Stategraphy: A Social Anthropological Approach to the State

Author(s)

Tatjana Thelen

Abstract

In this chapter, I outline a social anthropological approach to the state, called stategraphy. The term denotes an ethnographically grounded perspective that focuses on relational modalities, forms of embeddedness of actors, and boundary work as constitutive factors of the state. These avenues of analyses enable a nuanced understanding and comparative investigation of change and continuity of mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion in various contexts. The approach is based on a relational understanding that seeks to bridge the analytical gap between state images and state practices that developed within interdisciplinary debates on the state.

Organisation(s)

Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Pages

49-65

No. of pages

17

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94000-3_3

Publication date

2021

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

504017 Cultural anthropology, 504007 Empirical social research, 504008 Ethnography, 504009 Ethnology

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Social Sciences, General Arts and Humanities

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/941a1cdb-2840-4c5a-a047-99895d72f205