When ethnography is used in fields outside anthropology, vignettes often take a central role. Yet... more When ethnography is used in fields outside anthropology, vignettes often take a central role. Yet methodological discussions of the vignette are not as central to anthropology as their cross‐disciplinary use might warrant. By dwelling on, but perhaps less stringently guarding, disciplinary boundaries, anthropology can gain a clearer view of its own central tools—in this case, vignettes. Reconsidering these tools holds particular relevance for work on refugee studies, an inherently interdisciplinary field that anthropology has had a key role in shaping. Artistic works focused on refugees are considered here from a meta‐ethnographic perspective that pays attention to the processes through which a specific series of artworks were produced alongside their content. Central to this analysis is the role of the vignette in the artist's presentation of her work, which enables an inquiry into the double role of the vignette as both method and presentation in anthropology.
This report presents a selection of life stories from people displaced to the southern part of Cy... more This report presents a selection of life stories from people displaced to the southern part of Cyprus at various points during the conflict. This selection aims to reflect the variety of experiences of refugeehood. Drawing on these experiences, the report emphasizes the wide range of interpretations, feelings, discourses, expectations, and individual actions that they have informed over the years, in people’s attempts to reconstruct their lives after the progressive division of the island. In these terms, the aim of the report is not to factually support a particular perspective or course of action, but rather, to evidence the multiplicity of such perspectives and actions. In this sense, the report shows that an eventual settlement of the property issue must be attentive to the wide variety of experiences of loss, and integrate both material and affective senses of restitution. The report is divided into four parts, which centre around the presentations of life stories in the form o...
Whereas asylum policy is predicated on the assumption that states define refugees, this paper exa... more Whereas asylum policy is predicated on the assumption that states define refugees, this paper examines how refugees define states. Through the legal case of refugees stranded on a British military base in Cyprus since 1998, I show how refugees and the states that grant them or deny them protection become co-constitutive. The processes involved in judicial activism delineate the modalities through which sovereign governance and refugee agencies operate. I argue that modalities of sovereignty (colonialism, exceptionalism, and diplomacy) interact with modalities of agency (protest, vulnerability, and endurance) to redefine issues of refugee protection, state sovereignty, and externalization of migration management. The case shows the risks that denial of protection entails for states and not just refugees. Methodologically, I propose that a nuanced, ground-level understanding of the role of law in activism allows us a clearer view to these imbrications of sovereign governance and agenc...
This chapter discusses the role of women in forging paths into post-liberal peace formations. The... more This chapter discusses the role of women in forging paths into post-liberal peace formations. The adoption of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000 could be said to have marked the incorporation of key tenets of gender rights discourse in the global liberal peace agenda. The resolution is based on liberal principles of representation and participation of women in all levels of peacebuilding and on democratisation in setting up new institutions and norms of gender equality in the post-conflict processes; it also recognises the specific protection needs of women and girls in conflict situations as well as the underutilised contribution women make to conflict prevention, peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and peacekeeping. Ultimately, the chapter asks whether gender discourse can uphold the promise of peace formation by holding peacebuilders accountable to just, democratic, and equal societies.
This article addresses the way in which ‘the Cyprus conflict’ post-1974 has been constructed in s... more This article addresses the way in which ‘the Cyprus conflict’ post-1974 has been constructed in studies that straddle the academic/political divide. Since their inception, analyses of the Cyprus conflict have striven to produce accounts that are insightful, impartial, yet at the same time engaged. The article focuses on authors who have had an impact on wider Greek-Cypriot public perceptions beyond academia and analyses their treatment of impartiality and engagement. What such works have in common, the article suggests, is the fact that they attempt to navigate the space between political analysis and political involvement, and therefore, the tension between impartiality and engagement is of primary importance in the interpretation of the discourse each deals with. Genette’s concept of ‘paratexts’ is used to argue that strategies of managing the tension between impartiality and engagement as well as further tensions arising from it are evident in paratextual material, emphasising wh...
The political materialities of borders aims to bring questions of materiality to bear specificall... more The political materialities of borders aims to bring questions of materiality to bear specifically on the study of borders. In doing this, the contributors have chosen an approach that does not presume the material aspect of borders but rather explores the ways in which any such materiality comes into being. Through ethnographic and philosophical explorations of the ontology of borders from the perspective of materiality, this volume seeks to throw light on the interaction between the materiality of state borders and the non-material aspects of state-making. This enables, it is shown, a new understanding of borders as productive of the politics of materiality, on which both the state project rests, including in its multifarious forms in the post-nation-state era.
This article addresses the way in which ‘the Cyprus conflict’ post-1974 has been constructed in s... more This article addresses the way in which ‘the Cyprus conflict’ post-1974 has been constructed in studies that straddle the academic/political divide. Since their inception, analyses of the Cyprus conflict have striven to produce accounts that are insightful, impartial, yet at the same time engaged. The article focuses on authors who have had an impact on wider Greek-Cypriot public perceptions beyond academia and analyses their treatment of impartiality and engagement. What such works have in common, the article suggests, is the fact that they attempt to navigate the space between political analysis and political involvement, and therefore, the tension between impartiality and engagement is of primary importance in the interpretation of the discourse each deals with. Genette’s concept of ‘paratexts’ is used to argue that strategies of managing the tension between impartiality and engagement as well as further tensions arising from it are evident in paratextual material, emphasising wh...
When ethnography is used in fields outside anthropology, vignettes often take a central role. Yet... more When ethnography is used in fields outside anthropology, vignettes often take a central role. Yet methodological discussions of the vignette are not as central to anthropology as their cross‐disciplinary use might warrant. By dwelling on, but perhaps less stringently guarding, disciplinary boundaries, anthropology can gain a clearer view of its own central tools—in this case, vignettes. Reconsidering these tools holds particular relevance for work on refugee studies, an inherently interdisciplinary field that anthropology has had a key role in shaping. Artistic works focused on refugees are considered here from a meta‐ethnographic perspective that pays attention to the processes through which a specific series of artworks were produced alongside their content. Central to this analysis is the role of the vignette in the artist's presentation of her work, which enables an inquiry into the double role of the vignette as both method and presentation in anthropology.
This report presents a selection of life stories from people displaced to the southern part of Cy... more This report presents a selection of life stories from people displaced to the southern part of Cyprus at various points during the conflict. This selection aims to reflect the variety of experiences of refugeehood. Drawing on these experiences, the report emphasizes the wide range of interpretations, feelings, discourses, expectations, and individual actions that they have informed over the years, in people’s attempts to reconstruct their lives after the progressive division of the island. In these terms, the aim of the report is not to factually support a particular perspective or course of action, but rather, to evidence the multiplicity of such perspectives and actions. In this sense, the report shows that an eventual settlement of the property issue must be attentive to the wide variety of experiences of loss, and integrate both material and affective senses of restitution. The report is divided into four parts, which centre around the presentations of life stories in the form o...
Whereas asylum policy is predicated on the assumption that states define refugees, this paper exa... more Whereas asylum policy is predicated on the assumption that states define refugees, this paper examines how refugees define states. Through the legal case of refugees stranded on a British military base in Cyprus since 1998, I show how refugees and the states that grant them or deny them protection become co-constitutive. The processes involved in judicial activism delineate the modalities through which sovereign governance and refugee agencies operate. I argue that modalities of sovereignty (colonialism, exceptionalism, and diplomacy) interact with modalities of agency (protest, vulnerability, and endurance) to redefine issues of refugee protection, state sovereignty, and externalization of migration management. The case shows the risks that denial of protection entails for states and not just refugees. Methodologically, I propose that a nuanced, ground-level understanding of the role of law in activism allows us a clearer view to these imbrications of sovereign governance and agenc...
This chapter discusses the role of women in forging paths into post-liberal peace formations. The... more This chapter discusses the role of women in forging paths into post-liberal peace formations. The adoption of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000 could be said to have marked the incorporation of key tenets of gender rights discourse in the global liberal peace agenda. The resolution is based on liberal principles of representation and participation of women in all levels of peacebuilding and on democratisation in setting up new institutions and norms of gender equality in the post-conflict processes; it also recognises the specific protection needs of women and girls in conflict situations as well as the underutilised contribution women make to conflict prevention, peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and peacekeeping. Ultimately, the chapter asks whether gender discourse can uphold the promise of peace formation by holding peacebuilders accountable to just, democratic, and equal societies.
This article addresses the way in which ‘the Cyprus conflict’ post-1974 has been constructed in s... more This article addresses the way in which ‘the Cyprus conflict’ post-1974 has been constructed in studies that straddle the academic/political divide. Since their inception, analyses of the Cyprus conflict have striven to produce accounts that are insightful, impartial, yet at the same time engaged. The article focuses on authors who have had an impact on wider Greek-Cypriot public perceptions beyond academia and analyses their treatment of impartiality and engagement. What such works have in common, the article suggests, is the fact that they attempt to navigate the space between political analysis and political involvement, and therefore, the tension between impartiality and engagement is of primary importance in the interpretation of the discourse each deals with. Genette’s concept of ‘paratexts’ is used to argue that strategies of managing the tension between impartiality and engagement as well as further tensions arising from it are evident in paratextual material, emphasising wh...
The political materialities of borders aims to bring questions of materiality to bear specificall... more The political materialities of borders aims to bring questions of materiality to bear specifically on the study of borders. In doing this, the contributors have chosen an approach that does not presume the material aspect of borders but rather explores the ways in which any such materiality comes into being. Through ethnographic and philosophical explorations of the ontology of borders from the perspective of materiality, this volume seeks to throw light on the interaction between the materiality of state borders and the non-material aspects of state-making. This enables, it is shown, a new understanding of borders as productive of the politics of materiality, on which both the state project rests, including in its multifarious forms in the post-nation-state era.
This article addresses the way in which ‘the Cyprus conflict’ post-1974 has been constructed in s... more This article addresses the way in which ‘the Cyprus conflict’ post-1974 has been constructed in studies that straddle the academic/political divide. Since their inception, analyses of the Cyprus conflict have striven to produce accounts that are insightful, impartial, yet at the same time engaged. The article focuses on authors who have had an impact on wider Greek-Cypriot public perceptions beyond academia and analyses their treatment of impartiality and engagement. What such works have in common, the article suggests, is the fact that they attempt to navigate the space between political analysis and political involvement, and therefore, the tension between impartiality and engagement is of primary importance in the interpretation of the discourse each deals with. Genette’s concept of ‘paratexts’ is used to argue that strategies of managing the tension between impartiality and engagement as well as further tensions arising from it are evident in paratextual material, emphasising wh...
The political materialities of borders aims to bring questions of materiality to bear specificall... more The political materialities of borders aims to bring questions of materiality to bear specifically on the study of borders. In doing this, the contributors have chosen an approach that does not presume the material aspect of borders but rather explores the ways in which any such materiality comes into being. Through ethnographic and philosophical explorations of the ontology of borders from the perspective of materiality, this volume seeks to throw light on the interaction between the materiality of state borders and the non-material aspects of state-making. This enables, it is shown, a new understanding of borders as productive of the politics of materiality, on which both the state project rests, including in its multifarious forms in the post-nation-state era.
Being a “refugee” is not simply a matter of law, determination procedures, or the act of flight. ... more Being a “refugee” is not simply a matter of law, determination procedures, or the act of flight. It is an ontological condition, structured by the politics of law, affect, and territory. Refugeehood and the Postconflict Subject explores the variable facets of refugeehood, their interconnections, and their intended and unintended consequences. Grounded on more than a decade of research on the island of Cyprus, Olga Maya Demetriou considers how different groups of “refugees” coexist and how this coexistence invites reinterpretations of the law and its politics. The long-standing political conflict in Cyprus produced not only the paradigmatic, formally recognized “refugee” but also other groups of displaced persons not so categorized. By examining the people and circumstances, Demetriou reveals the tensions and contestations within the international refugee regimes and argues that any reinterpretation that accounts for these tensions also needs to recognize that these “minor” losses are not incidental to refugeehood but an intrinsic part of the wider issues.
Borders of states, borders of citizenship, borders of exclusion. As the lines drawn on internatio... more Borders of states, borders of citizenship, borders of exclusion. As the lines drawn on international treaty maps become ditches in the ground and roaming barriers in the air, a complex state apparatus is set up to regulate the lives of those who cannot be expelled, yet those who have never been properly “rooted.” This study explores the mechanisms employed at the interstices of two opposing views on the presence of minority populations in western Thrace: the legalization of their status as établis (established) and the failure to incorporate the minority in the Greek national imaginary. Revealing the logic of government bureaucracy shows how they replicate difference from the inter-state level to the communal and the personal.
Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies Volume 14, Issue 2, 2012, May 31, 2012
This paper examines the conflicts and politics of heritage within communities and across the ethn... more This paper examines the conflicts and politics of heritage within communities and across the ethnic divide in Cyprus. By looking at three case studies of religious, antiquarian and modern heritage, it underscores the selective appropriations and restorations of heritage as well as problems of heritage identification and protection. Specifically it is concerned with the status of churches and building of mosques in the northern part of the island, the symbolic uses of the Kyrenia shipwreck and its replicas, and the difficulty in politically appropriating the ruined Nicosia airport that is located in the UN Buffer Zone.
it came as a complete shock because they thought it would never happen; but once it had happened,... more it came as a complete shock because they thought it would never happen; but once it had happened, it was not really a surprise at all. The United Kingdom has had a tempestuous relationship with the European Economic Community (EEC) and then the European Union (EU), ever since it joined in 1973. The discussions against this huge European border experiment (one of the most radical border experiments I can think of) have been unceasing, and came from left and right (and of course from anarchists), from the centre and the peripheries, from populists and internationalists. Those in favour of whatever 'Europe' might mean were always much less newsworthy. Anthropologists were among many who lined up to critique everything about the politics, economics, ideology, structure and especially the bureaucracy of the EU (and some of them have contributed to this Forum). Yet once the referendum result was published, I realised that there is also much material in my field notes that shows that people did not really mean that the EU should cease to exist. Like the constant complaints against the habits of one's closest kin, roiling against the EU is serious, but it does not really mean disavowal or divorce. Until, apparently, it does. This Forum represents the immediate reactions of 24 colleagues in anthropology about 'Brexit'. The commentaries were all written within five days of the news coming out. Apart from having to trim the texts for space reasons, they have been left as they are, documents of immediate, often raw, reactions. In that sense, these texts are as much witness statements as they are observations; as much an echo chamber of all the endless discussion that came in the aftermath of the result as it is considered observation; as much an emotional reaction as it is analysis. I did ask all contributors to think about how to engage their knowledge of anthropology in addressing this issue. As their responses describe, there are many hugely serious and frankly alarming political, economic and ideological challenges facing both Europe and the world at the moment that have become entangled with Brexit. So this is not the time to sit back and say nothing. Others have been speaking out too, of course, including Felix Stein's Social Anthropology (2016) 0, 0 1–25.
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