85 research outputs found
A kaleidoscopic institutional form: expertise and transformation in the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
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Global Legal Institutions
No full textGlobal legal institutions such as UN agencies, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization have become sites of some of the most innovative research in the social sciences, with implications that carry over into the methods and perspectives of legal scholarship. This chapter presents an outline of the history and methods of ethnography in global legal institutions as well as an account of the main findings of ethnographic work in this context. One of the key findings of ethnographic inquiry is that the structural failings and disenchantment of these institutions are at variance with persistent expressions of hope that are at the foundation of institutional ethics and self-representation. This hope is now being channelled into possibilities opened up by new information and communication technologies. These institutions are capitalizing on digitalization and innovations in technology as sources of decision-making. At the same time, new spaces have been created for private sector involvement in global governance initiatives, most prominently the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights. The UN, together with its corporate partners, is developing powerful information and communications technologies that present both important opportunities and risks in the administration of programmes in which artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are essential tools. These initiatives also present an important place for ethnographic research in presenting a clearer picture of the new geography of global governance and its legal frameworks
“Bushmen” in the law: evidence and identity in Botswana's High Court
No full textThis article, based on ethnography and analysis of court transcripts, considers the case that a group of San and Bakgalagadi brought against the government of Botswana to the country's High Court. The proceedings and judgment in the case illustrate the ways that court process gives life to legal categories. This is particularly clear in the evidence filed in defense of indigenous rights because the knowledge and experience of collective claimants is often at odds with the premises and power structures of state courts. Evidence and expertise are brought to bear as ways to lend authority to the facts that make up an argument. Several key concepts were discussed in court, notably those of “applicants,” “Bushmen,” and “native title,” each of which had important consequences for the claimants. Following the lives of the legal categories from observations within the courtroom itself, to their lasting influence on the applicants to this day, this article illustrates the durability and political significance of the concepts and categories elaborated in the verdict
Introduzione
No full textPresentazione delle questioni teoriche, etnografiche e politiche implicate dal tema del volume, con una contestualizzazione storica e una rassegna sintetica della letteratura scientifica sul tema. Il saggio introduttivo fornisce chiavi di lettura circa le questioni generali relative all'indigenità africana, i rapporti tra indigeni e ONU e tra indigeni e Stato, le politiche del primitivismo, l'essenzialismo, i nuovi media e la relazione tra indigeni e natura
Legal Practitioners and Anthropologists in Dialogue : Returning to the Spirit of Complementarity and Collaboration
No full textIn this introduction to the volume, the editors think methodologically about the practical implications of collaboration between anthropologists and legal practitioners. One thing to keep in mind when reflecting on the relationship between practitioners and experts is Douglas Holmes and George Marcus's (2008) concept of ‘para-ethnography’ – the idea that anthropologists can usefully develop or cultivate a collaborative relationship with high-level experts in circumstances in which their different forms of knowledge (or ‘epistemic communities’) are brought together in a common venture, based on shared understanding of the ethnographic project and a collaborative production of knowledge. This approach to ethnography involves reflexive practice, oriented toward collaborative understanding of the institutional world of the expert. The introduction takes the issues addressed in the contributions to this volume beyond their immediate applied implications, and provides a starting point for us to think more methodologically and theoretically about how para-ethnography can be usefully applied to the collaborative relationships of anthropologists, lawyers, and claimants working towards shared knowledge in the interests of common strategic goals. Conceived of in this way, the authors see a much wider range of situations and struggles in which anthropological and legal knowledge can be usefully brought together
Dispossession in the age of humanity: human rights, citizenship, and indigeneity in the Central Kalahari
No full textOver the past 50 years, the Central Kalahari region of Botswana became a site of struggles over land and resources rights, identity, citizenship, and indigeneity. The policies of the government of Botswana towards the San express the dominant Tswana perspectives on humanity and what is considered human. Since independence in 1966 the goals of the government of Botswana have been to sedentarise the San and to transform them into ‘modern’ citizens who live in villages, keep livestock, and engage in agriculture and business. In this paper I analyse the case of the people of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and their battles over rights and recognition as citizens of Botswana and as human beings. I examine how the government's decisions to deny Central Kalahari residents their distinct rights to natural resources such as wildlife—in spite of High Court decisions in the San's favour—as well as rights to services and development shared by other citizens—are linked to the dominant Tswana understanding of humanity
Anthropology and the AI-Turn in Global Governance
No full textUnder the banner “AI (artificial intelligence) for good,” new technologies are becoming more and more central to the agendas of global and regional institutions, as technologies to be embraced and regulated at the same time. This is indicated by the 2018 UN Secretary General’s Strategy on New Technology,1 and by the most recent European Commission proposal to regulate artificial intelligence systems.2 In this essay, I discuss how anthropology and its ethnographic method could contribute to our understanding of the AI-turn in global governance, by shedding greater light on the effects that the use of this technology has for society, the work of institutions, and the production and application of international law. I argue that engaging ethnographically with AI techniques and knowledge could also bring about a transformation in governance, policy-making, and anthropological theory
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