‘You have to comply with paper’: debt, documents, and legal consciousness in Bolivia

Ellison, Susan Helen

doi:10.1111/1467-9655.12651

Cited by 27 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…Typical research questions would concern whether, how and why people ‘mobilise’ the law (or fail to) in relation to problems they face in everyday life (e.g. Ellison, 2017; Erie, 2012; Schwenken, 2013).…”

Section: Four Approaches To Legal Consciousness Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Engel and Munger, 2003; Merry, 1990; Nielsen, 2000; Sarat, 1990) and the United Kingdom (e.g. Cooper, 1995; Cowan, 2004), has since been undertaken in a diverse set of new countries, including Australia (Richards, 2015), Bolivia (Ellison, 2017), Bulgaria (Hertogh and Kurkchiyan, 2016; Kurkchiyan, 2011), Canada (Ranasinghe, 2010), China (e.g. Gallagher, 2006; Gallagher and Yang, 2011), Egypt (Kulk and de Hart, 2013), Malaysia (Moustafa, 2013), Norway (Kurkchiyan, 2011), Poland (Hertogh and Kurkchiyan, 2016; Kurkchiyan, 2011), Thailand (Engel and Engel, 2010), Uganda (Sandvick, 2009) and the Ukraine (Kubal, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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After Hegemony: The Varieties of Legal Consciousness Research

Halliday

2019

Social & Legal Studies

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Section: Four Approaches To Legal Consciousness Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

After Hegemony: The Varieties of Legal Consciousness Research

Halliday

2019

Social & Legal Studies

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“…Walker's and Appel's essays and the essays in Dharia and Trisal's demonetization series, taken together, explore the achievements and aspirations of state power in relation to, respectively, the material object of national currency and the epistemological object of the national economy. In Susan Helen Ellison's () analysis of alternative dispute resolution in Bolivia, there is a parallel to the material‐immaterial dialectic of money that Walker explores. Like Walker, Ellison is attentive to the materiality of paper, but here it is the possibility of possessing legal documents rather than the condition of paper money that shapes value.…”

Section: Relationality Subjectivity and Mediationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time and Relational Possibility: Cultural Anthropology in 2017

Tamarkin

2018

American Anthropologist

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This essay reviews work produced in predominantly US cultural anthropology publications throughout 2017. It asks: What makes an anthropological inquiry timely, what sorts of relationalities command anthropological attention, and to what end? Noting our ongoing methodological commitment to long-term ethnography alongside increasingly important online forums for reaching broader publics and responding quickly to emerging issues, it expands the range of work surveyed to include some online-only short essays alongside the larger collection of traditionally published research articles. Characterized by empathic inquiry, frequently drawing on years of ethnographic and personal experience with the places, people, and other entities that we write about, and often attentive to histories at multiple scales, cultural anthropology of this moment, however published, grapples with dark times while it also offers ways of imagining other, better futures and ways of being in relation to others. Two thematic clusters organize this essay: the first considers temporality alongside mobility and sovereignty, and the second considers relationality alongside subjectivity and mediation. Together, all of these concerns-that are both of the moment and long standing-build a varied body of work that grapples with the interrelationalities that constitute power, place, and possibility. I argue that what makes an anthropological inquiry timely is the extent to which it is relationally informed and attuned to care for worlds that we inhabit and imagine, together. [year in review, sociocultural anthropology, temporality, mobility, sovereignty, relationality, subjectivity, mediation] RESUMEN Este ensayo revisa el trabajo producido en publicaciones de antropología cultural predominantemente estadounidenses durante 2017. Pregunta: ¿Qué hace la investigación antropológica oportuna, y qué tipos de relacionalidades comandan la atención antropológica, y con qué fin? Notando nuestro compromiso metodológico continuo con una etnografía de largo plazo junto a foros en línea cada vez más importantes para llegar a públicos más amplios y respondiendo rápidamente a cuestiones emergentes, expande el rango del trabajo evaluado para incluir algunos ensayos cortos sólo en línea junto a la mayor colección de artículos de investigación publicados tradicionalmente. Caracterizada por una investigación empática, frecuentemente extrayendo de años de experiencia etnográfica y personal con los lugares, la gente, y otras entidades sobre las que escribimos, y a menudo atentos a historias a escalas múltiples, la antropología cultural de este momento, independientemente de cómo sea publicada, lucha contra tiempos oscuros mientras ofrece maneras de imaginar otros, mejores futuros y formas de estar en relación con otros. Dos grupos temáticos organizan este ensayo: el primero considera temporalidad junto a movilidad y soberanía, y el segundo considera relacionalidad junto a subjetividad y mediación. Juntas, todas estas preocupaciones-que son tanto del momento como de larga d...

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“…Bringing together two sets of approaches and their respective ways of analyzing courtsas legal institutions in state bureaucracies, and as litigation practices-allows me to explore the specificities of state courts and what they "do" that other forums do not. In her study of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in Bolivia, Ellison (2017) shows that many of the residents of El Alto use conciliation as a way of obtaining official-looking documents that can give concrete form to social obligations among neighbors, family members, or acquaintances. Inheritance disputes in Cotonou, on the other hand, show that people opt for formal proceedings in order to get le cachet de l'État (the state's stamp), which allows them to validate or renegotiate family decisions.…”

Section: Sophie Andreettamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Symbolic Power of the State: Inheritance Disputes and Litigants’ Judicial Trajectories in Cotonou

Andreetta

2020

PoLAR

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Over the last 10 years, scholars have started to focus on African states’ bureaucracies by investigating public servants’ relationships with the state, their professional ethos, how they appropriate reforms, and the way they interact with citizens. With inheritance disputes as a focal point, this article highlights the users’ perspective—which is often overlooked—and asks how litigants in Cotonou (Benin) see the state, appropriate legal reforms, and use the courts. It shows that citizens, despite a general sense that the court system is corrupt and ineffective, continue to use it because state institutions convey a form of authority that allows them either to legitimize or challenge family decisions in inheritance matters.

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‘You have to comply with paper’: debt, documents, and legal consciousness in Bolivia

Abstract: This is the author manuscript accepted for publication and has undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as

Cited by 27 publications

References 41 publications

After Hegemony: The Varieties of Legal Consciousness Research

After Hegemony: The Varieties of Legal Consciousness Research

Time and Relational Possibility: Cultural Anthropology in 2017

The Symbolic Power of the State: Inheritance Disputes and Litigants’ Judicial Trajectories in Cotonou

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