Table Of ContentAffective StAteS
Studies in Social Analysis
General Editor: Martin Holbraad
University College London
Focusing on analysis as a meeting ground of the empirical and the conceptual,
this series provides a platform for exploring anthropological approaches to social
analysis while seeking to open new avenues of communication between anthro-
pology and the humanities, as well as other social sciences.
Volume 1
Being Godless: Ethnographies of Atheism and Non-Religion
Edited by Ruy Llera Blanes and Galina Oustinova-Stjepanovic
Volume 2
Emptiness and Fullness: Ethnographies of Lack and Desire in
Contemporary China
Edited by Susanne Bregnbæk and Mikkel Bunkenborg
Volume 3
Straying from the Straight Path: How Senses of Failure Invigorate
Lived Religion
Edited by David Kloos and Daan Beekers
Volume 4
Stategraphy: Toward a Relational Anthropology of the State
Edited by Tatjana Thelen, Larissa Vetters, and Keebet von Benda-Beckmann
Volume 5
Affective States: Entanglements, Suspensions, Suspicions
Edited by Mateusz Laszczkowski and Madeleine Reeves
Volume 6
Animism beyond the Soul: Ontology, Reflexivity, and the Making
of Anthropological Knowledge
Edited by Katherine Swancutt and Mireille Mazard
A S
ffective tAteS
Entanglements, Suspensions, Suspicions
Edited by
Mateusz Laszczkowski and Madeleine Reeves
berghahn
N E W Y O R K • O X F O R D
www.berghahnbooks.com
First published in 2018 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
© 2018 Berghahn Books
Originally published as a special issue of Social Analysis, volume 59, issue 4.
All rights reserved.
Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and
review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written
permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Laszczkowski, Mateusz, editor. | Reeves, Madeleine, editor.
Title: Affective states : entanglements, suspensions, suspicions / edited by
Mateusz Laszczkowski and Madeleine Reeves.
Description: New York : Berghahn Books, 2017. | Series: Studies in social
analysis ; 5 | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017022655 (print) | LCCN 2017051498 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781785337192 (ebook) | ISBN 9781785337178 (hardback : alk
paper) | ISBN 9781785337185 (paperback. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Political anthropology--Case studies. | State, The--Case studies.
| Affect (Psychology)--Political aspects--Case studies.
Classification: LCC GN492.6 (ebook) | LCC GN492.6 .A44 2017 (print) |
DDC 306.2--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017022655
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-78533-628-7 (hardback)
ISBN 978-1-78533-573-0 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-78533-574-7 (ebook)
For Ania, with love and longing.
— Mateusz
For Aitkul and Adil, with gratitude.
— Madeleine
contentS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction
Affect and the Anthropology of the State 1
Mateusz Laszczkowski and Madeleine Reeves
Chapter 1
Negotiating Uncertainty: Neo-liberal Statecraft in Contemporary Peru 15
Annabel Pinker and Penny Harvey
Chapter 2
The Fines and the Spies: Fears of State Surveillance in Eritrea and in
the Diaspora 32
David Bozzini
Chapter 3
“Recognize the Spies”: Transparency and Political Power in
Uzbek Cyberspace 50
Sarah Kendzior
Chapter 4
Moral Subjectivity and Affective Deficit in the Transitional State:
On Claiming Land in South Africa 66
Christiaan Beyers
Chapter 5
‘Father Mao’ and the Country-Family: Mixed Feelings for Fathers,
Officials, and Leaders in China 83
Hans Steinmüller
– vii –
viii | Contents
Chapter 6
The Turn of the Offended: Clientelism in the Wake of El Salvador’s
2009 Elections 101
Ainhoa Montoya
Chapter 7
Living from the Nerves: Deportability, Indeterminacy, and the
‘Feel of Law’ in Migrant Moscow 119
Madeleine Reeves
Afterword
Political Timequakes 137
Mateusz Laszczkowski and Madeleine Reeves
Index 143
AcknowledgmentS
This book began life as a conference panel for the 2011 meetings of the American
Anthropological Association in Montreal entitled “Between Thrill and Disillu-
sion: Ethnography and the Affective Life of the State.” We are grateful to our fel-
low conference panelists—Nayanika Mathur, Mariya Ivancheva, Hannah Knox,
and Michelle Obeid—for their questions, comments, and feedback on the early
drafts of our papers presented there. Many of these same participants took part
in a follow-up workshop at the University of Manchester in May 2012 entitled
“Affective States: Exploring Emotion in Political Life.” We are grateful to the
students and colleagues from Manchester and beyond who shared their research
and their insightful commentary during the two days of workshop discussion.
In particular, we would like to thank Sarah Green, Damian O’Doherty, Jenny
Peachey, Aliaa Remtilla, Chris McLean, Gillian Evans, Jackie Stacey, Atreyee
Sen, Jon Mair, and Adi Kuntsman for their penetrating comments and questions.
Yael Navaro provided the workshop keynote address, and the influence of
her work on the intersections of affect and political life can be seen on many of
the pages of this book. The Manchester workshop was generously sponsored
by the School of Social Sciences of the University of Manchester and the ESRC
Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change. We would like to thank both
of these centers for their intellectual and financial support throughout the life
of this project, and in particular Susan Hogan and Bussie Awosanya for their
logistical assistance in organizing the workshop.
This book was originally published as a special issue of Social Analysis in
2015. We are grateful to the anonymous peer reviewers for their comments and
to the then editors of the journal, Bjørn Enge Bertelsen and Knut Mikjel Rio,
for their guidance and feedback. We would also like to thank Vivian Berghahn,
Nora Haukali, and Kristyn Sanito for their editorial assistance. David Montgom-
ery generously shared his photograph of the Kyrgyz bard Sagynbek Mombekov
and the crowds on Ala-Too Square, Bishkek, taken the day after President
Akaev was overthrown by a popular uprising in March 2005. The image beau-
tifully captures not just a moment of affective intensity, but one of affective
indeterminacy, when—after a day of political drama and a night of urban loot-
ing—hope and anticipation mingled with, and morphed into, boredom, cyni-
cism, and disillusion, circulating between bodies and things. Mombekov sings
– ix –
