Description
Book Synopsis Afghan society has been marked in a lasting way by war and the exodus of part of its population. While many have emigrated to countries across the world, they have been matched by the flow of experts who arrive in Afghanistan after having been in other war-torn countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Palestine or East Timor. This book builds on more than two decades of ethnographic travels in some twenty countries, bringing the readers from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran to Europe, North America and Australia. It describes the everyday life and transnational circulations of Afghan refugees and expatriates.
Trade Review Praise for the French edition:
“The book is fascinating, it is strong and well-argued and it is remarkably well written … Highlighting the tension between the transnationalism of the Afghan state and that of the Afghans in the world, Alessandro Monsutti develops a very convincing criticism of the universalist imposition of the international community up to family and individual lives.” • Michel Agier, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Paris
Table of Contents Preface
Acknowledgements
Key Dates
Introduction
Chapter 1. Reconstructing Afghanistan: Counterinsurgency and Colonial Imaginary
Chapter 2. The State in All Its States: Elections and Democratization
Chapter 3. Educating the Elites: From Geneva to Abu Dhabi
Chapter 4. Rural Development: A Matter of Workshops
Chapter 5. Village Life: Overlapping Solidarities and Conflicts
Chapter 6. Neighbouring Countries: Equivocal Refuges
Chapter 7. Across the Seas: Playing with Categories
Chapter 8. Greece: The Filter of All Hopes
Chapter 9. Europe, Mon Amour: Or the Ruses of Itinerancy
Chapter 10. Contested Modernities: A Transnational Anthropology of the Political
Conclusion
References
Index
