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.
Drugs, Thugs, and Diplomats: US Policymaking in Colombia Winifred Tate, 2015 In 2000, the U.S. passed a major aid package that was going to help Colombia do it all: cut drug trafficking, defeat leftist guerrillas, support peace, and build democracy. More than 80% of...
Navigating Austerity: Currents of Debt Along a South Asian River Laura Bear, 2015 Navigating Austerity addresses a key policy question of our era: what happens to society and the environment when austerity dominates political and economic life? To get to the heart of...
Fragile Elite: The Dilemmas of China's Top University Students Susanne Bregnæk, 2016 China's One Child Policy and its rigorous national focus on educational testing are well known. But what happens to those "lucky" few at the very top of the pyramid: elite university...
The Orderly Entrepreneur: Youth, Education, and Governance in Rwanda Catherine A. Honeyman, 2016 The first generation of children born after Rwanda's 1994 genocide is just now reaching maturity, setting aside their school uniforms to take up adult roles in Rwandan...
ONE BLUE CHILD: ASTHMA, RESPONSIBILITY, AND THE POLITICS OF GLOBAL HEALTH Susanna Trnka, 2017 One Blue Child examines the emergence of self-management as a global policy standard, focusing on how healthcare is reshaping our relationships with ourselves and our bodies,...
LAW MART: JUSTICE, ACCESS, AND FOR-PROFIT LAW SCHOOLS Riaz Tejani, 2017 American law schools are in deep crisis. Enrollment is down, student loan debt is up, and the profession's supply of high-paying jobs is shrinking. Meanwhile, thousands of graduates remain...
The Gray Zone: Sovereignty, Human Smuggling, and the undercover Police Investigation in Europe Gregory Feldman, 2019 Based on rare, in-depth fieldwork among an undercover police investigative team working in a southern EU maritime state, Gregory Feldman examines how...