Resistance in the 21st century

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For most of human history, the state has been a machinery of violence and extraction — and it continues to be so in many countries today. Yet the state still monopolizes how we think about authority in the social sciences, influencing how we define meaningful governance — including by non-state actors — and build peace and stability. Nonetheless, everywhere, there are cracks showing in the hegemony of the state, both in theory and practice — ranging from perpetually failing state-building efforts to diverse forms of resistance. 

Focusing on areas of limited and contested statehood worldwide, this seminar takes stock, asking: What if state weakness is not a symptom of failure but of success? Is the state really inescapable in the 21st century? Do state-centric frameworks hide more than they reveal? Join DIIS for an exploration of resistance in theory in practice, from ongoing resistance efforts in Africa and Myanmar to the state of the art in anti-state theory, with leading thinker Judith Scheele.

Programme

14.00-14.10     Introduction: it’s hard work to keep the state weak, Peer Schouten
14.10-14.30    Military defection: a pervasive form of resistance in Myanmar, Helene Maria Kyed
14.30-14.45    Women and revolutionary change in Myanmar, Jenny Hedström
14.45-15.00    Coffee and tea break
15.00-15.45    Thinking beyond the state: concepts, institutions, traditions, Judith Scheele
15.45-16.00    Public authority and problematics of government, Christian Lund
16.00-16.30    Q&A

Speakers

• Judith Scheele is a social anthropologist and Directrice d’études at the EHESS. Her interests lie with mobility, Islam and politics in northwest Africa. She has carried out extensive field research in Algeria, Mali and Chad. She is the author of Village Matters: Politics, Knowledge and Community in Kabylia (2009), Smugglers and Saints of the Sahara: Regional Connectivity in the Twentieth Century (2012), and, with Julien Brachet, of The Value of Disorder: Autonomy, Prosperity and Plunder in the Chadian Sahara (2019)
• Christian Lund is Professor in International Development Studies at Copenhagen University, Denmark. He has conducted specialized research on socio-legal processes of conflict and their relationship to policy and politics, institutional arrangements of property, and natural resources management.
• Jenny Hedström is an Associate Professor in War Studies at the Swedish Defence University. Her research concerns the relationship between households, gender, and warfare; gender, transitions, and peacebuilding; women’s activism and resistance; and ethics and methods when researching war, with a focus on civil wars in Myanmar.
• Helene Maria Kyed, Head of unit and Senior Researcher, DIIS
• Peer Schouten, Senior Researcher, DIIS

The seminar was held and recorded on Wednesday 30 November 2022, 14.00-16.30 at DIIS Auditorium.