Awards
- Commended for Honorable mention for the 2017 American Anthropological Association Middle East Section Book Prize 2021
- Winner of Honorable mention for the 2017 American Anthropological Association Middle East Section Book Prize.
- Winner of Received honorable mention in the 2017 American Anthropological Association Middle East Section Book Prize competition..
Overview
Sovereignty in Exile explores sovereignty and state power through the case of a liberation movement that set out to make itself into a state. The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) was founded by the Polisario Front in the wake of Spain's abandonment of its former colony, the disputed Western Sahara. Morocco laid claim to the same territory, and the conflict has locked Polisario and Morocco in a political stalemate that has lasted forty years. Complicating the situation is the fact that Polisario conducts its day-to-day operations in refugee camps near Tindouf, in Algeria, which house most of the Sahrawi exile community. SADR (a partially recognized state) and Polisario (Western Sahara's liberation movement) together form an unusual governing authority, originally premised on the dismantling of a perceived threat to national (Sahrawi) unity: tribes. Drawing on unprecedented long-term research gained by living with Sahrawi refugee families, Alice Wilson examines how tribal social relations are undermined, recycled, and have reemerged as the refugee community negotiates governance, resolves disputes, manages social inequalities, and improvises alternatives to taxation. Wilson trains an ethnographic lens on the creation of administrative categories, legal reforms, aid distribution, marriage practices, local markets, and contested elections within the camps. Tracing social, political, and economic changes among Sahrawi refugees, Sovereignty in Exile reveals the dynamics of a postcolonial liberation movement that has endured for decades in the deserts of North Africa while trying to bring about the revolutionary transformation of a society which identifies with a Bedouin past.
Full Product Details
Author: Alice Wilson
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Imprint: University of Pennsylvania Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.80cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.635kg
ISBN: 9780812248494
ISBN 10: 081224849
Pages: 312
Publication Date: 07 November 2016
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
Sovereignty in Exile is a rich and intriguing ethnography that makes a significant contribution not only to refugee studies but also to the anthropology of sovereignty, state power, and tribal identities. -Dawn Chatty, University of Oxford This deeply researched ethnography takes the case of Western Sahara and the fusing of a liberation movement (Polisario) and a partially recognized Sahrawi state to make a major contribution to the anthropology of the state. Looking particularly at transformations in the social relations of sovereignty, Wilson offers a fascinating account of control, compromises, and the sometimes uneasy coexistence of revolutionary politics and tribal affinities. -Ilana Feldman, George Washington University Based upon a diverse and well-developed social network in a context usually closed to foreign researchers, Sovereignty in Exile is an extraordinary work of ethnographic research. Through detailed empirical analysis and a fresh and informed analytical sensibility, Alice Wilson reopens an important, yet often all too narrow, discussion of what counts as democracy in Africa and other so-called developing regions and states. -Brenda Chalfin, University of Florida
Based upon a diverse and well-developed social network in a context usually closed to foreign researchers, Sovereignty in Exile is an extraordinary work of ethnographic research. Through detailed empirical analysis and a fresh and informed analytical sensibility, Alice Wilson reopens an important, yet often all too narrow, discussion of what counts as democracy in Africa and other so-called developing regions and states. -Brenda Chalfin, University of Florida This deeply researched ethnography takes the case of Western Sahara and the fusing of a liberation movement (Polisario) and a partially recognized Sahrawi state to make a major contribution to the anthropology of the state. Looking particularly at transformations in the social relations of sovereignty, Wilson offers a fascinating account of control, compromises, and the sometimes uneasy coexistence of revolutionary politics and tribal affinities. -Ilana Feldman, George Washington University Sovereignty in Exile is a rich and intriguing ethnography that makes a significant contribution not only to refugee studies but also to the anthropology of sovereignty, state power, and tribal identities. -Dawn Chatty, University of Oxford
""Based upon a diverse and well-developed social network in a context usually closed to foreign researchers, Sovereignty in Exile is an extraordinary work of ethnographic research. Through detailed empirical analysis and a fresh and informed analytical sensibility, Alice Wilson reopens an important, yet often all too narrow, discussion of what counts as democracy in Africa and other so-called developing regions and states."" * Brenda Chalfin, University of Florida * ""This deeply researched ethnography takes the case of Western Sahara and the fusing of a liberation movement (Polisario) and a partially recognized Sahrawi state to make a major contribution to the anthropology of the state. Looking particularly at transformations in the social relations of sovereignty, Wilson offers a fascinating account of control, compromises, and the sometimes uneasy coexistence of revolutionary politics and tribal affinities."" * Ilana Feldman, George Washington University * ""Sovereignty in Exile is a rich and intriguing ethnography that makes a significant contribution not only to refugee studies but also to the anthropology of sovereignty, state power, and tribal identities."" * Dawn Chatty, University of Oxford *
Based upon a diverse and well-developed social network in a context usually closed to foreign researchers, Sovereignty in Exile is an extraordinary work of ethnographic research. Through detailed empirical analysis and a fresh and informed analytical sensibility, Alice Wilson reopens an important, yet often all too narrow, discussion of what counts as democracy in Africa and other so-called developing regions and states. -Brenda Chalfin, University of Florida Sovereignty in Exile is a rich and intriguing ethnography that makes a significant contribution not only to refugee studies but also to the anthropology of sovereignty, state power, and tribal identities. -Dawn Chatty, University of Oxford
Author Information
Alice Wilson is Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Sussex.
