Brings together theoretical texts and ethnographic analyses of specific state institutions, practices, and processes and outlines an anthropological framework for rethinking future study of 'the state'. This title helps you to make anthropological sense of the state as a cultural artifact, in the context of a neoliberalizing, transnational world.

This innovative reader brings together classic theoretical texts and cutting-edge ethnographic analyses of specific state institutions, practices, and processes and outlines an anthropological framework for rethinking future study of 'the state'. It focuses on the institutions, spaces, ideas, practices, and representations that constitute the 'state'. It promotes cultural and transnational approaches to the subject. It helps readers to make anthropological sense of the state as a cultural artifact, in the context of a neoliberalizing, transnational world.

Acknowledgements.Organization of the Book.Introduction: Rethinking Theories of the State in an Age of Globalization.Part I: Theoretical Maps: The "Classics".Section Introduction.1. Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes Towards an Investigation): Louis Althusser.2. Selections from the Prison Notebooks: Antonio Gramsci.3. Bureaucracy: Max Weber.4. Notes on the Difficulty of Studying the State: Philip Abrams.5. Governmentality: Michel Foucault.6. Governing "Advanced" Liberal Democracies: Nikolas Rose.Part II: Ethnographic Mappings.Section I: Bureaucracy/Governmentality.7. Finding the Man in the State: Wendy Brown.8. Society, Economy, and the State Effect: Timothy Mitchell.9. Blurred Boundaries: The Discourse of Corruption, the Culture of Politics, and the Imagined State: Akhil Gupta.Section II: Development/Planning.10. Cities, People, and Language: James Scott.11. The Anti-Politics Machine: Jim Ferguson.Section III: Welfare/Warfare/Law/Citizenship.12. The Public/Private Mirage: Mapping Homes and Undomesticating Violence Work in the South Asian Immigrant Community: Ananya Bhattarcharjee.13. Cultural Logics of Belonging and Movement: Transnationalism, Naturalization, and U.S. Immigration Politics: Susan Bibler Coutin.14. Making War at Home in the United States: Militarization and the Current Crisis: Catherine Lutz.Section IV: Popular Culture.15. Popular Culture and the State: Stuart Hall.16. The Banality of Power and the Aesthetics of Vulgarity in the Postcolony: Achille Mbembe.Index