Politics

Iraqui Policemen

Bureaucraft: Statemakers in Amman and Baghdad

We are excited to share that Omar Sirri from the University of Toronto will be speaking at our 2023 seminar series. Omar will discuss the work of bakers and soldiers in Amman and Baghdad, and how the engage in “bureaucraft” to provide citizens with basic public goods.This seminar is co-sponsored by The Middle East Research Group (Politics and International Relations), Social Anthropology and SKAPE.

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Photo of Edinburgh, Scotland, with the Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh Castle, and the Scott Monument visible in the skyline.

The use of expertise in the Scottish referendum debate: build them up to knock them down?

In a wonderfully perceptive article from 1999, German sociologist Peter Weingart identifies two paradoxes surrounding the use of science in political debate (and we can apply this to expertise more generally). First, late modern societies show an unprecedented dependence on expert knowledge to assess the risks and consequences of political action.

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