Focaal 

About: Focaal is an academic journal published by Berghahn Books. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Politics & Democracy. It has an ISSN identifier of 0920-1297. It is also open access. Over the lifetime, 541 publications have been published receiving 5544 citations.

Living with/in and without neo-liberalism

Abstract: This article explores some concerns about the concept of neo-liberalism, suggesting that it has been stretched too far to be productive as a critical analytical tool. Neo-liberalism suffers from promiscuity (hanging out with various theoret- ical perspectives), omnipresence (treated as a universal or global phenomenon), and omnipotence (identified as the cause of a wide variety of social, political and economic changes). Alternative ways of treating neo-liberalism as more contin- gent and contested are considered. These emphasize its mobile and flexible char- acter, stressing processes of contextual assemblage, articulation, and translation. The article concludes by wondering whether the concept of neo-liberalism is now so overused that it should be retired.

Social security and care after socialism: Reconfigurations of public and private

Abstract: State frameworks for welfare and social security have been subject to processes of privatization, decentralization, and neoliberal reform in many parts of the world. This article explores how these developments might be theorized using anthropological understandings of social security in combination with feminist perspectives on care. In its application to post-1989 socioeconomic transformation in the former socialist region, this perspective overcomes the conceptual inadequacies of the “state withdrawal” model. It also illuminates the nuanced ways in which public and private (as spaces, subjectivities, institutions, moralities, and practices) re-emerge and change in the socialist era as well as today, continually shaping the trajectories and outcomes of reforms to care and social security.

Nonrecording the “European refugee crisis” in Greece: Navigating through irregular bureaucracy

Abstract: This article explores nonrecording on the borders of Europe during the “European refugee crisis” in 2015. It examines the ambiguous practices of border control and the diverse actors involved. Taking the island of Lesvos as its starting point, the article interrogates how state functionaries manage an “irregular” bureaucracy. Irregular bureaucracy is approached as an essential element of statecraft , rather than an indication of state failure. Nonrecording is thus a crucial site of contestation between the state, nonstate agents, and the government, as well as between Greece and “Europe.” Nevertheless, despite the prevalence of irregularity, the imagery associated with ideal bureaucracy—a system of absolute knowledge, control, and governance of populations—is powerful; and yet, the actors are fully aware that it is a fantasy.

The Greek economic crisis as trope

Abstract: The Greek economic crisis resonates across Europe as synonymous with corruption, poor government, austerity, financial bailouts, civil unrest, and social turmoil. The search for accountability on the local level is entangled with competing rhetorics of persuasion, fear, and complex historical consciousness. Internationally, the Greek crisis is employed as a trope to call for collective mobilization and political change. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Trikala, central Greece, this article outlines how accountability for the Greek economic crisis is understood in local and international arenas. Trikala can be considered a microcosm for the study of the pan-European economic turmoil as the “Greek crisis” is heralded as a warning on national stages throughout the continent.

Poverty, migration and coping strategies: an introduction

Abstract: Many highly developed Western welfare states witness recurrent concern about social security recipients who earn a bit on the side in the informal economy. Research has recently been conducted on this in the Netherlands. Interviewers rang the bells of the unemployed, social security recipients and the disabled to ask whether they ever broke the rules. The results were striking.