Governing Cultures

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

   PDF

2. Government Matters

   • Kendra Coulter, William R. Schumann

   Pages 1-19

3. Navigating the Illegible State

   • Tara A. Schwegler

   Pages 21-46

4. A Project of Governing and its Contradictions

   • A. Kim Clark

   Pages 47-67

5. Governing Beef

   • Alan Smart, Josephine Smart

   Pages 69-92

6. Selling Clear Red Water

   • William R. Schumann

   Pages 93-109

7. Legislative Authenticity and the Politics of Recognition

   • Ilana Gershon

   Pages 111-135

8. Gendering Government

   • Kendra Coulter

   Pages 137-157

9. The Work of being Governed

   • Susan Brin Hyatt

   Pages 159-181

10. The Will to end Hunger in the Age of Security

    • David V. Fazzino II

    Pages 183-208

11. The Work of Governing

    • John Clarke

    Pages 209-231

12. Back Matter

    Pages 233-238

    PDF

By assembling original, ethnographically-grounded research in legislatures, executives, and bureaucracies, this volume illuminates and unpacks the structures, practices, and values of government actors in local, regional, and national contexts.

"A groundbreaking collection of innovative studies of the complicated doing of governing, Governing Cultures is essential reading for anyone - in anthropology, sociology, geography, political science, or policy science - interested in productions and relations of labor, power, and meaning in government. Coulter and Schumann bring together analyses of the heterogeneous specificities of governing cultures and cultures of governing that together lay the theoretical and methodological foundations for a much needed new anthropology of government." - Catherine Kingfisher, professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Lethbridge

"This collection provides a fascinating exploration of the work of governing from an anthropological perspective. It presents a range of detailed ethnographic studies which engage with theories of governmentality and the state, and illustrates that the practice of governing is infinitely more contested than theoretical abstraction implies. The empirical focus is wide-ranging and international including discussions of food security, how governments and governing are gendered, the work involved in creating political identities for nations and states, and how indigenous peoples engage with processes of governing. It includes historical analyses as well as more contemporary ethnographic research and is an important contribution to our understanding of the process of government in all its messiness and complexity." - Nickie Charles, professor,Department of Sociology and Director of the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender, University of Warwick

KIM CLARK University of Western Ontario, Canada JOHN CLARKE The Open University DAVID FAZZINO University of Alaska at Fairbanks, USA ILANA GERSHON Indiana University, USA SUSAN BRIN HYATT Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis, USA TARA SCHWEGLER Independent scholar ALAN SMART University of Calgary, Canada JOSEPHINE SMART University of Calgary, Canada

Policies and ethics