilian maternal and infant health policy and the experiences of my interlocutors in Salvador da Bahia. I...