Book launch: States and the Making of Others: Perspectives on Social State Institutions and Othering in Southern Africa and Western Europe

sans titre

The volume offers a unique interdisciplinary and comparative perspective on contemporary processes of othering by state institutions in relation to dynamics of racism, xenophobia, sexism, homo-transphobia, as well as ethnic- and class-based discriminations. It gathers a theoretical introductory chapter and eight original case studies empirically grounded in various domains of the “social state”, in Southern African and Western European contexts: the education and health care systems, the regulation of work and of procreation rights, and institutions in charge of granting asylum. The book provides key insights on how states produce Others, and on how othering contributes in turn to the process of state formation and the politicization of public action.

The book was published in 2024 in the Sciences Po Series in International Relations and Political Economy, Palgrave Macmillan, and is edited by Jeanne Bouyat, Amandine Le Bellec and Lucas Puygrenier.

Here is a link to an interview with the three book editors introducing the key arguments of the book:

https://www.sciencespo.fr/ceri/en/content/state-others-and-others-state-interview-jeanne-bouyat-amandine-le-bellec-lucas-puygrenier.html


PROGRAMME

 

2.15-3.15 pm

Panel 1: Introduction to the book and its theoretical contributions

Welcoming and introduction

Pascal Marty, director of the MFO

 

Presentation of the theoretical introductory chapter and the book outline

Jeanne Bouyat, Lecturer at Sciences Po Grenoble - PACTE

Lucas Puygrenier, Postdoc at the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) - CMH

Discussant: Madeleine Reeves, Professor at the University of Oxford - School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography

 

3.15-4 pm

Panel 2: Obliterating Others, Reclaiming Otherness: Re-Narrations of Official History

History-Making as Othering: Perspectives on Zimbabwe’s Patriotic History from Matabeleland

Lena Reim, Lecturer at the University of Oxford – Department of African Studies

Not White Enough, Not Biko Black Enough: The Othering of Coloured Identity in the South African History Classroom

Natasha Robinson, Postdoc at the University of Oxford – Department of Education

Discussant: David Johnson, University Reader at the University of Oxford – Department of Education

 

4.15-5 pm

Panel 3: Leaving Them at the Gate: Rejection and Subordination Through Public Welfare Delivery

Gatekeeping the School Against Foreign Others: Three Dimensions of Institutional Xenophobia at School in South Africa

Jeanne Bouyat, Lecturer at Sciences Po Grenoble - PACTE

Claiming Status: How Working State Jobs Mediates French Caribbean Women’s Experiences of Othering

Marine Haddad, Research fellow at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) - INED

Discussant: Abigail Branford, Programme Research Fellow at the University College of London and Research Associate at the University of Oxford