AnthroCrime - Anthropology of Crime and Criminalisation

Criminal cultures and criminal figures in the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet space
2022-03-30 14:00 - 17:30 (Europe/Paris)
March 30, 2022, 2-5.30 PM CET (3-6.30 PM EET)

Given the ongoing war in Ukraine, and the crisis unfolding in the region and beyond, this workshop wants to be in the first place a platform for discussion and reflection on how our knowledge and experience could help understand current events and future challenges, as citizens and as academics.
Literature on the Soviet Gulag has an established tradition in academia and beyond (Barnes 2011, Hardy 2016, Klevniuk 2004, Solzhenitsyn 1973, Shalamov 1978). Research on prison systems in communist successor countries has also developed steadily (Pallot 2005, Piacentini & Katz 2017, Piacentini & Slade 2015, Moran, Piacentini & Pallot 2012). In this framework of crime and punishment, research on criminal (sub)cultures has mainly focused on informal hierarchies and governance inside the prison, as well as on the influence of social, cultural and moral norms of the criminal world on society ‘outside’ (Varese 1998, Slade & Azbel 2020, Kekoshvili & Slade 2020, Zakharova 2017, Curro 2017, Ferry 2021, Cowley, Ryan & Dunn 2015). Bringing different disciplinary, historical and geographical perspectives in conversation with one another, this workshop aims to provide a space to share empirical findings, epistemological and methodological approaches, theoretical insights, personal experiences and future plans in research on crime and criminals as cultural and social phenomena. Contributions from anthropology, sociology, history and criminology will touch upon a number of interrelated questions: What is ‘specifically Soviet’ – or ‘post-Soviet’ – in criminal cultures and criminal figures populating prisons and streets of Georgia, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, or migration settings? How have these cultures and figures transformed at different stages of Soviet history, with the transition to capitalism at the beginning of the 1990s, and in the three decades after the fall of the Soviet Union? What have been political and legal authorities’ approaches towards the criminal world and its cultural manifestations in different historical, socio-political and geographical settings? And how has the criminal world responded to these approaches?
The workshop will also focus on the connections between prison, criminal cultures and society. Contributions will discuss the ways in which different people and groups – youth, women, middle classes, intelligentsia, the poor – perceive the criminal world; the moral and affective underpinnings of criminal cultures; the interaction between the criminal world’s social and cultural norms and ethnicity, citizenship, religion, class, political orientation. Issues of comparability, terminology and research ethics will be addressed too.

PROGRAM
(please check your timezone by clicking on the time)
2-2.10: Welcome and introduction:
Costanza Curro (University of Helsinki, Finland) and Davide Casciano (AnthroCrime EASA Network, University of Bologna, Italy)

2.10-3.10: Keynote by Federico Varese, University of Oxford, UK:
How war affects crime: Reflections on history and the present of the vory v zakone

3.10-4.20: Session 1 – Crime, criminals and punishment inside and outside prison: Perspectives from sociology, criminology and history
Gavin Slade, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan:

Prison subculture and prison governance: Towards a framework for comparative analysis

Rustam Urinboyev, Lund University, Sweden:

Uzbek transnational prisoners in Russia and their interaction with traditional prison subculture (vorovskoi mir)

Rhiannon Dowling, CUNY, US:

A fishing expedition in Sochi: The popular origins of a late Soviet anti-corruption campaign

4.20-5.30: Session 2 – Ethics and aesthetics of criminal cultures
Vakhtang Kekoshvili, Georgian American University, Georgia:

The thieves in law in Georgia: Resilience, resistance or fallen myth?

Maroussia Ferry, IHEID-CCDP, Switzerland:

The “thief-in-law” as an ambivalent moral horizon for Georgian transnational burglars

Svetlana Stephenson, London Metropolitan University, UK:

The Russian Gang and the Virtue Ethics

Discussants:
Costanza Curro, Judith Pallot (University of Helsinki)

Online book presentation by Didier Fassin: Death of a Traveller
2021-11-15 14:30 - 15:30 (Europe/Paris)
Online book presentation by the author
Didier Fassin, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris
Death of a Traveller: An Experiment in Investigating and Writing
November 15th, 2021
02:30 PM CET time (please check your current timezone here)

Book edited by Polity Press.
Co-Conveners:
Martijn Oosterbaan (Utrecht University), Davide Casciano (University of Bologna) and Lene Swetzer (Graduate Institute of Geneva).

The book presentation will be held online on November 15th, 2021, from 02:30 PM CET (8.30 AM EST).
The event will be held on the software platform Zoom, online. No recording will be stored after the event.

Vigilantism Resurrected
2021-05-20 12:15 - 2021-05-22 17:30 (Europe/Helsinki)
Anthropological Explorations of Violent Transfigurations of State, Crime and Politics across Contexts

May 20-22, 2021
Keynote Speech by
Prof Jean Comaroff (Harvard University)

Across the globe, we are witnessing collective dissent against police violence and (abusive) state practices alongside a resurrection of vigilante activities, that is citizens’ attempts to take law into their own hands to punish alleged criminals. While the perceived targets of these vigilante endeavours vary in different contexts – ranging from communities who are deemed illegal to those who are considered immoral-indecent and from those who slaughter cattle to elected members of parliaments – vigilante groups, by and large, act in defense of historically embedded structures and relations as well as moral orders.
While some scholarly explorations underline how vigilante groups strive to re-assert “law and order” independently of the state power (Johnston 1996; Moncanda 2017), scholars often tend to associate vigilantism with the “dysfunctioning” societal orders and “failed” statehood of the non-western settings (Kuˇcera and Mareš 2015). Critical anthropological approaches, on the other hand, demonstrate how the interrelationship between vigilante groups, statecraft, and the law may present a much more complicated picture that blurs the boundaries between crime and policing. These studies underline that vigilantism cannot be seen “just as a result of a state failure” (Arias 2013). Vigilantism, they show, does not solely emerge in the absence of an effective and non-corrupt judiciary and police structures, but may very well be incorporated into state security practices and frequently occurs in collusion with the state (Abrahams, 1998; Barker 2006; Buur, 2006; Goldstein, 2003; Schubert, 2013). Our research, similarly, indicates that vigilante violence may well augment and strengthen the state through its shouldering of stately responsibilities and (extralegal) violence against alleged criminals and the “enemies within.” Recent outbursts of vigilante violence in Russia, Latin America, India, Turkey, the UK, and the US, we argue, invite us to rethink its localized reconfigurations in relation to haunting legacies of colonialism, racism, economic inequalities, religious tensions, oppressive gendered structures, and post-Cold War polarizations.
Attending to the recent resurrection of vigilantism and its socio-political reverberations across the globe, this workshop explores vigilantism as a symptom that invites us to attend the complex and uneasy relationship between crime and policing as well as legal and extralegal forms of law enforcement, criminality, impunity, politics, and statecraft.

PROGRAM
(please check your timezone by clicking on the time)
DAY I (May 20, 2021, Thursday) (Eventbrite)
Welcoming Remarks by the Organizers 12:15 CEST
PANEL I: Conceptualizing Vigilantism 12:30-14:30 CEST
Melina C. Kalfelis, University of Bayreuth
“Vigilantism as a Process: Reconsidering Violence through the Politics of the Koglweogo Self-Defense Groups in Burkina Faso”
Naomi van Stapele and Laurens Bakker, THUAS and UvA
“Vigilant Relationality: Securing the Local in Kenya and Indonesia during Times of COVID19”
Jacob Rasmussen, Roskilde University
“Parasitic Agency: Conceptualizing Vigilante Relational Actions vis-à-vis the State”
Discussant: David Pratten, University of Oxford

PANEL II: Law and Violence in Neighbourhoods 14:45-16:45 CEST
Rivke Jaffe, University of Amsterdam
“Vigilantism as Legal Hybridity: “Community Justice” in Urban Jamaica”
Ahmad Moradi, FU Berlin
“Vigilantism and Government of Poor Neighbourhoods in Iran”
Sebastian Ramirez, Princeton University
“Death Notice: Aesthetics of Vigilantism and Para-official Terror in Colombia”
Discussant: Deniz Yonucu, Technische Universität Berlin
KEYNOTE ADDRESS 17:00 CEST (11:00 EDT) (Eventbrite)
Prof Jean Comaroff, Harvard University
“Vigilantism and the Practices of Popular Sovereignty”

DAY II (MAY 21, 2021 FRIDAY) (Eventbrite)
OPENING SPEECH 12:30 CEST
Prof Tore Bjørgo, University of Oslo
“The Emergence and Decline of Vigilantism against Migrants and Minorities”

PANEL III: Tracing Vigilantism in Europe 13:30-15:30 CEST
Kristina Ilieva, University of Sussex
“Framing the ‘’Refugee Hunter’’: Gender and Nationalist Perspectives on Border Vigilance in Bulgaria”
Vincenzo Scalia, University of Winchester
“Cosa Nostra: An Unusual Vigilantism?”
Ana Ivasiuc, Philipps Universität Marburg
“‘The State Cannot Protect Us’: How Informal Policing (Un)Makes the State in Western Europe”
Discussant: Erol Saglam, Freie Universität Berlin and Istanbul Medeniyet University

PANEL IV: Religion, Morality, and the Margins of the Law 15.45-17.45 CEST
Geethika Dharmasinghe, Cornell University
“Whose Force is Violence? Sangha, Governance, and Authority”
Marcos Mendoza, University of Mississippi
“Partisan Forces: Tactical Vigilantism and Religious Protest in Michoacán, Mexico”
Salman Hussain, York University
“Miracles of the State: Blasphemy and Forced Disappearances in Pakistan”
Discussant: Martijn Oosterbaan, Utrecht University

DAY III (MAY 22, 2021 SATURDAY) (Eventbrite)
PANEL V: Political Reverberations 13:00-15.00 CEST
Aymon Kreil & Daniele Cantini, University of Ghent and Martin Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg
“Bandits, Civic Associations, Revolutionary Agents? Popular Committees in Egypt, 2011–2013”
Justice Richard K. O. Kyei & Lidewyde H. Berckmoes, Kwame Nkrumah and Leiden Universities
“Political Vigilante Groups in Ghana: Violence or Democracy?”
Andy Fuller, Utrecht University
“Popular Cultures of Premanism: From Bandit to Religious Vigilantism”
Discussant: Davide Casciano, University of Bologna

PANEL VI: Agents of Security 15.15-17.15 CEST
Laurent Gayer, CNRS/CERI Sciences Po, Paris
“Punishers in Uniform: Punitive Police Work in Karachi, Pakistan”
Susana Durao & P. Argentin, University of Campinas State
“Shadow Plural Governance of Security: Internal Dynamics of Public-Private Patrimonial Protection”
Gilles Favarel-Garrigues, CERI Sciences Po, Paris
“‘You are a Disgrace to the Uniform!’: Challenging the Police in Moscow Streets”
Discussant: Tessa Diphoorn, Utrecht University

CLOSING REMARKS 17.30 CEST
Deniz Yonucu, Technische Universität Berlin
Erol Saglam, IMU and FU Berlin
Martijn Oosterbaan, Utrecht University

Download Vigilantism Resurrected Program PDF

The seminar will be held online on May 20-22, 2021 at times according to the program.
The seminar will be held on the software platform Zoom.

Subscribe to my channel« Prev1 / 1Next »PANEL I: Conceptualizing Vigilantism - Vigilantism Resurrected - May 20, 2021- AnthroCrime EASAPANEL II Law and Violence in Neighbourhoods - Vigilantism Resurrected - May 20 2021 AnthroCrime EASAKEYNOTE ADDRESS Prof Jean Comaroff - Vigilantism Resurrected - May 20, 2021- AnthroCrime EASAOPENING SPEECH Prof Tore Bjørgo - Vigilantism Resurrected - May 21, 2021- AnthroCrime EASAPANEL III: Tracing Vigilantism in Europe - Vigilantism Resurrected - May 21, 2021- AnthroCrime EASAPANEL IV Religion Morality the Margins of the Law - Vigilantism Resurrected May 21 2021 AnthroCrimePANEL V: Political Reverberation - Vigilantism Resurrected - May 22, 2021- AnthroCrime EASAPANEL VI: Agents of Security - May 22, 2021- AnthroCrime EASA« Prev1 / 1Next »

Inaugural Seminar
2021-05-07 15:30 - 17:30 (Europe/Helsinki)
Towards an Anthropology of Crime and Criminalisation
May 07th, 2021
03:30 PM CEST time (please check your current timezone here)

This is the inaugural online event of the EASA network on the anthropology of crime and criminalisation, AnthroCrime.
During this event, we will briefly introduce the network and discuss the past, present and future of the anthropology of crime and criminalisation.

Co-Convener Welcome Note:
Martijn Oosterbaan (Utrecht University), Davide Casciano (University of Bologna) and Lene Swetzer (Graduate Institute of Geneva).
Keynote:
Henrik Erdman Vigh
Professor, Head of the PhD Programme in Anthropology, Institut for Antropologi, University of Copenhagen. PI of the ERC project: “Criminal Entanglements. A new ethnographic approach to transnational organised crime”.
Lucia Michelutti
Professor, Head of Social Anthropology Section, Anthropology Department, University College London. PI of the ERC project: “Anthropologies of Extortion”.
Avi Brisman
Associate Professor of Criminology in the School of Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University (Richmond, KY, USA), Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Justice at Queensland University of Technology (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia), Conjoint Associate Professor at Newcastle Law School at the University of Newcastle (Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia). Editor-in-Chief of Critical Criminology: An International Journal.
Q&A session.
Download and share the flyer image from here.

The seminar will be held online on May 07th, 2021, from 03:30 PM CEST (9.30 AM EDT) to accommodate speakers and an audience from different time zones.
The seminar will be held on the software platform Zoom.
