Lives opposed: perceptivity and tacticality in conflict and crime

Henrik Erdman Vigh

doi:10.1111/1469-8676.12545

Lives opposed: perceptivity and tacticality in conflict and crime

Henrik Erdman Vigh

7 Citations (Scopus)

63 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This article looks at the way people tactically adjust to contexts of insecurity and danger. Building on fieldwork with disenfranchised urban poor in West Africa and marginal West African migrants in Europe, it clarifies how perspectives and practices are attuned to precarious situations and life conditions. The article argues that the struggle to identify threats leads to a nervous sociality in which figures and social forces are examined for hidden intentions and negative potentials. Such circumstances engender an apprehensive bearing, as an affective state, posture and approach, through which social life is sought, investigated and controlled. It augments perceptivity and leads to a scanning and probing of social life that feeds into a social version of the hermeneutics of suspicion and generates a range of pre‐emptive practices.

Original language	English
Journal	Social Anthropology - Anthropologie Sociale
Volume	26
Issue number	4
Pages (from-to)	487-501
ISSN	0964-0282
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8676.12545
Publication status	Published - Nov 2018

Keywords

Faculty of Social Sciences
migration
conflict
cocaine
apprehension
tactics

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1111/1469-8676.12545

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Lives opposed: perceptivity and tacticality in conflict and crime

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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