2025

8 January 2025
Stiftung Humboldt Forum, Berlin (Germany)

Tatjana Thelen: Familie, Sorge, Staat: Ideale der Zugehörigkeit und Praktiken der Exklusion

Die Idee der „modernen“ Familie ist ein zentrales Element europäischer Selbstbeschreibung. Demzufolge ist in Europa Verwandtschaft auf dem Rückzug, und weitgehend durch eine emotionalisierte (Klein- oder Kern-) Familie ohne politische Bedeutung ersetzt. Diesem Selbstbild steht ein Fremdbild gegenüber, dass eine Beständigkeit, bis hin zu Dominanz „traditioneller“ Verwandtschaft in der Vergangenheit oder außerhalb Europas vermutet. Wirtschaftliche und politische Folgen verwandtschaftlicher Organisation in Europa werden so leicht übersehen. Zudem kann diese Fortschrittserzählung zu einem abwertenden Blick auf andere Formen des Zusammenlebens führen. In Hinblick auf familiäre Sorge ergibt sich jedoch ein ambivalenter Blick. In Europa bedarf sie vermeintlich staatlicher Unterstützung, während sie anderswo ungebrochen vorhanden scheint. „Richtige“ Sorge in Familien wird so zu einem Marker politischer Zugehörigkeit. In meinem Vortrag zeige ich einerseits die politische Bedeutung der Verwandtschaft in Deutschland auf. Andererseits gehe ich auf Formen der Ausgrenzung durch ein spezifisches Verständnis verwandtschaftlicher Sorge ein. 

21 January 2025, 12-1 pm
University of Cologne (Germany)

Panda Belonging: Kinship Measurements and Life’s Value in Species Conservation

Christof Lammer will give a talk on his current research project “Panda Belonging: Kinship Measurements and Life’s Value in Species Conservation” at the Global South Studies Center (University of Cologne, Seminarraum 3.03). This event is part of the GSSC Seminar Series, on invitation by Rewilding the Anthropocene.

29 January 2025, 4:15 pm
Free University of Berlin (Germany) & online

New Books on the Anthropology of the State: On Relations and Boundaries (hybrid event)

Christof Lammer and André Thiemann will present their latest publications at the Free University of Berlin (Germany):

>> Christof Lammer: Performing State Boundaries. Food Networks, Democratic Bureaucracy and China. New York: Berghahn.

>> André Thiemann: The Politics of Relations. How Self-Government, Infrastructures and Care Transform the State in Serbia. New York: Berghahn.

You’re welcome to join on site or online via WebEx:

Wed, 29 January 2025 | 4.15 pm
Institute for Social Anthropology, Free University of Berlin
FU Seminar Centre, L113
WebEx-meeting link: https://fu-berlin.webex.com/fu-berlin/j.php?MTID=me0e028dc397165a56ffbb5baf40081cc 
(meeting ID: 2730 192 5532; meeting password: BAS_winter_2024)

11-14 March 2025
STS Hub 2025 Berlin (Germany)

Critical Species: Measuring Kinship, Valuing Lives

The STS Hub “Diffracting the Critical” will take place in Berlin in March 2025, with Christof Lammer and Sandra Calkins hosting the panel ‘Critical Species: Measuring Kinship, Valuing Lives’: Conservation, agriculture and public health identify specific “critical species” that need to be protected, managed or exterminated. Determining who or what is critical requires assessing similarities, gauging proximities, and setting boundaries. Such valuations of species are underwritten by a set of material-semiotic practices that we call kinship measurements. The Panel collects 15 contributions in three sessions on ‘Multiple Measurements, Changing Valuations’, ‘(De)Valuing the Wild, Domesticating Kinship’, and ‘Redrawing Species Boundaries’.

26 March 2025, 5:00 pm
University of Vienna (Austria)

Surveillance and Sanctions over Recipients: A Coercive Turn in Social Welfare

Vincent Dubois, who will be Paul Lazarsfeld guest professor, will give a talk with the title “Surveillance and Sanctions over Recipients: A Coercive Turn in Social Welfare”:

Among numerous innovations and changes, welfare reform in western countries has recently revitalized welfare surveillance, defined as the institutional arrangements and practices aimed at checking that recipients comply with the rules of welfare benefits. Why did this revival of control occur? How has welfare fraud been constructed and promoted as a public problem? How has a bureaucratic routine been raised to the status of a political and policy issue? How is control organized and implemented? What are its impacts on the lives of the recipients? By addressing these questions, this book provides an original contribution to the analysis of the new balance between politics, economics and morals that define the contemporary social state. It shows how legal regulation, financial constraints, surveillance technologies and direct interactions between bureaucrats and clients intertwine in the new government of the underprivileged.

25-27 June 2025
University of Helsinki (Finland)

Care on trial: Critical Perspectives on the Jurisprudence on Care and Human Rights

In June 2025, the 7th Transforming Care Conference will take place in Helsinki. The theme will be ‘Social and Human Rights in Care’. Petra Ezzeddine and Maroš Matiaško will host the panel ‘Care on trial: Critical Perspectives on the Jurisprudence on Care and Human Rights’.Further information on registration and deadlines can be found here:https://www.transforming-care.net/2025-transforming-care-conference/presentation/