Visiting Anthropology Lecturer Addresses ‘Politics, Planning and Uncertainty’

Cultural anthropology professor at Rice University James Faubion delivered an October 14, 2014 lecture hosted by the Birzeit University social and behavioral sciences department entitled, "Contemporary Histories of the Future: Politics, Planning and Uncertainty".  

Faubion addressed the transformation in “governmentality” in a neoliberal world from a biopolitical and statistical model to what he termed “parabiopolitical” - a model of scenario planning based historiographically on “contemporaneity” and on “management” of the paradox of “unintended consequences” that has been adapted by governments, economic institutions, international organization, and non-governmental organizations.

Anthropologist Ala Alazzeh, faculty member of the department of social and behavioral sciences, translated the lecture and clarified its main themes, after which Faubion answered questions from the audience.