Paper short abstract:

Relations of dependence and hierarchy often invite parallel interpretations that lead to different moral evaluations of the partners´ respective agency and responsibility. Is the relation one of protection or of oppression? The workshops general theme is introduced.

Paper long abstract:

Relations of paternalistic hierarchy or dependence often invite quite contrastive frames of interpretation. What one party presents as acts undertaken on the basis of accountable responsibility to offer protection, another party may see as intrusive constraints on agency. In an increasingly interconnected world, new constructions of risk create new justification for protection. New patterns of domination require new forms of legitimation. The moral ambiguities of protection are activated at many different levels of society and social actors: they impact upon relations at the interpersonal level as well as on relations between subjects or citizens and the leaders of communities, corporations and organisations, or even on relations between states. Ambiguity may be part of the ethnographic reality we study. In other cases, what the anthropologist reads as subjection the informant may read as care or vice versa, raising problems both for cultural relativism and the nature of ethically committed writing.

This introductory paper will try and look at how these issues relate to the ascription of agency to self and other.