Thomas Bierschenk

• Professor em. of Anthropology and Modern African Studies
• University Professor em. at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

‘States at Work’ explores the mundane practices of state-making in Africa by focusing on the daily functioning of public services and the practices of civil servants. Adopting mainly an ethnographic approach as a basis for theorizing, the authors deal with topics including: bureaucratic cultures and practical norms, operational routines in offices,...

Die Fastnacht, mit ihren drei Formaten Straßenfastnacht, Saalfastnacht und Kneipenfastnacht, ist das größte popkulturelle Ereignis in der Stadt Mainz und in Rheinhessen, mit intensiven Vernetzungen in die regioale Politik und Wirtschaft. Seit den bürgerlichen Reformen in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts, die unternommen worden waren, um das V...

How the police deal with difference – in terms of race, ethnicity or culture – has become a key issue for policing. Public discourse is dominated by shocking news events, many of them in the US, but also in Europe. The book investigates everyday interactions between police officers and citizens, often those labelled as ‘migrants’, asking how such d...

Recently, there has been a lively debate generated in Marxist-inspired political economy around the concept of rentier capitalism – an economic formation dominated by rentiers, rents, and rent-generating assets. This debate has concerned the Global North but – taking inspiration from recent empirical work that we have curated – we propose that the...

Zusammenfassung Die Geschichte der Beschäftigung deutschsprachiger Ethnolog:innen mit dem Thema Ent- wicklung nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg lässt sich in drei Phasen einteilen: von der Ablehnung und Tabuisierung durch die meisten Lehrstuhlinhaber (bis etwa 1980) über die Entstehung einer Bindestrich-Ethnologie (ab 1980) bis hin zum Mainstreaming im Fa...

One indication of the quality of a scholarly study is surely the extent to which it passes the test of time. Babül's study of how universal human rights discourses are translated into local contexts in European Union training courses for Turkish government officials passes this test with flying colors. Even five years after its publication, this bo...

https://polarjournal.org/2022/03/22/bureaucratic-intimacies-translating-human-rights-in-turkey-by-elif-babul-stanford-ca-stanford-university-press-2017-%EF%BF%BC/ https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/plar.12476

Twenty years after The Economist called Africa “the hopeless continent” (13 May 2000), the view has profoundly changed. At least until the pandemic, the effects of which are unclear at the present time, the dominant mood had been decidedly positive, one of “Lions on the Move”. This euphoria was supported by perceived dynamics in economic fields lik...

Addressing the expectation of development researchers and practitioners that strong business associations are of particular importance for economic development, this paper analyses the real workings of these associations, using the example of the Republic of Benin. In this country, large organizations function in a deeply-politicized milieu, with t...

The history of anthropology’s engagement with development in the post-World War II German-speaking world (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) can be divided into three phases: from being strongly rejected by most professorial chair holders (to around 1980), through the emergence of a subfield of anthropology (from 1980) and into the mainstream of the...

a critical review of David Graeber's views on bureaucracy which points to the weak scholarship behind the book and the lack of familiarity with the topical literatur, which make this an altogether unacceptably bad book; see https://www.focaalblog.com/2021/10/19/thomas-bierschenk-on-graeber-on-bureaucracy/

Anthropology is a latecomer to the study of bureaucracy. Nonetheless, the anthropological study of organizations—of which bureaucracies are a subtype, as larger organizations are always bureaucratically organized—was initiated by anthropologists as early as the 1920s. Since the 2010s, the anthropology of bureaucracy has slowly consolidated into a d...

This postface argues for a narrow and analytically strong concept of brokerage, which is oriented towards the classical definition by Boissevain. His ideal type emphasises the agency of brokers who actively pursue their own interests and act at an equal distance to the groups between which they mediate. Furthermore, the text argues for thinking of...

The connection between police and security is axiomatic for all major German political parties (CDU/CSU, SPD, FDP, Bündnis90/Die Grünen, Die Linke, AfD). Differences arise in the definition of security and the role of the police in its production, as well as in the extent to which the police should cooperate with other state, societal and supranati...

This text, and the special issue to which it is an introduction, argues that bureaucrats may act as ‘para-ethnologists’ in their dealings with clients: their use of the category of culture is, after all, not that different from how anthropologists used it, before the discipline turned away from the term ‘culture’ in the 1990s, for implying reificat...

This postface links the contributions to this special issue to wider concerns in the anthropology of bureaucracy and the history of this disciplinary subfield. Anthropologists focus on documentary practices: how documents are produced, how they are being used (not always in the sense originally given to them by the producers), how they might be ' b...

Abstract: The present study identifies three major challenges for Beninese entrepreneurs as they themselves perceive and experience them: access to foreign markets, access to credit, and the limited effectiveness of the Industrial Free Zone, which was intended as a means of industrial promotion. Entrepreneurship in Benin is hindered by the politica...

Call for papers for the journal 'Anthropology and Development'

Appel à contributions pour un numéro thématique de la revue 'Anthropologie et Développement', coordonné par Thomas Bierschenk et José María Muñoz, à paraître en 2021. Ce numéro souhaite explorer de manière ethnographique et analytique les liens entre le capitalisme émergent (ou non), les activités du secteur privé, les entrepreneurs (dans un sens é...

Résumé : Le dynamisme du capitalisme en Afrique a récemment été reprécisé dans les études de développement, d’autant plus que la promotion du secteur dit privé est devenue un domaine d'intervention prioritaire pour les agences de développement. A partir d’une étude empirique détaillée de moyens et grands entrepreneurs et de leurs associations au Bé...

Du point de vue de la théorie juridique, l’État moderne et la police sont mutuellement constitutifs : la police est l’instrument grâce auquel l’État exerce son monopole interne de la force physique et, ainsi, sa souveraineté. D’un point de vue sociologique cependant, l’État, son droit et ses règlementations bureaucratiques ne constituent qu’un ordr...

We propose a short epistemological and methodological reflection on the challenges of doing ethnographical research on public services (‘bureaucracies’) from the inside. We start from the recognition of the double face of bureaucracy, as a form of domination and oppression as well as of protection and liberation, and all the ambivalences this diale...

This commentary explores the assets and liabilities of anthropology for the study of core functions of statehood (such as taxation) that increasingly become a matter of transnational negotiation and norm-making. It takes issue with some anthropologists’ counter-hegemonic self-positioning, calling upon anthropologists to think harder about the condi...

States at Work explores the mundane practices of state-making in Africa by focussing on the daily functioning of public services and the practices of civil servants. Adopting mainly an ethnographic approach as a basis for theorizing, the authors deal with topics including: bureaucratic cultures and practical norms, operational routines in offices,...

This chapter addresses the question: Who are the police in Africa? As stated in the introduction to this book, this question represents a call for a globally comparative historical sociology of the police as an organization and profession. The question is raised here – implicitly at least – as to whether generic commonalities exist between police o...

The article explores the developments in German-language anthropology in the past decades, focussing on the period after the 1970s. It argues that the recent history of German-language Ethnologie (social and cultural anthropology) is one of catching-up modernization. German-speaking anthropologists are increasingly involved in, and contribute to, b...

Many African states south of the Sahara celebrated half a century of political independence around the year 2010. This paper, originally written in German as introduction to an edited topical volume (Bierschenk and Spies 2012), evaluates this 50-year period and presents perspectives on the future challenges facing these states. It summarizes the de...

From the standpoint of legal theory, the modern state and the police constitute each other: the police is the instrument by which the state internally realizes its monopoly of violence and thus its sovereignty. From a sociological point of view, however, the state, its law and its bureaucratic regulations are only one moral order towards which poli...

From the standpoint of legal theory, the modern state and the police constitute each other: the police is the instrument by which the state internally realizes its monopoly of violence and thus its sovereignty. From a sociological point of view, however, the state, its law and its bureaucratic regulations are only one moral order towards which poli...

The wokring paper explores the developments in German-language anthropology in the past decades, focussing on the period after the 1970s. It argues that the recent history of German-language Ethnologie (social and cultural anthropology) is one of catching-up modernization. German-speaking anthropologists are increasingly involved in, and contribute...

With the transformation of development policy to global structural policy, the 'old' anthropology of development must become an anthropology of global social engineering. This involves the challenge of focusing on the entire policy chain - from the production of development policy models in the context of the development agencies, to the different...

http://www.ifeas.uni-mainz.de/Dateien/AP_150.pdf Die Geschichte der ethnologischen Auseinandersetzung mit Entwicklung im deutschsprachigen Raum lässt sich in drei Phasen untergliedern: von der Abwehr durch die meisten Lehrstuhlvertreter (bis ca. 1980) über eine Bindestrich-Ethnologie (seit 1980) hinein mitten ins Fach (seit ca. 2000). Eine solche...

Introduction to the Featured Topic "50 Years of Independence in Africa", Africa Spectrum, Vol. 45, No. 3 (2010)

Review of the monograph: Pierre Englebert (2009), Africa: Unity, Sovereignty, and Sorrow, Boulder, Co. & London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, ISBN: 978-1-58826-646-0 (Hardcover) / 978-1-58826-623-1 (Paperback), 310 pages.

Review of the monograph: Pierre Englebert (2009), Africa: Unity, Sovereignty, and Sorrow, Boulder, Co. & London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, ISBN: 978-1-58826-646-0 (Hardcover) / 978-1-58826-623-1 (Paperback), 310 pages. Besprechung der Monographie: Pierre Englebert (2009), Africa: Unity, Sovereignty, and Sorrow, Boulder, Co. & London: Lynne Rienner...

The reviewer was left with the overall impression of a surprising loss of disciplinary identity revealed in the architecture of this book, and of a hotch-potch of texts hastily cobbled together to occupy a market slot. The state is indeed a promising object for an ethnographically oriented anthropology but it would require a different book to effec...

Many African states south of the Sahara celebrated half a century of political independence around the year 2010. This paper, originally written in German as introduction to an edited topical volume (Bierschenk and Spies 2012), evaluates this 50-year period and presents perspectives on the future challenges facing these states. It summarizes the de...

Introduction to the Featured Topic "50 Years of Independence in Africa", Africa Spectrum, Vol. 45, No. 3 (2010) Einleitung zum Themenschwerpunkt "50 Jahre Unabhängigkeit in Afrika" in Heft 3, Jahrgang 45 (2010) der Zeitschrift "Africa Spectrum".

Review of the monograph: Robert H. Bates: When Things Fell Apart. State Failure in Late-Century Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, Paperback ISBN 9780521715256; Hardback ISBN 9780521887359; 216 pages

In contrast to a widely held view that sees Benin’s democratic transition in 1989 primarily as the fall-out of global tendencies, this paper focuses specifically on the internal causes of this historical event, which it locates in the context of the history of Dahomey/Benin since 1960 and the country’s political economy. It argues that, while the R...

Review of the monograph: Robert H. Bates: When Things Fell Apart. State Failure in Late-Century Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, Paperback ISBN 9780521715256; Hardback ISBN 9780521887359; 216 pages Besrpechung der Monographie: Robert H. Bates: When Things Fell Apart. State Failure in Late-Century Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni...

Taking as an example a project for improving cattle farming in the north-west Peoples' Republic of Benin, this article shows that carrying out development aid projects can be interpreted as a continuing process of negotiation between different strategic groups - in this case governments, development agencies, foreign experts, indigenous cadres, cul...

On the basis of ethnographic research this paper examines the everyday functioning of the legal system and the common professional practices of its actors in the Republic of Benin. The fundamental functional problems of the Beninese legal system arise from severe personnel, material and technical, organizational and regulatory under-resourcing or m...

Ever since the ‘democratic renewal’ of 1989–90, Benin has been regarded as a model democracy in the African context. The holding of local elections in 2002–03 can be seen as the culmination of this turn to democracy. Donors attach high expectations to decentralisation and local democracy. Based on an empirical analysis of municipal elections in Par...

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/article/engberg-pedersenlars-endangering-development-politics-projects-and-environment-in-burkina-faso-westport-conn-and-london-praeger-hb-us7695-0275979105-2003-184-pp/0498ED6F8966EA843CE5296EB77A6C61) -- Together with a range of other buzz words like stakeholder, ownership, empowerment, governance et...

Konflikte scheinen heute gleichbedeutend mit Gewalt und Krieg. Doch Konflikte sind vielschichtig: Sie können sowohl zur Integration von Gesellschaften beitragen als auch diese zerbrechen. Die Anthropologie der Konflikte, zu der Georg Elwert weiterführende Thesen beigetragen hat, beleuchtet unterschiedliche Konfliktdynamiken und geht der Frage nach,...

The Republic of Benin has often been cited as a model democracy in the African context. After years of pressure from bilateral aid donors, particularly France and Germany, municipal elections were held in 2002. This article addresses three related questions. How have free presidential and parliamentary elections affected political dynamics at the l...

Under Benin's neo-patrimonial multi-party democracy, political continuity and social peace have been achieved at the cost of political immobilism. Major reform projects have advanced very slowly at best, relying heavily on donor-financed expertise and external pressure. At the same time, poorly co-ordinated and rather clientelistic aid has been a m...

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The Republic of Benin has often been cited as a model democracy in the African context. After years of pressure from bilateral aid donors, particularly France and Germany, municipal elections were held in 2002. This article addresses three related questions. How have free presidential and parliamentary elections affected political dynamics at the l...

Bierschenk, Thomas, Jean-Pierre Chauveau, and Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan. 2002. Local Development Brokers in Africa. The Rise of a New Social Category, Working Papers of the Department of Anthropology and African Studies. No. 13. Mainz: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität; https://www.ifeas.uni-mainz.de/files/2019/07/Local.pdf. This is the English...

Under Benin's neo-patrimonial multi-party democracy, political continuity and social peace have been achieved at the cost of political immobilism. Major reform projects have advanced very slowly at best, relying heavily on donor-financed expertise and external pressure. At the same time, poorly coordinated and rather clientelistic aid has been a ma...

Toute agence de coopération ou toute ONG qui monte un « projet » en Afrique a besoin d’interlocuteurs locaux quiexpriment les « besoins » ou les « attentes » des populations, tout en les formulant dans un langage susceptible de plaire aux bailleurs de fonds. Ces intermédiaires, qui assurent l’interface entre les destinataires du projet et les insti...

The ongoing or planned processes of political and administrative decentralisation in Africa are to be seen in connection to changes of national regimes occurring in the region since World War II. It is to be expected that this intervention "from above" will be absorbed in the local political arenas the same way - relative to locally ruling norms an...