Everyday Diplomacy: Introduction to Special Issue

Marsden, Magnus, Ibanez-Tirado, Diana, Henig, David (2016) Everyday Diplomacy: Introduction to Special Issue. The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology, 34 (2). pp. 2-22. ISSN 0305-7674. (doi:10.3167/ca.2016.340202)

Abstract

This article assesses debates concerning the relevance of an ethnographic approach towards the study of diplomacy. By drawing upon recent developments across the disciplines of anthropology, diplomatic studies, geopolitics, political geography, and global history we critically reassess the ongoing assumption that in the modern world diplomacy is separated from other domains of human life. We build on work in anthropology and related disciplines that has argued for the need to move beyond the postulation that the only actors authorised and able to conduct diplomacy are the nation-state’s representatives. Having outlined recent theoretical interventions concerning the turn towards the study of everyday, unofficial and grassroots forms of diplomacy, the paper suggests some of the ways in which ethnography can be deployed in order to understand how individuals and communities affected by geopolitical processes develop and pursue diplomatic modes of agency and ask how they relate to, evaluate, and arbitrate between the geopolitical realms that affect their lives. In so doing, we propose an analytical heuristic - everyday diplomacy - to attend to the ways individuals and communities engage with and influence decisions about world-affairs.

Item Type:	Article
DOI/Identification number:	10.3167/ca.2016.340202
Uncontrolled keywords:	Diplomacy; the everyday; ethnography; popular geopolitics; exchange
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology
Divisions:	Faculties > Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation > Social and Cultural Anthropology
Depositing User:	D. Henig
Date Deposited:	18 Jun 2016 08:43 UTC
Last Modified:	29 May 2019 17:29 UTC
Resource URI:	https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/55983 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)
Henig, David:	https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6111-6523