Papers by Mateusz Laszczkowski
Ethnos, 2023
This article explores the politics of scale-making in infrastructural development. It argues that... more This article explores the politics of scale-making in infrastructural development. It argues that ‘megaprojects’, rather than self-evidently ‘big’, are constructed and contested across a continuity of scales from the ‘global’ to the microscopic. Scalar struggles are constitutive of the projects as well as of their contestation. I examine this through a focus on a disputed high-speed railway project in Alpine Italy. First, I examine expert contests over ‘big numbers’ describing the project. Here, the ‘bigness’ is discussed on its own terms, but its rationality is disputed. Second, I study a campaign by local mayors who challenge the project by stressing infrastructural needs that could be met in their respective towns for a fraction of the railway's cost. Third, I describe controversies over microscopic pathogens released during railway construction. This highlights how the megaprojects’ apparent ‘bigness’ depends on the ability to obviate socio-material relations and actants at other scales.
Transfers
This article examines transportation infrastructures’ capacity to produce and transform social sp... more This article examines transportation infrastructures’ capacity to produce and transform social space through a focus on the contested history of railway development in Valsusa, Italy. I draw on participant observation and interviews with local residents and activists during ethnographic fieldwork in 2014–2015. I first describe how railways helped form modern sociality in Valsusa in the twentieth century. Subsequently, I explore contrasting topological effects of a projected high-speed rail through the valley. For planners envisioning a trans-European space of exchange, the railway is a powerful way to “shrink” space; for local residents, this implies reducing Valsusa to a traffic “corridor.” Yet their protest generates new social relations and knowledges, giving rise to a notion of “territory” as unbound and connected to a transnational space of resistance to capitalist expansion.
Cambridge Journal of Anthropology, 2022
Call for Special Issue Proposals: CJA Winter 2022
The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology is se... more Call for Special Issue Proposals: CJA Winter 2022
The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology is seeking proposals for the Winter 2022 Special Issue.
Submissions are invited that use original research to challenge existing understandings of human social life, and aspire to engage a wide readership. Submissions are encouraged from all theoretical, methodological and political traditions.
The maximum length for a Special Issue is 60, 000 words, inclusive of all notes, references, introductions and afterwords. Individual research articles should ordinarily be 8, 000 words in length. No more than 50% of authors named in the proposal should be affiliated to the same institution.
Proposals should be sent to the editor ([email protected]) by no later than June 24th 2021. Proposals should be 2000-2500 words in length and include the following:
The name(s), contact details and position(s) of the guest editor(s) and all authors; the proposed title of the Special Issue; an abstract of 750-1000 words that outlines the context, rationale, coherence and contribution of the Special Issue; titles, 125-150 word abstracts and word counts for each individual contribution; an indication of whether drafts of each contribution are complete at the date of proposal.
Two shortlisted proposals will be announced in July 2021, and their editors invited to submit a full manuscript for peer review by October 13th 2021. The successful issue will be announced in January 2022 and published in November 2022.
www.berghahnjournals.com/cja
Allegra Laboratory, allegralaboratory.net, 2020
When politicians begin to speak of a post-corona “new normality”, what does that imply? And why s... more When politicians begin to speak of a post-corona “new normality”, what does that imply? And why should we be concerned?
allegralaboratory.net, 2020
Written in lockdown amid the pandemic, this post speculates about the political and epistemologic... more Written in lockdown amid the pandemic, this post speculates about the political and epistemological implications of ‘middle-class’ reactions to the present crisis. It is also a cry of ethical and political protest—a refusal to see my neighbour as plague-spreader.
Ethnos, 2019
Focusing on a group of activists and a case of aerial pollution in the context of a
contested rai... more Focusing on a group of activists and a case of aerial pollution in the context of a
contested railway project in Italy, this article examines the role of material entities
and affects in shaping political activism. I seek an approach to affect that pays
attention both to the agentive potential of materials and to human ways of
knowing and feeling about them. I argue that the affective intensity of encounters
with deadly airborne pollutants, mediated through heterogeneous discourses, led to
the emergence of innovative forms of activism that transformed relations among
activists, police, and ‘the state’. Focused on intersubjective affect and compassion,
these actions complicated notions of ‘politics’ as essentially antagonistic that were
prevalent among the activists as well as influential in academic political theory. By
highlighting the capacity of affects to multiply forms of political engagement, the
article adds to the recent anthropological literature on the politics of infrastructure.
Anthropological Theory, 2019
This article draws on ethnographic fieldwork with No TAV activists in Valsusa, in Alpine Italy, p... more This article draws on ethnographic fieldwork with No TAV activists in Valsusa, in Alpine Italy, protesting against the planned construction of a new high-speed railway. Focusing on activists' experiences of vulnerability and police violence, the article contributes to the recent 'subjective turn' in the anthropology of resistance and contentious social movements, and responds to calls to 'de-pathologize' and 'de-exoticize' resistance. It explores ways to reconceptualize the subjective experience of resistance through a focus on affect, vulnerability and becoming. Combining neo-Spinozist theory of affects with Judith Butler's feminist perspective on agency and subjectivity, the article seeks to point a way beyond the limitations of established approaches informed by the work of Michel Foucault. Further, the article also shows how affects experienced during direct action are embedded in activists' longer biographical narratives and gradually struc-tured, through remembering and narrativization, to provide ground for a coherent subjective sense of agency. Third, the article highlights the difference a focus on affect makes compared to the more conventional sociological focus on emotion. The notion of affect helps us to move beyond a rationalist and instrumentalist approach to emotion in social movements. The article stresses the heuristic potential of a focus on affect, but also considers methodological challenges posed by such a perspective. It suggests that the methodological toolkit available to the ethnographers of contentious politics can be enhanced by drawing on the affective capacities of researchers' own bodies in order to register the visceral intensities vital to the experience of resistance and the ongoing formation of insubordinate subjects.
The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology is seeking proposals for the Winter 2019 Special Issue. Sub... more The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology is seeking proposals for the Winter 2019 Special Issue. Submissions are invited that use original research to challenge existing understandings of human social life, and aspire to engage a wide readership. Submissions are encouraged from all theoretical, methodological and political traditions.
The maximum length for a Special Issue is 60, 000 words, inclusive of all notes, references, introductions and afterwords. Individual research articles should ordinarily be 8, 000 words in length. No more than 50% of authors named in the proposal should be affiliated to the same institution.
Proposals should be sent to the editor ([email protected]) by no later than September 15th 2018. Proposals should be 2000-2500 words in length and include the following:
The name(s), contact details and position(s) of the guest editor(s) and all authors; the proposed title of the Special Issue; an abstract of 750-1000 words that outlines the context, rationale, coherence and contribution of the Special Issue; titles, 125-150 word abstracts and word counts for each individual contribution; an indication of whether drafts of each contribution are complete at the date of proposal.
Two shortlisted proposals will be announced in October 2018, and their editors invited to submit a full manuscript for peer review by December 15th 2018. The successful issue will be announced in March 2019 and published in November 2019
As students and academics in Poland are fighting to defend democracy and autonomy of the universi... more As students and academics in Poland are fighting to defend democracy and autonomy of the universities, this post is a battle cry. It outlines the threats to intellectual freedoms posed by the new law on higher education being introduced by the Polish government. It also describes the ongoing protests and sketches an analytic view of the situation.
The Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Warsaw, invites paper proposa... more The Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Warsaw, invites paper proposals for the conference ‘Materializations of the Political’ to be held on 23–24 March 2018.
Keynote speaker: Dr Hannah Knox, University College London
The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology is seeking proposals for the Spring 2019 Special Issue. Sub... more The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology is seeking proposals for the Spring 2019 Special Issue. Submissions are invited that use original research to challenge existing understandings of human social life, and aspire to engage a wide readership. Submissions are encouraged from all theoretical, methodological and political traditions.
This chapter from the book Kazakhstan in the Making: Legitimacy, Symbols, and Social Changes (ed.... more This chapter from the book Kazakhstan in the Making: Legitimacy, Symbols, and Social Changes (ed. M. Laruelle; Lanham: Lexington Books 2016) explores the political effects of public aesthetics in Astana, the capital of post-Soviet Kazakhstan. An expansive, spectacular quarter of new buildings in Astana materializes a regime vision of development. The most prominent landmark is Bayterek, a monument pointing simultaneously to mythical past and hi-tech future. Visitors to Bayterek queue to touch the supposedly wish-fulfilling golden handprint of President Nazarbaev, while they also get photographed with a plastic model of Shrek, the cartoon character. Taking that encounter as a starting point, I analyze the aesthetics of the new cityscape, local discourses about it, and public celebrations. I argue that in Astana a space of “fairy-tale” is created where rule and development are depoliticized as matters of “beauty”, “joy”, and “miracle”. I highlight how domination is reproduced through discrete actions by “ordinary citizens”, rather than a central strategy. I also highlight ambiguities entailed by political uses of the fantastic.
This chapter from the book Kazakhstan in the Making: Legitimacy, Symbols, and Social Changes (ed.... more This chapter from the book Kazakhstan in the Making: Legitimacy, Symbols, and Social Changes (ed. M. Laruelle; Lanham: Lexington Books 2016) explores the political effects of public aesthetics in Astana, the capital of post-Soviet Kazakhstan. An expansive, spectacular quarter of new buildings in Astana materializes a regime vision of development. The most prominent landmark is Bayterek, a monument pointing simultaneously to mythical past and hi-tech future. Visitors to Bayterek queue to touch the supposedly wish-fulfilling golden handprint of President Nazarbaev, while they also get photographed with a plastic model of Shrek, the cartoon character. Taking that encounter as a starting point, I analyze the aesthetics of the new cityscape, local discourses about it, and public celebrations. I argue that in Astana a space of “fairy-tale” is created where rule and development are depoliticized as matters of “beauty”, “joy”, and “miracle”. I highlight how domination is reproduced through discrete actions by “ordinary citizens”, rather than a central strategy. I also highlight ambiguities entailed by political uses of the fantastic.
Terrain Revue D Ethnologie De L Europe, Sep 5, 2011
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Papers by Mateusz Laszczkowski
The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology is seeking proposals for the Winter 2022 Special Issue.
Submissions are invited that use original research to challenge existing understandings of human social life, and aspire to engage a wide readership. Submissions are encouraged from all theoretical, methodological and political traditions.
The maximum length for a Special Issue is 60, 000 words, inclusive of all notes, references, introductions and afterwords. Individual research articles should ordinarily be 8, 000 words in length. No more than 50% of authors named in the proposal should be affiliated to the same institution.
Proposals should be sent to the editor ([email protected]) by no later than June 24th 2021. Proposals should be 2000-2500 words in length and include the following:
The name(s), contact details and position(s) of the guest editor(s) and all authors; the proposed title of the Special Issue; an abstract of 750-1000 words that outlines the context, rationale, coherence and contribution of the Special Issue; titles, 125-150 word abstracts and word counts for each individual contribution; an indication of whether drafts of each contribution are complete at the date of proposal.
Two shortlisted proposals will be announced in July 2021, and their editors invited to submit a full manuscript for peer review by October 13th 2021. The successful issue will be announced in January 2022 and published in November 2022.
www.berghahnjournals.com/cja
contested railway project in Italy, this article examines the role of material entities
and affects in shaping political activism. I seek an approach to affect that pays
attention both to the agentive potential of materials and to human ways of
knowing and feeling about them. I argue that the affective intensity of encounters
with deadly airborne pollutants, mediated through heterogeneous discourses, led to
the emergence of innovative forms of activism that transformed relations among
activists, police, and ‘the state’. Focused on intersubjective affect and compassion,
these actions complicated notions of ‘politics’ as essentially antagonistic that were
prevalent among the activists as well as influential in academic political theory. By
highlighting the capacity of affects to multiply forms of political engagement, the
article adds to the recent anthropological literature on the politics of infrastructure.
The maximum length for a Special Issue is 60, 000 words, inclusive of all notes, references, introductions and afterwords. Individual research articles should ordinarily be 8, 000 words in length. No more than 50% of authors named in the proposal should be affiliated to the same institution.
Proposals should be sent to the editor ([email protected]) by no later than September 15th 2018. Proposals should be 2000-2500 words in length and include the following:
The name(s), contact details and position(s) of the guest editor(s) and all authors; the proposed title of the Special Issue; an abstract of 750-1000 words that outlines the context, rationale, coherence and contribution of the Special Issue; titles, 125-150 word abstracts and word counts for each individual contribution; an indication of whether drafts of each contribution are complete at the date of proposal.
Two shortlisted proposals will be announced in October 2018, and their editors invited to submit a full manuscript for peer review by December 15th 2018. The successful issue will be announced in March 2019 and published in November 2019
Originally published on Allegra Laboratory, with photos by Luca Perino, as two posts: http://allegralaboratory.net/notes-from-a-blurry-border-part-1-can-that-mountain-stop-me/ and http://allegralaboratory.net/notes-from-a-blurry-border-part-2-shatter-the-border/, both on 17 April 2018. If quoting, please refer to that original publication.
Keynote speaker: Dr Hannah Knox, University College London
Berghahn Books, 2017.
http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/LaszczkowskiAffective
The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology is seeking proposals for the Winter 2022 Special Issue.
Submissions are invited that use original research to challenge existing understandings of human social life, and aspire to engage a wide readership. Submissions are encouraged from all theoretical, methodological and political traditions.
The maximum length for a Special Issue is 60, 000 words, inclusive of all notes, references, introductions and afterwords. Individual research articles should ordinarily be 8, 000 words in length. No more than 50% of authors named in the proposal should be affiliated to the same institution.
Proposals should be sent to the editor ([email protected]) by no later than June 24th 2021. Proposals should be 2000-2500 words in length and include the following:
The name(s), contact details and position(s) of the guest editor(s) and all authors; the proposed title of the Special Issue; an abstract of 750-1000 words that outlines the context, rationale, coherence and contribution of the Special Issue; titles, 125-150 word abstracts and word counts for each individual contribution; an indication of whether drafts of each contribution are complete at the date of proposal.
Two shortlisted proposals will be announced in July 2021, and their editors invited to submit a full manuscript for peer review by October 13th 2021. The successful issue will be announced in January 2022 and published in November 2022.
www.berghahnjournals.com/cja
contested railway project in Italy, this article examines the role of material entities
and affects in shaping political activism. I seek an approach to affect that pays
attention both to the agentive potential of materials and to human ways of
knowing and feeling about them. I argue that the affective intensity of encounters
with deadly airborne pollutants, mediated through heterogeneous discourses, led to
the emergence of innovative forms of activism that transformed relations among
activists, police, and ‘the state’. Focused on intersubjective affect and compassion,
these actions complicated notions of ‘politics’ as essentially antagonistic that were
prevalent among the activists as well as influential in academic political theory. By
highlighting the capacity of affects to multiply forms of political engagement, the
article adds to the recent anthropological literature on the politics of infrastructure.
The maximum length for a Special Issue is 60, 000 words, inclusive of all notes, references, introductions and afterwords. Individual research articles should ordinarily be 8, 000 words in length. No more than 50% of authors named in the proposal should be affiliated to the same institution.
Proposals should be sent to the editor ([email protected]) by no later than September 15th 2018. Proposals should be 2000-2500 words in length and include the following:
The name(s), contact details and position(s) of the guest editor(s) and all authors; the proposed title of the Special Issue; an abstract of 750-1000 words that outlines the context, rationale, coherence and contribution of the Special Issue; titles, 125-150 word abstracts and word counts for each individual contribution; an indication of whether drafts of each contribution are complete at the date of proposal.
Two shortlisted proposals will be announced in October 2018, and their editors invited to submit a full manuscript for peer review by December 15th 2018. The successful issue will be announced in March 2019 and published in November 2019
Originally published on Allegra Laboratory, with photos by Luca Perino, as two posts: http://allegralaboratory.net/notes-from-a-blurry-border-part-1-can-that-mountain-stop-me/ and http://allegralaboratory.net/notes-from-a-blurry-border-part-2-shatter-the-border/, both on 17 April 2018. If quoting, please refer to that original publication.
Keynote speaker: Dr Hannah Knox, University College London
Berghahn Books, 2017.
http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/LaszczkowskiAffective